January 15, 2025 • 14 mins
Exploring the Beatitudes: Blessed are those who mourn | Good News Podcast Ep. 2
Join the Good News team—Lynn Shematek, Lauren Welch, and Jon Shematek—as they delve into the second Beatitude: 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.' In this episode, they share personal insights and reflections on mourning, grieving, and finding comfort. They discuss how loss impacts our lives, the different ways people experience mourning, and the significance of comfort from community and faith. This episode aims to provide another understanding of the Beatitudes as a blueprint for living a Christian life.
Watch the video or listen to the audio podcast at https://listening-for-clues.captivate.fm/episode/exploring-the-beatitudes-poor-in-spirit/.
Catch all of our podcasts at https://listeningforclues.com/
00:00 Introduction to the Beatitudes Series
00:16 Understanding Mourning and Loss
02:03 Personal Reflections on Mourning
04:48 Sources of Comfort in Grief
06:44 The Role of Faith and Community
11:50 Jesus' Example of Grieving
13:35 Engaging with the Audience
14:13 Conclusion and Farewell
14:35 Credits and Additional Information
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dolores (00:00):
Welcome to our eight-part video and audio series on the Beatitudes.
(00:05):
These provocative and often confusingsayings of Jesus are said to provide a
blueprint for living the Christian life.
So let's dive in with ourGood News team Lynn Shematek,
Lauren Welch, and Jon Shematek.
Lauren Welch (00:16):
Our beatitude for today is the second beatitude.
Blessed are those who mourn,for they will be comforted.
Jon, what do you think ofwhen you think of mourning?
Jon (00:30):
Wow.
Okay.
When I think of mourning,I think of a loss.
I think it is the way peoplerespond when they have had a loss.
Either One that's occurred.
It could be, the usual kinds of thingsI think that people think of are deaths
of someone that they've cared about.
But I think we mournalmost any kind of change.
(00:53):
When we change jobs.
When we age and start losing someof our physical and maybe mental
faculties our position in thesocial structure as we age, people
sometimes become invisible to others.
If you become ill or have adisability gosh, I just think
(01:15):
of so many life circumstances.
that that are about or that includeloss and how that is really a
universal kind of experience.
Everyone knows what it is tolose something or someone.
Everyone knows how They havefelt when they lose that.
(01:38):
Mourning to me, when I just think about itimmediately, I think it's a negative thing
in a way, because it's a time of sadness.
It's a time of grief.
It's a time we don't want to thinkabout in our culture too much.
But my first, reaction to itis, yuck, I don't like mourning.
And how on earth is there anyblessing involved in mourning?
(02:01):
So boom, there's mythought about it, Lauren.
Lauren Welch (02:04):
Lynn, what would you add to that?
Lynn (02:08):
I'm not going to, obviously not going to say yuck, but I find mourning
it is a feeling I always like a goodcomedy, but I really prefer something
that's a little more thought provoking,so I if there's a little change or
something, and I can think about it,and I really don't mind mourning.
(02:33):
I think that I have to be carefulwith it because I can tend to get very
introspective and then I'm not, tryingto find the good of anything or trying
to find some happiness or whatever.
I really, I enjoy the Not somuch the feeling, but it's the
thinking about things, of howit's changed, what's happened.
(02:56):
And I've been very fortunate in my lifein that most of the people that have
gone before me were wonderful people,and I thought they had a good life,
and most of them had a good long life.
And so it's I don't really haveanything this terrible that I think,
oh my goodness, I'm just going to,lose sleep over or anything like that.
(03:17):
But I think mourning isa time for introspection.
And it's the time to say, okay, nowit has changed, your body, your, the
circumstances, the person is gone, andat this point then, what you have to do
is say, okay, how do I respond to that?
(03:38):
So I'd have to say mourning is a isan ever going thing with me though.
So it's and I think that probablymost people that have reached
my age, it is, that's true too.
Lauren Welch (03:49):
I agree with you, Lynn that mourning is a part of our daily lives.
For the most part, even if it's not inour own lives, it's somebody with somebody
around us who is grieving and I love theway that you talked about introspection
and and looking for what is new,looking for what is trying to be born.
(04:15):
It's what I was hearing from youwith what is trying to come forth
out of whatever has been lost.
So that's what I heard youyour introspection being about.
And I think that is 1 ofthe ways we are comforted.
