The Second Beatitude: Mourning and Consolation

This mourning is not the sorrow that arises from the loss of earthly things, nor is it the grief that belongs to despair. Rather, it is the sorrow of those who recognize what they are and what they are not, and who grieve over the sins by which they have been separated from God. For when a man has become poor in spirit and no longer trusts in himself, he begins to see clearly the misery from which he must be healed.

Such mourning follows humility in proper order. For no one mourns rightly unless he has first been humbled. Pride makes a man content with himself; humility makes him dissatisfied with his sins. When the soul has learned that it cannot save itself, it then laments what it has become through its own fault, and this sorrow becomes the beginning of healing.

This mourning is therefore not without hope, nor does it end in bitterness. It is a sorrow that turns the heart away from false joys and prepares it to receive true consolation. The comfort promised is not the comfort of the world, which distracts rather than heals, but the comfort that comes from God, who forgives sins and restores the soul. Those who mourn in this way are comforted, because their sorrow leads them to repentance, and repentance leads them to peace.

Thus the same person who was first made humble now becomes sorrowful, not because he has lost something temporal, but because he desires something eternal. This sorrow purifies the heart and prepares it for the meekness that follows, for a soul softened by mourning is no longer harsh or violent, but ready to be shaped by God’s hand.

Source: St. Augustine, On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Book I, Chapters 2–3.