Thought of the Day August 27, 2019 Mourning that confronts sin
There is another aspect to Jesus’
teaching on this Beatitude. Primarily, we are called to mourn for our sins, but
also for the sins of others. In the refrain from of the Divine Mercy Chaplet,
we pray: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have
mercy on us and on the whole world.” This is the other side of the same coin.
In Ezekiel 9:9 we read: “The guilt of the house of Israel and the house of
Judah is too great to measure; the land is filled with bloodshed, the city with
lawlessness. They think that the LORD has abandoned the land, that he does
not see them.” There were those who mourned over the sins of
the people and they were spared from destruction. Prior to the destruction of
those who continued to break their covenant with God, the Lord spared those who
were faithful. He said to a scribe: “Pass
through the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and mark an X on the
foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the abominations practiced
within it.”
Pope Benedict XVI reflecting on this said:
“Those who bear this mark
are exempted from the punishment. They
are people who do not run with the pack, who refuse to collude with the
injustice that has become endemic, but who suffer under it instead. Even though it is not in their power to
change the overall situation, they still counter the dominion of evil through
the passive resistance of their suffering—through the mourning that sets bounds
to the power of evil.” (Jesus of Nazareth (pp. 86-87).)
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