I think that grieving is I thinkthat one of the things that we see in
our grieving is that we begin to seeglimpses of that new birth coming to be.
(04:45):
How else might we be comforted?
Jon (04:48):
Yeah, so I guess for me, it's what are the sources of comfort
when when something has happened,something negative has happened,
particularly a loss of some sort.
I think there are a couple ofthings that are important to me.
One is and very hard actually for meto accept is the comfort that others
offer you, the people that you're inrelationship with the family friends.
(05:13):
The church all of that are great sourcesof comfort, could be great sources
of comfort if you allow them to be.
And I think sometimes when peoplehave something where they're stricken
by grief you'll hear people oftensay that their heart is broken.
That seems, may seem extreme,particularly if you're more of a
thinker than a feeler in a way.
(05:34):
But if your heart is broken, if youthink of those terms, which I do have a
little comfort thinking of mourning inthat way, if your heart is broken, then
this is one of those situations where,that broken heart is open to divine.
I won't say intervention, but yeah,divine intervention, but that the Divine
(05:57):
One can actually enter into that griefwith you and be a comfort and support.
I think it's what we talked about with thefirst beatitude of prayer being of that.
It's just nurturing your spiritual life
I think sometimes people misread this.
beatitude thing about God sending badthings to people, and that's why they're
(06:21):
and somehow there's a blessing in that.
Bad things just happen, in my opinion.
God doesn't send a bad thing or willanything bad or evil to happen to anybody.
But when it does, and it does, for surethen God is there to be our source of
comfort, to enter into our broken hearts,if you feel comfortable with that image.
Lauren Welch (06:44):
Grieving is part of our daily life, especially in our world today.
All we have to do is read thenews, and we will find something
to to grieve with others.
I think it's important to grieve.
A lot of times when something badhappens, many people will try to
(07:06):
get us to see the bright side orto see something good right away.
And I think it's important to giveus time, ourselves time, to, to feel
the loss, to feel the grief becauseI think it's in that brokenness, I
like your thought of a broken heart,Jon, allow that brokenness to break
(07:31):
us open so that God can fill us.
And I think that's, again, was,as you say, the comfort comes, but
it's important to take that time.
and feel the loss deep in our being.
I think that's wherethe comfort comes from.
Lynn (07:50):
I'd like to add something, if I could, and that is, I was
thinking back while you both weretalking about the day of 9 11, and
I remember how frightened I was.
I was so frightened.
I hadn't been this frightened, insuch a long time, as a little kid
maybe sometime felt frightened.
But I was so frightened.
(08:11):
I felt so alone.
And all of a sudden I thought.
God is here.
He hasn't left us.
And it was wonderful.
I just thought, oh, God hasme, even more important.
And it was but that was out of suchtrauma come these wonderful things.
(08:36):
So I was comforted, definitelycomforted at that point.
Lauren Welch (08:41):
Yeah.
There's a group of us that sendReiki to the people of Ukraine
and Gaza and now many other pointsin the world that are war torn.
And we do this as agroup every three weeks.
We get together and we,knowing people in those areas.
We sometimes receive emails frompeople thanking us because they
(09:05):
know that somebody is thinkingof them and that is helpful.
But much of, many of the timesthat we are doing this, the
sorrow and the grief that we feel.
Imagine these people going throughit can be overwhelming for us,
but doing it together it helps us.
Jon (09:28):
Yeah, I was thinking that, as you were speaking about doing that, Lauren,
and thinking about, okay, the Beatitudesbeing the blueprint for the Christian life
and what is it that it's calling us to do?
What is it that thisBeatitude is calling us to do?
And one piece, I think is callingus to mourn and to mourn with others
(09:51):
to be in solidarity and and inrelationship with others, no matter
where they are and who they are.
And I think the other, the secondpiece that it is calling us as
people of faith to do is to do whatwe can to be a comfort to another.
And that, I think that usually reallymeans not Saying some platitude or,
(10:16):
bringing a cake Or something likethat, but although I love cake.
If anyone wants to bringme a cake, I'll take it.
Cup of coffee I'm there.
But the I think what it really means isit's just being there, being literally
It sounds a little trite, but justbeing present, wordlessly, just being
physically or virtually, like this, orover the waves of the ether through a
(10:42):
reiki or a prayer or whatever, beingthere with someone is where the healing
comes in, and where the I think that'swhat our Christian life is about,
yeah.
