Midweek Faith Lift
“Blessed Are They Who Mourn”
Su Podraza-Nagle LUT
11/07/2026
Welcome to all here in the sanctuary and to all those online. I’m so very glad you chose to be with us today.
I want to share a poem I came across that I thought most profound for today’s talk.
It could be considered somewhat of the cliff notes for today’s beatitude.
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Higher Pantheism
The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains, -
Are not these, O Soul, the Vision of Him who reigns?
Is not the Vision He, tho' He be not that which He seems?
Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?
Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb,
Are they not sign and symbol of thy division from Him?
Dark is the world to thee; thyself art the reason why,
For is He not all but thou, that hast power to feel "I am I"?
Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom,
Making Him broken gleams and a stifled splendour and gloom.
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet-
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.
God is law, say the wise; O soul, and let us rejoice,
For if He thunder by law the thunder is yet His voice.
Law is God, say some; no God at all, says the fool,
For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool;
And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see;
But if we could see and hear, this Vision-were it not He?
We are traveling through the book by Emmet Fox, “The Sermon on the Mount, The Key to Success in Life” and today we enter into one of the most tender, mysterious, and transformative Beatitudes of Jesus, our Master Way Shower, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4
At first glance, these words may seem contradictory. How can those who mourn be blessed? How can mourning and grief become a doorway to being comforted?
Can sorrow, which sometimes brings us to our knees, become the very ground upon which we discover the presence of Divine Wisdom?
Understand, Jesus wasn’t promoting suffering. He was not telling us to seek sorrow, remain in despair, or pretend that heartbreak does not hurt. Instead, he was revealing a spiritual principle. Even in our deepest sorrow, we can awaken to the divine presence within us, which, when we are ready, transforms us, and leads us toward wholeness and awakening.
Emmet Fox, in his teachings on the Sermon on the Mount, encourages us to look beyond the surface meaning of Scripture and discover its practical spiritual significance. The Beatitudes are not blanket promises. They reveal inner conditions through which we awaken to the kingdom of God within us.
Taking it further into our consciousness, from a metaphysical perspective, mourning and grieving are not limited to the loss of a loved one. It may also represent the ache of a soul awakening to a deeper truth, the grief of recognizing that we have lived beneath our spiritual potential and possibilities, or the sorrow that comes when our old understanding of life can no longer sustain us. It represents a critical stage of spiritual awakening where a person outgrows old illusions and shifts from self-reliance to divine reliance.
Charles Fillmore's Metaphysical Bible Dictionary offers a particularly meaningful interpretation under the entry for Abel-mizraim, a biblical name associated with mourning. In that entry, mourning is interpreted as the sorrow that may accompany releasing an old idea from consciousness when its work has been completed, making room for higher ideas to take its place.
This interpretation invites us to consider mourning as more than an emotional response to loss. It can also symbolize the spiritual process of letting go.
Yes, there are moments in our lives when we mourn because someone has shed their body and moved on. We may mourn a relationship that has ended, a dream that has disappeared, or years spent believing we were unworthy of love. These are all precious and holy moments in our lives and are honored as such. Today, Let’s go deeper within. Where our transformation starts.
In conventional terms, mourning is an emotional reaction to loss. Metaphysically, however, mourning is the grief of the adverse ego. We, as spiritual beings, we break through the illusion. According to Emmet’s seminal analysis in The Sermon on the Mount, mourning occurs when you begin to see through the "programming" and attachments of the material world. It is the realization that chasing external validation, relationships, or material conditions cannot bring true fulfillment. Through this metaphysical lens, mourning can also describe the inner experience of recognizing that an old belief, habit, or way of living no longer serves our spiritual growth. We may grieve the person we thought we had to be. We may mourn the years we spent seeking approval from people who could never determine our true worth. We may grieve the opportunities lost because fear told us to remain small. And we may finally shed tears over the truth that we have been harder on ourselves than Spirit has ever asked us to be.
Once we break through, there is a shedding or release of the old self When you recognize the places where you have been spiritually asleep, the old ego-driven identity begins to break down. This transition, the gap between leaving an old way of thinking and fully stepping into spiritual truth naturally produces a state of mourning. What do I do now? How do I show up, pray and go about my day?
So now we enter a period of discontent. Pain.
That holy longing becomes the beginning of transformation.
While in this period of stepping through, Jesus declared that we will be comforted. He does not say we might be comforted, or that comfort is reserved for those who never question. He offers that we will be comforted. By who?
The Comforter is the presence of divine understanding waking up inside of us, whispering to us to transform grief into deeper awareness, which then, points us toward the healing, peace, and spiritual renewal available through the presence of our Omnipotent Source.
We are comforted and held by the Divine Presence within us awakening the divine understanding within our consciousness. The spiritual nucleus within us, our Christ consciousness which is “closer that breathing (remember the breath from last week?) and nearer than hands and feet.”
We begin to discover that our deepest identity is not exhausted by our losses, our disappointments, or what we thought we needed to be. The principle of divine wisdom softly cradles our spirit until we are able to step into the light and claim our power of who we are.
Through it all, whether we mourn humanly or spiritually, we are comforted. Comforted by the knowing within us, God, our Omnipotent Source in all we do, is within, around and weaving through us, solace, reassurance, and love.
And as our divine understanding awakens within us, we find the strength to stand again, the wisdom to release what no longer serves us, and the compassion to comfort those who are walking through their own valleys.
May we discover that even in our darkest hour, the presence of God remains a source of peace, strength, and renewal.
And may we become living witnesses to the truth that mourning is not the end of the journey.
It can be the beginning of a deeper awakening.
Amen.