Blessed Are You Who Weep

Blessed are you who weep, for you will laugh. — Luke 6:21

I see kids in the street

With not enough to eat

Who am I to be blind

Pretending not to see their needs?

— Michael Jackson, “Man in the Mirror”

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Vicki’s Roommate

Vicki grew up in a Catholic home, attended Catholic school from kindergarten through high school, and then went to Marquette to study psychology. Her freshman roommate seemed like a nice enough girl—until she started crying every night, uncontrollably. Vicki did her best to console her, and one day the whole story came out.

Her roommate had been pregnant twice. The first child she gave up for adoption. The second, she aborted. Through tears, she wept:

“I can live with the adoption. I can’t live with the abortion.”

Whoa. That hit Vicki like a ton of bricks. What do you do with that?

The Blindness of Positive Thinking

If you have a garden, you’ve had weeds. There are two ways to deal with them. One is to repeat the affirmations of positive thinking:

“There are no weeds. There are no weeds. There are no weeds.”

The other is, of course, to pull the weeds. One way, you have a beautiful garden. The other, a tangled mess. Sticking our head in the sand is not how we follow Christ.

We live in a broken world. We can either face that fact and embrace it—or pretend not to see.

Hardened Hearts

The early Christians often hurled a single insult at their pagan contemporaries:

“You’ve hardened your hearts!”

A hardened heart can’t see suffering, can’t feel compassion. It's like the priest and the Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan—they pass on by.

Each time we ignore suffering, our heart grows a little harder… and the world a little colder. This isn’t a call to feel guilty for not doing everything—it’s a reminder to do the little bit we can.

Make Coffee

Leslie was in a coffee shop one day, chatting with a worker named Mark.

“Were you working the other night when all those people were outside across the street?”

“Yep, that was me,” Mark replied.

“And did you bring them all hot cups of coffee?”

“I sure did. I saw them out there and felt like there was nothing I could do… except make coffee.”

Leslie began to tear up:

“That was the wake for my 16-year-old son, Ben. So many people showed up that they had to stand outside and wait. I just wanted to say thank you for taking care of my friends and family.”

Mark couldn’t do everything—but he could do one “stupid,” little thing: make coffee.

You’ve Got to Move!

And sometimes that movement starts small. Here are three steps to help you get moving:

1. See the world as it is: There are weeds in my garden.
2. See the world as it could be: There could be no weeds in my garden.
3. Make the world as it should be: Pull the weeds.

That’s what Mark did. He saw people standing in the cold. He imagined a world where they were warmed by hot coffee. So he brought them hot coffee.

"If one of the brothers or sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, “I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty,” without giving them these bare necessities of life, what good is that?" — James 2:15–16

But What About Vicki?

When Vicki heard the words, “I can live with the adoption. I can’t live with the abortion,” something clicked. Her friend was grieving. She needed to grieve the loss of her child. That was the only way forward.

So Vicki helped her do that. Over time, she developed more strategies and insights. Eventually, she founded Project Rachel, the Catholic Church’s official response to mothers (and fathers, grandparents, siblings) mourning the loss of a child to abortion—offering them hope, forgiveness, healing, even joy.

She would help tens of thousands of women across the world—and train others to do the same. She would personally meet Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. She would become a force for good. A force for God.

"Whatever you did for one of these least of my brothers, you did it to Me." — Matthew 25:40

Vicki saw the hurt. Mark saw the cold.

They didn’t do everything.

But they didn’t look away.

Blessed are you who weep…

If it would be helpful, try this Compassion Worksheet.

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