Grief. For THE ONE person, until he is found.

Grief. Not exactly everyone’s favorite topic. And yet. „Blessed are they who mourn.“ (Mt 5:4) In the last few weeks, I have found a new or deeper approach to the whole thing. Three experiences have helped me to do so. I wanted to share them with you.

First experience

I recently listened to a podcast by Daryl Cripe. It was about the topic of mission. Very moving… We can talk about missional church. But we can also hide behind the „we“. If it stays with the „we“, nothing happens. It’s about our own attitude. And that starts with the leadership. Is there at least one person I grieve over because he doesn’t know the Lord? I think we know the danger. I want to convert the other person. He becomes my mission project. It’s more about me than about him. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are we when our compassion goes so far that I empathize with what it could mean for him, for her, not to know the Lord, perhaps even to be eternally distant from him. It is this grief that ultimately motivated the Incarnation.

This grief explains the cross. Explains the „I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.“ (cf. Lk 22:15) This grief explains mission, if mission is to be genuine. „Jesus Christ is God’s passion for people,“ the late Archbishop of Cologne, Joachim Cardinal Meisner, once said. Passion has to do with suffering. A deep, heartfelt pain that causes longing.

In my opinion, Cripe rightly emphasizes that when there is grief for a person, mission almost runs by itself. But it has to be concrete. Not „we“ but „I.“ Not „the people“, but this ONE person. Not a thousand, or 10. The Lord looked for the one sheep UNTIL he found it. The „until“ is essential here. This one with whom I cultivate true friendship. Even with the awareness that he/she may never find the Lord. Blessed are they who mourn. Ask the Lord to show me this „one“. That he will give me a love for people, this person. That he will let me grieve, this grieving, which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and which I would like to ask for. But many people, says Cripe, don’t want to grieve at all. It is too painful.

Second experience

I had a meeting with Dwayne in Tampa, Florida. He took two companies from nothing to global. Then he sold them. Now he is almost full-time on a mission. Our meeting was on Monday night because he had just spent the „Weekend Retreat“ with 200 young people and leaders in Georgia. „What brings you to Tampa?“ I asked him. „You,“ he replied. „I’m flying back to Houston tomorrow morning“. I was stunned. Normally it’s the priest you would expect to be willing to go „out of his way“ to help or visit a person. A two-hour flight to talk to me? I sensed a similar attitude to Daryl Cripe. Openness to the call of the Lord. No matter where it takes you. Open to see if the Lord was calling us to venture on mission together in some way. A deep love for people so that they can come to know the Lord. A capacity of grief that gives this love it’s depth.

Third experience

I was just on a flight to Istanbul on my way back to Vienna. Jennifer was sitting next to me. An American woman. After her time in Africa, she worked as a missionary in Cambodia for a good 5 years. She has been a missionary in Macedonia for 8 years. No dream job in Manhattan or Silicon Valley. But she decided otherwise. Doing inconspicuous and sometimes thankless community building in challenging circumstances at the end of her world. Why? And I sensed a similar attitude in her too. Willingness to hear the call. A real love for Jesus. A real love for his people.

Grief for a person around us who does not know the Lord. Genuine, deep, passionate love for the person, the one, until he is found. That’s what I wish for you, that’s what I wish for myself, God bless!

Fr. George LC