“…our Savior has told us: “blessed are they that mourn.” Not because the Lord wants us to be downcast, guilt-ridden and tormented, but because only those who mourn can be comforted. Only those who know the truth about themselves are capable of being changed. Had the widow of Nain stayed at home and drowned her sorrow in a bottle, or fled to a distant land in search of a geographical cure, she would never have met her Lord; and it was only because she stood next to the bier weeping that she received her son restored again to life. Because the Gospel tells us that Christ performed this — the first resurrection of His earthly ministry — precisely because He “saw her, [and] had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not” (Luke 7:13).” (Hieromonk Gabriel)
“You hear and read that the Lord blesses those who mourn. Over their sins and the sins of the whole world. You see the holy Fathers doing the same: they all stress the necessity for tears and mourning in the spiritual life. But don’t think that this is so because God enjoys our generally mournful condition. If that were true, God wouldn’t be who our Lord Jesus Christ revealed: God the Father, with boundless love for us.” (Protopresbyter Georgios Dorbarakis)
“Today’s gospel reading provides a different and powerful image of Christ’s salvation in the midst of the tragic realities of life and death. The widow of Nain was having the worst day of her life and had no reason to hope for a blessed or even tolerable future, for in that time and place a widow who had lost her only son was in a very precarious state. Poverty, neglect, and abuse would threaten her daily; she would have been vulnerable and alone. When contrary to all expectations the Lord raised her son, He transformed her deep mourning into great joy. He restored life both to the young man and to his mother. The Lord’s great act of compassion for this woman manifests our salvation and provides a sign of hope in even the darkest moments of our lives.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“Grief has its own stages …we need to pass through them with care and support. We need time to begin to discover meaning in everything that’s happening to us…as far as we’re able, we should ask God to give us self-knowledge and acceptance, some sense of His presence, so that we can come through grief and reach a meaning. We should ask that we may discover His providence so that our soul can rest more easily and that the fire of pain may be extinguished…love is linked to mourning” (Sister Parakliti)
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)…The most interesting thing in this beatitude is the tense in which the word “mourn” is used; it is present tense. This present tense indicates that the mourning is continual… it seems that the use of mourn here does not exactly reflect the experience of being sad about earthly things such as the loss of a job, death, injury, disease, etc. Second Corinthians states: “As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting; for you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you…” (2 Corinthians 7:9-11). This quote helps us to understand that what is meant by mourn is the mourning of our sin and fallen nature, realizing that we need constant repentance for our salvation. Yet, instead of sorrow, this mourning is supposed to bring us joy and gladness in the hope of the resurrection and the promise of life in heaven.” (Maria Diveris McMullen)
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