From the Friars: Blessed are Those Who Mourn
One Sunday, I believe in 2007, I celebrated Mass in the local parish church in San Marcos, Nicaragua where our community had a friary. After Mass I was approached by a man with a young boy. He was very friendly but I could not understand what he was saying. It seemed he had a speech impediment but was evidently urging me to look at or talk to the boy, who was about ten years old. The youth was handsome but with a look of deep pain in his eyes. I tried to talk with him but he just looked away. The whole encounter was very odd and eventually they left. While walking home I finally realized that he had been trying to “sell” the boy to me. By the time I got back to the church there was no trace of them.
The memory of this event haunts me to this day and I still pray for that little boy. It was my closest encounter with the horrors of human trafficking. It is estimated that over 20 million people are subjected to some form of slavery in the world today. The sex trafficking of children is the worst of all these evils. Considering also other tragic realities of our time such as legal abortion, wars, mass murders, terrorism, poverty, pornography etc… we can understand why the Salve Regina speaks of our “mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.” (cf. Psalm 84:6) Imagine the heartache of the mother of that little boy, or the pain of Our Blessed Mother for all her suffering children.
Jesus tells us today in the Beatitudes: “blessed are those who weep, for they will be comforted.” (Mt 5:4) Our Faith is fundamentally a source of great joy and hope, but in this world the cross remains until Our Lord comes again. If we love our neighbor, as we are commanded, and they suffer, we will suffer with them.
Compassion literally means to suffer with someone, to share their pain. If we are indifferent to others’ suffering, we have failed in our most important obligation. Therefore, Our Lord also says, “Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” (Lk:6:25)
May Our Lady and the Holy Spirit form the Heart of Jesus in us.
God bless you.
— Fr. Peter