The Mourning Of Salvation

Accedit et tetrius: Beati qui lugent, quoniam ipsi consolabuntur. Quis nobis iste luctus intelligendas est salutaris? Utique non ille, qui ex rerum detrimentis, non qui ex amissione charorum, nec qui ex jactura saecularium dignitatum: quae utique omnia jam pauper factus spiritu non dolebit. Hic est luctus salutaris, qui agitur pro peccatis, pro recordatione divini judicii. Nam quia prius inter innumeras saeculi occupationes et asperitates animus constituis, de se ipse cogitare non poterat; jam securus et mitis effectus, incipit se ipsum propius intueri, examinare actus suos diurnos atque nocturnos: et sic praeteritorum criminum vulnera incipiunt apparere, et tunc luctus ac lacrymae subsequuntur salutares, et adeo salubres, ut mox coelestis consolatio occurrat: verus enim qui dixit: Beati qui lugent, quoniam ipsi consolabuntur Sanctus Chromatius Aquileiensis, Sermo De Octo Beatitudinibus

He comes to the third: Blessed are those who mourn, because they shall be comforted. 1 Who among us has understanding of the mourning of salvation? Certainly not the one who mourns for things lost, or for the taking away of moveables, or for being cast out of worldly honours, all things which certainly the one who has already been made poor of spirit shall not grieve. This is the mourning of salvation: the one who on account of sin recalls the Divine judgement. For since before amid innumerable worldly occupations and troubles the soul was placed, concerning oneself one was not able to think, but now secure in meekness, one begins to study oneself, to examine one's acts day and night, and so begin to appear the wounds of past criminality, and then follows salutary grieving and tears, and so comes the benefit, that soon the consolation of the heavens draws near, for truly He said: 'Blessed are those who mourn because they shall be comforted.' Saint Chromatius of Aquileia, Sermon on the Eight Beatitudes 1. Mt 5.5