And Jesus Wept

+JMJ

I’m a crier… Something I really don’t particularly like about myself.

I cry when I am overtired… I cry when I am too hungry… I cry when I am angry… I cry when I am upset… I cry when I am anxious… I cry when I scared… I cry when I am sad… I cry when I am happy…

It makes me feel weak. It makes me feel like a baby. But I can’t help it. It just happens. I am a person who feels every emotion completely and deeply.

But Jesus has revealed to me that tears are a gift because I cry when I encounter Him.

St. Ignatius of Loyola was a Crier too

St. Ignatius was a soldier. A prestigious warrior. I knight in the Spanish court. He was bold, brave, and strong. A manly-man, if you will. He endured two surgeries to attempt to fix injuries he sustained from a cannonball without anesthesia! Definitely not the type of person you think of when you think of tears.

I read somewhere (though I can’t seem to find it now) that St. Ignatius of Loyola was almost constantly on the verge of tears. Ignatius was so close to Jesus that he saw our Lord in everything. Every second of every day Ignatius saw the Lord at work.

I learned contemplative prayer from St. Ignatius of Loyola and during my first true contemplative moment, I wept.

Not tears of sadness or anger or angst.

But tears of consolation. Tears that brought complete peace to my soul.

The Gift of Tears

The “Gift of Tears,” also known as Holy Tears, is a grace from the Holy Spirit.

They are the result of having been so intimately close to the Lord, Our God, that the soul is overcome with consolation. The heart then overflows into The Gift of Tears.

St. Ignatius wrote in a letter to Sister Teresa Rejadell:

“…the Lord is accustomed to grant… Interior consolation, which evaporates all perturbation, and brings a soul to complete love of the Lord.”

St. Ignatius of Loyola

These Spiritual tears are a cleansing for the heart and soul. This results in an increase of virtue. I have notice in myself in particular an increase in: fortitude, spiritual strength, courage, and a growing love of Our Lord.

They are not the same as tears that come from anxiety, or anger, or because I am “Hangry.” These are physical tears that do not make me feel at peace but feel more angst.

The Raising of Lazarus

And said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”

And Jesus wept.

John 11:34-35

Those words struck my heart so deeply.

And Jesus wept.

His humanity is revealed as He wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Sorrow consuming Him at the loss of a friend.

But as I sat meditating on this, I began to wonder. Could they have been tears of consolation?

Jesus knew, because He is God, that Lazarus would be raised from the dead as He prays:

“Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”

John 11:41-42 (emphasis added)

Could He have wept because of the wonderful thing that was about to happen?

And when He had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”

John 11:43-44

Could He have wept because He knew it was going to change the hearts of all those people there?

Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what He had done began to believe in Him.

John 11:45

Could He have wept from an outpouring of love for both His Heavenly Father and for us?

As the Father loves me, so I also love you.

John 15:9

I believe that the tears Jesus shed could have been ones of consolation as much as they could have been of sorrow. This still proves His humanity in a partaking of a gift that He graciously bestows on me through His Holy Spirit.

Pray for the Gift of Tears

I personally have never prayed specifically for the Gift of Tears. Tears come so naturally to me that it never occurred to me to do so.

But I can see now that I have indirectly prayed for them, by begging Jesus to touch my heart. In essence asking Him to fill me with His love and consolation, which in turn moves me to tears.

I want to share a portion of a prayer written by St. Augustine petitioning God for the Gift of Tears. It is a beautiful way to request that Jesus touch your heart and work in your own life.

I beseech Thee, O Good Jesus, through these most blessed tears, and through all Thy tenderness, by which Thou didst wondrously come to our aid who were lost, grant me this grace of tears my soul so longs for, and now begs of Thee.  For without Thy gift of it I cannot possess it.

By Thy Holy Spirit Who softens the hard hearts of sinners, and moves them to tears, grant me the grace of tears, as Thou didst grant it to my fathers, in whose steps I should follow: that I may bewail my whole life, as they bewailed themselves by day and night.  By their prayers and merits who have pleased Thee, and most faithfully served Thee, have mercy on me Thy most pitiful and unworthy servant, and grant me the gift of tears.  Water me from above, and water me from below, that day and night tears may be my bread.  May I become in Thy sight, O my God, a sacrifice, rich and full of marrow, through the fires of Thy compunction.  May I be wholly consumed on the altar of my own heart, and may I as a most acceptable holocaust, be received by Thee as an odour of sweetness.

Grant me a strengthening fountain, a clear fountain, in which this defiled holocaust may be continuously washed.  For though by the help of lily grace I have offered myself wholly to Thee, yet in many things I daily offend Thee, because of my great weakness.  Grant to me, therefore, this gift of tears, O blessed and Lovable God, especially because of the great sweetness of Thy love, and also for a remembrance of Thy mercies.

Prepare this table before the face of Thy servant, and grant me this power with regard to it, that as often as I will I may be filled from it.  Grant me, in Thy kindness and Thy goodness, that this Thy chalice (Ps. xxii), so good and so inebriating, may quench my thirst.  Let my spirit long for Thee; let my soul burn with Thy love, forgetful of all vanity and of all misery.

Hear me, O My God; hear me, O light of my eyes, hear what I ask of Thee; and grant that I may ask of Thee what Thou wilt hear.  Kind and gentle Lord, be not hard to me, because of my sins, but because of Thine own goodness receive the prayers of Thy servant, and grant me the answer to my prayer, the answer to my desire, through the prayers and merits of my Lady, Mary Virgin, and of all the Saints.  Amen.

St. Augustine

Thrive in Jesus my Friends!

Have you ever received the Gift of Tears? If so, When? Do you pray for the Gift of Tears?

Drop me a comment and let me know!