From Mourning to Light
by Rev. Cory Coberforward
Matthew 5:1-9
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
He said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.”
Psalm 9:7-10 (responsive reading)
The Lord reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment.
He rules the world in righteousness
and judges the peoples with equity.
The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
Read the written message below with music videos
The Lord (known by many names throughout many traditions) has blessed us in amazing ways, and yet, we often can’t seem to escape our troubles, the issues confronting our lives. In a way, our troubles can be an opportunity and a type of blessing, as Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” But how can we come to see it that way? We each will have our own interpretation of this, but my tact is to see that the problems that keep us in a sense of anxiety and discomfort can call on us to transcend. Yes, to sometimes transcend the problem by helping to resolve it, but especially by allowing the thoughts that hound us to remind us of the greater space of peace within. The toughness of a situation can help remind us in our mourning or desperation of the spaciousness of what we are, the light of God that Christ describes us as. Sometimes it’s only through grief and our mourning that we find that the peace of heaven within is beckoning us toward a greater acceptance of the Prince of Peace, the God known throughout cultures at the heart of our experience.
It's a tough fact that throughout our lives we lose the presence of loved ones, at least for a time. Or we lose other things that are dear to our personal sense of ourselves, our home, reputation, bodily mobility, job, or we find ourselves feeling down and out about something. For young folks (or any of us, for that matter), this can be the existential crises in the world, which I’ve heard are leading to record-breaking levels of suicidal ideation and depression among our young people. For each of us, it can be something different from one moment to the next, sometimes stoking our hard feelings and sense of despair or depression.
Christ’s words from the mount are for those of us feeling these ways today. He says that the poor in spirit are blessed, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Each of us has a stake in heaven, according to Swedenborg. He says that “all beings are predestined for heaven.” And yet, he also believed some people spend at least some time in “hell” – how can that be? Swedenborg’s idea of hell is a bit different than most conceptions that I’ve heard, he believed that hell is a state of being that we create for ourselves and that we remain in to the extent that we orient ourselves towards selfish things that hurt us (even though we may think we love them). He believed that both heaven and hell have direct ramifications on the expressions of life in the material world, as spirit gives forth to what we call material, not the other way around.
In other words, we all experience a bit of heaven and hell in everyday life! And even the hellish aspects, according to Swedenborg, are eventually used for good. Such as used for learning, for comparison’s sake, and for us to decide which ways of being are better for our personal lives or that of our community. Ultimately, the hard parts of life point us back to heaven.
Personally, I’m a big fan of certain sages such as Ram Dass, Mooji, Rupert Spira, and others, who consistently point their listeners to start letting go of habitual thinking (our living in our anxious, always talking, judgmental minds), and find the peace of Being already present with us, as us, as our very aware presence itself. This was Christ’s teachings as well, in my mind. And so, unlike Swedenborg, I sometimes shy from using terms like “hell,” as it is so loaded in our minds. Jesus himself didn’t seem to have said much at all about hell, even though throughout the gospels it says that he exorcised people from demons.
That being said, sometimes (like in a depression) we feel like we’re in hell or encountering aspects of it. Sometimes we are grieving, which is often a healthy process, but which feels by definition I think quite tough. And for me, it is often through those tough moments in my own thinking when I feel the greatest motivation to offer God those feelings and thoughts, not dismissing them, but turning with my focus more to the heart of being that all things arise in. God can bring blessings and comfort even to our hardest moments and the toughest of circumstances.
In Swedenborg’s interpretations of scripture, he believed that “the poor in spirit” are particularly those who understand that of themselves they have no power, no life, no strength of spirit, and that all of their strength and power comes from God and the unity of the Spirit. He often wrote about how “of ourselves” we are nothing. But the fantastic thing is, there is no such thing as “of ourselves,” even if for a time we believe, feel, and act like our power and presence are our own in a separated sense.
God is always inviting us further into an awareness of God’s peace, God’s joy, God’s mercy and love, whatever the situation. In our mourning, we can sometimes come to know that a loved one is still near, because we see signs of that. In our sense of loss we can notice that the light of God shines into all our minds. That awareness itself always connects us with other beings, even those we feel that we have lost, or those we sometimes feel at odds with to our closest of companions. The fear of living fades in the light that we are because the eternity of God reveals itself to us in its simplicity, unity, and peace, so our sense of barriers and vulnerability fade.
In the sermon on the mount, Christ is giving those of us who might have given up on hope, hope. He says that even in the midst of trials God is still with us, that deep down we still experience the purity of our fundamental nature even if sometimes our expressions and minds are bogged down by habits, decisions, or circumstances. God still sees our light, even if we sometimes don’t.
I love the sermon on the mount because it’s a lot to chew on, and we’ll each do it in our various ways. Like a giant feast prepared for his followers and even the occasional passersby - ordered up 2,000 years ago. Let’s end by reading the first part of it again:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.”
May the light of God’s mercy, love, and peace come into focus for you,
Cory