There’s plenty to mourn about in this world. In fact, you would have to be pretty insensitive to not be mourning at times, if not for yourself then for all the injustices, the wrongs, and the general condition of the world.

To what extent is the ‘mourning’ referred to by Jesus in the second Beatitude an action of choice, I wonder? If the being ‘poor in spirit’ is about recognising your own poverty and condition, if it is a decision to see yourself as you truly are, then can the ‘mourning’ also be a choice? To choose to mourn over the condition of our world is in itself an act of compassion; it is seeing the mess we’re in and acknowledging that it is wrong, that it is unjust, that it is not what was meant to be. I’ve no doubt that Jesus includes here those who are caught by mourning as they experience loss in their life. But he also refers to those who see the world and consider how wrong this is and that their response – though not by any means their only response – is to grieve over what they see.

The promise to them is that they ‘will be comforted’. Is this a ‘there, there, don’t be sad’ kind of comfort? Well it may include that aspect, of course. It may be feeling an arm around our shoulder giving us an emotional fillip at our point of grief. But it is far stronger than that. The promise here – as in all the Beatitudes – is the promise of the coming Kingdom; the promise that God is coming put all things right; the promise that God is coming to restore creation.

It is an eschatological comfort – but not just future based. For the Greek for ‘comfort’ here is of the same root as the word used by Jesus to describe the Holy Spirit in John 14. This is not a mere ‘there, there’ comfort, therefore, but a promise of strength and help in the here and now; a strength to pitch in and do what we can to bring the Kingdom in our time.