Lynn (10:56):
I think that's where we're going to get comforted too.
Lauren Welch (11:01):
Definitely.
That's and that I think is, as Jon said,what this beatitude is calling us to
not be afraid of grief, not to not towant it to go away, but to embrace it
and see what, comfort comes and whatwe're called to do through that grief.
(11:26):
So I think that's one of the reasonsthat Jesus taught this Beatitude
to his disciples so that whenthe time came that they would be
mourning his loss in particular,but other losses in their life.
They would know that they would becomforted if they lived into the grief.
Jon (11:50):
Lauren, I think that's absolutely right in that Jesus gave us an example.
Telling us it's okay to grieve.
It's okay to weep.
You think of him at the tombof Lazarus you think of him
in the garden of Gethsemane.
He was weeping and I, he, I'mguessing, imagining that he
(12:12):
was mourning his own death.
impending loss and allthat was going to happen.
But certainly everyone remembers, orpeople who've read the Bible remember
the story of Lazarus and the two wordverse in the Bible, the shortest verse in
the Bible, they always say, Jesus wept.
And he showed them and us that's okay.
(12:32):
If you're not a weeper, that's okay too.
You can weep internally.
But it is certainly okay to feel whateveryou're feeling when you experience loss.
And in that, there is a power thatcomes from God to get through it.
Just like you were saying, Lynn, with the9 11, you realized that God was there,
(12:53):
and God would get us through it, andI think that whenever we're in a world
of turmoil, which we sure the heck arewe that, that article of hope is there.
That's what I love about the Beatitudes,there's so much hope in them.
Lauren Welch (13:12):
There he is, and I think in the world that Jesus was living,
people needed hope, and especiallythe people that he was speaking to
needed hope, and so he gives them thisblueprint, calling them, to not only
survive, but to thrive in their lives.
(13:35):
so now what we want to do is toask our listeners, what comes to
mind when you think of grieving?
How do you grieve?
And how do you find comfort?
How, what brings you comfortin that in that grief?
(13:57):
Friends, family there areliturgies that are very helpful
during for mourning and grieving.
What is it that brings you comfortwhen you're hurt, when you're hurting?
Jon (14:12):
Thanks, Lauren.
I think that is a great moment for usto to stop and think about that and
to thank our viewers and listeners forbeing with us this time, and we hope
to see you hope to see you again soon.
Lynn (14:27):
Bye bye and take care.
Lauren Welch (14:32):
Blessings and peace until we meet again.
..............Dolores: This episode on the Beatitudes has been brought
to you by listening for clues.
You can find us at our websitelisteningforclues.com, on our
YouTube channel or on justabout any audio podcast channel.
hope to see you soon.
Welcome to our eight-part video and audio series on the Beatitudes.
(00:05):
These provocative and often confusingsayings of Jesus are said to provide a
blueprint for living the Christian life.
So let's dive in with ourGood News team Lynn Shematek,
Lauren Welch, and Jon Shematek.
Lauren Welch (00:16):
Our beatitude for today is the second beatitude.
Blessed are those who mourn,for they will be comforted.
Jon, what do you think ofwhen you think of mourning?
Jon (00:30):
Wow.
Okay.
When I think of mourning,I think of a loss.
I think it is the way peoplerespond when they have had a loss.
Either One that's occurred.
It could be, the usual kinds of thingsI think that people think of are deaths
of someone that they've cared about.
But I think we mournalmost any kind of change.
(00:53):
When we change jobs.
When we age and start losing someof our physical and maybe mental
faculties our position in thesocial structure as we age, people
sometimes become invisible to others.
If you become ill or have adisability gosh, I just think
(01:15):
of so many life circumstances.
that that are about or that includeloss and how that is really a
universal kind of experience.
Everyone knows what it is tolose something or someone.
Everyone knows how They havefelt when they lose that.
(01:38):
Mourning to me, when I just think about itimmediately, I think it's a negative thing
in a way, because it's a time of sadness.
It's a time of grief.
It's a time we don't want to thinkabout in our culture too much.
But my first, reaction to itis, yuck, I don't like mourning.
And how on earth is there anyblessing involved in mourning?
(02:01):
So boom, there's mythought about it, Lauren.
Lauren Welch (02:04):
Lynn, what would you add to that?
