Blessed are those who mourn now and do something to make it better, Sr. Joan Chittister writes

Sr.Joan Chittister, a Benedictine Sister of Erie, Pennsylvania, Joan Chittister is a best-selling author and well-known international lecturer on topics of justice, peace, human rights, women’s issues and contemporary spirituality in the church and in society writes that blessed are those who mourn now and do something to make it better.

There’s a tendency to wince when people begin to reach back into the deep, dark past to prove a present point. As in, “Grandma always said” or “We’re going through the same things Germany did before WWII” or “Jesus taught in the Beatitudes that we need to … whatever.” After all, all these things are light years away from what we’re dealing with now.

The truth is that attitudes are different from facts. What Grandma said is a fact; what Germany went through is a fact. What Jesus taught us to develop are the attitudes tried and true that it takes to deal well with the facts. The Scriptures call them “beatitudes” meaning attitudes that bring “happiness” or “fortunate attitudes.”

Clearly, the Beatitudes shape us as people. They bring us to emotional maturity. They build the kind of self-restraint in us that makes any situation able to be handled.

To be “meek,” the first beatitude we considered, calls for quiet, calm, humility and being willing to listen to what’s going on around us in periods of chaos or confusion. That kind of restraint is a way to deescalate a situation that is already on the brink of overreaction. It brings sense into a situation before it’s too late to say, “I’m sorry,” or save a long-time relationship, or make friends, or even resolve some deep-seated differences.

To be “poor of spirit,” on the other hand, is to be contented with the basics of life — to make “enoughness” rather than excessiveness — our goal. After all, how many coats can we wear at once? How many cars can we drive at one time? How many times can we exhaust ourselves in body and soul, straining to get more and more and more of what we don’t really need, can’t use and, too often, won’t do a thing to move the needle of our happiness scale much more than it is now? In fact, it may well do to have even less. As the Kenyans say, “Those who have cattle have care.” Wealth is its own problem, don’t forget.