Some years ago the father of a Chinese family died, leaving a wife and tiny boy. Lovingly the mother cared for her son, in the hope that one day he would be the support of her home. However, signs of leprosy made their appearance in the little lad. Added to this was total blindness, brought on by the medicines he had been receiving. His wounds festered, making his condition so miserable that another leper brought the boy to the Catholic mission hospital. After the sisters had bathed and dressed his sores, he felt so good that he expected a complete cure.
He wanted to learn about the religion that inspired such charity. Rapidly he made progress in the catechism. The Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary became his favorite devotions. He was first in the chapel every morning, preparing to receive Holy Communion.
But death had marked him for its own. Being still in his early twenties, the young man wanted to live. Death seemed hard. But his new-found faith gave him a consolation and a comfort that strengthened his last days and hours. Not long before his death he remarked: "The good God gave me this leprosy that I might learn about Him and love Him and save my soul. I would never have found Him otherwise. So I thank Him always for this sickness."
He died a peaceful and holy death.
We could multiply this story by the thousands, for many have found in the sorrow of sickness the way to God. This young boy found the true faith through his leprosy.
Everyone who mourns will find comfort, according to the promise of Christ, given in the Third Beatitude:
"Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." St. Matthew, 5:5.1. By mourning we mean an abiding spirit of sorrow and compassion. Mourning means a calm and earnest sorrow, based on the truths of faith, and opposed to the pleasure-seeking spirit of the world which wishes only for a perpetual picnic, which makes earthly joy and material amusement the sole object of its desires.
Christian mourning does not mean the long-faced visage of the Puritan. It does not mean the gloomy gaze painted on the faces of some saints. Mourning is a spiritual lament and grief for one's own sins and the sins of the world.
2. Those who mourn in spirit are they:
A. Who lament over the fact that God is so little loved and so greatly offended. It does sadden to see how few return God's love, how many insult His love.3. The mourning of which Christ speaks is not the human and natural grief at death and physical evils. These can and should be spiritualized. But natural grief alone is not the spiritual thing which will be comforted.
B. Who grieve over the eternal loss of souls. Any follower of Christ who stops to observe must realize that many are losing their souls.
C. Who lead a life of penance and reparation for sin. The number of these is much greater than most of us realize. There are saintly souls in every parish who do heroic penance in their line of duty. Thousands offer their pains to Almighty God in penance for the sins of those who never beg God's pardon.
D. Who bear patiently the trials of this valley of tears. These are numerous. Of them you don't read in the papers. There are shut-ins, invalids, aged, confined to bed for years, who accept their cross patiently and even cheerfully. They mourn in every deed; they shall be comforted.
E. Who are filled with contrition for their own sins. This too is frequent, though not played up in the papers.
4. And what are the things that make us mourn spiritually?
A. The thought that many millions do not know that Christ lived and died for them, that many, knowing it, live as if they did not know it.5. What happiness, what blessedness could there possibly be in such mourning? Spiritual grief has several religious results:
B. The vivid memory and thought of our Lord's passion. This made many of the saints weep bitterly. It even caused eye trouble to St. Francis of Assisi.
C. The many kinds of sin they see make Christ's followers mourn.
D. To see the Church persecuted causes sorrow to the children of the Church.
E. Those who love Christ are made sad at sight of the obstacles to spreading the faith: bigotry, ignorance, pride, lack of means.
F. The unfaithfulness of nations and individuals.
G. Temporal miseries also make us mourn. Christ Himself mourned at the tomb of Lazarus (St. John, 11:53); over the widow's son (St. Luke, 7:13); as He looked down over Jerusalem. (St. Luke, 19:41-47).
A. It remits and satisfies for sin.Jesus promised: "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." St. John, 16:20.
B. It brings the interior consolations of the Holy Spirit. And, oh, how sweet those consolations. During these days of Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles, you realize what consolation and strength the Holy Comforter brought to them, and what He will bring to us.
C. It gives a certain peace and serenity of soul. That is what mourning did for the Chinese boy who died of leprosy.
D. It converts sinners.
E. It offers a safeguard against sin.
He tells us not to be troubled or afraid. May the Holy Spirit help us to understand this and the other beatitudes. May the Holy Spirit help us to live according to them.
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Adapted from Prayers, Precepts and Virtues
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, OFM (©1949)
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