Lynn (02:08):
I'm not going to, obviously not going to say yuck, but I find mourning
it is a feeling I always like a goodcomedy, but I really prefer something
that's a little more thought provoking,so I if there's a little change or
something, and I can think about it,and I really don't mind mourning.
(02:33):
I think that I have to be carefulwith it because I can tend to get very
introspective and then I'm not, tryingto find the good of anything or trying
to find some happiness or whatever.
I really, I enjoy the Not somuch the feeling, but it's the
thinking about things, of howit's changed, what's happened.
(02:56):
And I've been very fortunate in my lifein that most of the people that have
gone before me were wonderful people,and I thought they had a good life,
and most of them had a good long life.
And so it's I don't really haveanything this terrible that I think,
oh my goodness, I'm just going to,lose sleep over or anything like that.
(03:17):
But I think mourning isa time for introspection.
And it's the time to say, okay, nowit has changed, your body, your, the
circumstances, the person is gone, andat this point then, what you have to do
is say, okay, how do I respond to that?
(03:38):
So I'd have to say mourning is a isan ever going thing with me though.
So it's and I think that probablymost people that have reached
my age, it is, that's true too.
Lauren Welch (03:49):
I agree with you, Lynn that mourning is a part of our daily lives.
For the most part, even if it's not inour own lives, it's somebody with somebody
around us who is grieving and I love theway that you talked about introspection
and and looking for what is new,looking for what is trying to be born.
(04:15):
It's what I was hearing from youwith what is trying to come forth
out of whatever has been lost.
So that's what I heard youyour introspection being about.
And I think that is 1 ofthe ways we are comforted.
I think that grieving is I thinkthat one of the things that we see in
our grieving is that we begin to seeglimpses of that new birth coming to be.
(04:45):
How else might we be comforted?
Jon (04:48):
Yeah, so I guess for me, it's what are the sources of comfort
when when something has happened,something negative has happened,
particularly a loss of some sort.
I think there are a couple ofthings that are important to me.
One is and very hard actually for meto accept is the comfort that others
offer you, the people that you're inrelationship with the family friends.
(05:13):
The church all of that are great sourcesof comfort, could be great sources
of comfort if you allow them to be.
And I think sometimes when peoplehave something where they're stricken
by grief you'll hear people oftensay that their heart is broken.
That seems, may seem extreme,particularly if you're more of a
thinker than a feeler in a way.
(05:34):
But if your heart is broken, if youthink of those terms, which I do have a
little comfort thinking of mourning inthat way, if your heart is broken, then
this is one of those situations where,that broken heart is open to divine.
I won't say intervention, but yeah,divine intervention, but that the Divine
(05:57):
One can actually enter into that griefwith you and be a comfort and support.
I think it's what we talked about with thefirst beatitude of prayer being of that.
It's just nurturing your spiritual life
I think sometimes people misread this.
beatitude thing about God sending badthings to people, and that's why they're
(06:21):
and somehow there's a blessing in that.
Bad things just happen, in my opinion.
God doesn't send a bad thing or willanything bad or evil to happen to anybody.
But when it does, and it does, for surethen God is there to be our source of
comfort, to enter into our broken hearts,if you feel comfortable with that image.
Lauren Welch (06:44):
Grieving is part of our daily life, especially in our world today.
All we have to do is read thenews, and we will find something
to to grieve with others.
I think it's important to grieve.
A lot of times when something badhappens, many people will try to
(07:06):
get us to see the bright side orto see something good right away.
And I think it's important to giveus time, ourselves time, to, to feel
the loss, to feel the grief becauseI think it's in that brokenness, I
like your thought of a broken heart,Jon, allow that brokenness to break
(07:31):
us open so that God can fill us.
And I think that's, again, was,as you say, the comfort comes, but
it's important to take that time.
and feel the loss deep in our being.
I think that's wherethe comfort comes from.
Lynn (07:50):
I'd like to add something, if I could, and that is, I was
thinking back while you both weretalking about the day of 9 11, and
I remember how frightened I was.
I was so frightened.
I hadn't been this frightened, insuch a long time, as a little kid
maybe sometime felt frightened.
But I was so frightened.
(08:11):
I felt so alone.
And all of a sudden I thought.
God is here.
He hasn't left us.
And it was wonderful.
I just thought, oh, God hasme, even more important.
And it was but that was out of suchtrauma come these wonderful things.
(08:36):
So I was comforted, definitelycomforted at that point.
Lauren Welch (08:41):
Yeah.
There's a group of us that sendReiki to the people of Ukraine
and Gaza and now many other pointsin the world that are war torn.
And we do this as agroup every three weeks.
We get together and we,knowing people in those areas.
We sometimes receive emails frompeople thanking us because they
(09:05):
know that somebody is thinkingof them and that is helpful.
But much of, many of the timesthat we are doing this, the
sorrow and the grief that we feel.
Imagine these people going throughit can be overwhelming for us,
but doing it together it helps us.
Jon (09:28):
Yeah, I was thinking that, as you were speaking about doing that, Lauren,
and thinking about, okay, the Beatitudesbeing the blueprint for the Christian life
and what is it that it's calling us to do?
What is it that thisBeatitude is calling us to do?
And one piece, I think is callingus to mourn and to mourn with others
(09:51):
to be in solidarity and and inrelationship with others, no matter
where they are and who they are.
And I think the other, the secondpiece that it is calling us as
people of faith to do is to do whatwe can to be a comfort to another.
And that, I think that usually reallymeans not Saying some platitude or,
(10:16):
bringing a cake Or something likethat, but although I love cake.
If anyone wants to bringme a cake, I'll take it.
Cup of coffee I'm there.
But the I think what it really means isit's just being there, being literally
It sounds a little trite, but justbeing present, wordlessly, just being
physically or virtually, like this, orover the waves of the ether through a
(10:42):
reiki or a prayer or whatever, beingthere with someone is where the healing
comes in, and where the I think that'swhat our Christian life is about,
yeah.
Lynn (10:56):
I think that's where we're going to get comforted too.
Lauren Welch (11:01):
Definitely.
That's and that I think is, as Jon said,what this beatitude is calling us to
not be afraid of grief, not to not towant it to go away, but to embrace it
and see what, comfort comes and whatwe're called to do through that grief.
(11:26):
So I think that's one of the reasonsthat Jesus taught this Beatitude
to his disciples so that whenthe time came that they would be
mourning his loss in particular,but other losses in their life.
They would know that they would becomforted if they lived into the grief.
Jon (11:50):
Lauren, I think that's absolutely right in that Jesus gave us an example.
Telling us it's okay to grieve.
It's okay to weep.
You think of him at the tombof Lazarus you think of him
in the garden of Gethsemane.
He was weeping and I, he, I'mguessing, imagining that he
(12:12):
was mourning his own death.
impending loss and allthat was going to happen.
But certainly everyone remembers, orpeople who've read the Bible remember
the story of Lazarus and the two wordverse in the Bible, the shortest verse in
the Bible, they always say, Jesus wept.
And he showed them and us that's okay.
(12:32):
If you're not a weeper, that's okay too.
You can weep internally.
But it is certainly okay to feel whateveryou're feeling when you experience loss.
And in that, there is a power thatcomes from God to get through it.
Just like you were saying, Lynn, with the9 11, you realized that God was there,
(12:53):
and God would get us through it, andI think that whenever we're in a world
of turmoil, which we sure the heck arewe that, that article of hope is there.
That's what I love about the Beatitudes,there's so much hope in them.
Lauren Welch (13:12):
There he is, and I think in the world that Jesus was living,
people needed hope, and especiallythe people that he was speaking to
needed hope, and so he gives them thisblueprint, calling them, to not only
survive, but to thrive in their lives.
(13:35):
so now what we want to do is toask our listeners, what comes to
mind when you think of grieving?
How do you grieve?
And how do you find comfort?
How, what brings you comfortin that in that grief?
(13:57):
Friends, family there areliturgies that are very helpful
during for mourning and grieving.
What is it that brings you comfortwhen you're hurt, when you're hurting?
Jon (14:12):
Thanks, Lauren.
I think that is a great moment for usto to stop and think about that and
to thank our viewers and listeners forbeing with us this time, and we hope
to see you hope to see you again soon.
Lynn (14:27):
Bye bye and take care.
Lauren Welch (14:32):
Blessings and peace until we meet again.
..............Dolores: This episode on the Beatitudes has been brought
to you by listening for clues.
You can find us at our websitelisteningforclues.com, on our
YouTube channel or on justabout any audio podcast channel.
hope to see you soon.
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