Faith Features

Jesus Wept Too

November 4, 2022
James Pritchett
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“Jesus wept” (Jn. 11:35)

There are a number of reasons why someone may cry. It may be because of a death in the family, a child was just born, or a number of other things. There is, however, one thing which is behind each of these reasons—love. We cry because we both love the one whom we lost, as well as the one who was just born. Love leads us to express every emotion depending on the context.

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St. Thomas Aquinas posited that we can only love what we know. This is why our love of God grows in turn with how well we have come to know Him. This is also why I can sympathize with, but never love, someone suffering on the other side of the world whom I’ve never known. I can shed tears for the passing of my friend, but not for the thousands that die each day.

Christ exemplified this in the shortest verse of the whole Bible. Those two words are able to sum up His whole mission. Christ’s tears explain why he became man, lived among sinners, was scorned, was tortured, died, and rose again. He did it because He was able to weep over a man, in this case Lazarus, and, by extent, all of humanity.

The most vivid time I remember crying was when I went to confession for the first time. As a convert, I didn’t go to confession when I was in second grade so my first confession wasn’t about how I took cookies from the cookie jar or stole someone’s pencil in class. I had a lot of ground to cover as a senior in high school.

I remember the whole scene. I was just starting RCIA at the time so I knew that, since I was already baptized, I should go to confession. I arrived at my parish on a Saturday morning while they were celebrating Mass. The line was decently long and stretched from one end of the foyer to the other, so I had plenty of time to think of what I was going to say. As I got closer to the confessional, however, I got more and more nervous about what I was going to say. “He’s definitely going to judge me.” “I’m going to sound like such a bad person,” and so forth.

Stumbling nervously into the confessional, I eventually fell on my knees and began. After informing the priest that this was my first confession, he seemed surprised but reassured me that it was good that I came and asked me to continue. It felt like I continued on for 30 minutes, but with the speed that I blurted everything out, it couldn’t have lasted longer than five. By the end, I was more nervous than ever; I had shaking hands, a sweaty brow, and could hardly make a coherent sentence. The priest, however, reassured me of God’s infinite love, assigned me a light penance (relative to my confession), and asked me to say the Act of Contrition which I read off of the card in front of me.

The most marvelous thing happened next. The priest gave me absolution and I was stunned. I then thanked him and slowly walked out of the confessional. Oddly, I was no longer nervous, I was actually quickly becoming elated. As tears began to wet my eyes and stream down my face, I was so overcome with joy that I began to run, and maybe even skip, with joy out of the back of the church. I must have looked silly to the other people waiting in line, but I could not have cared the slightest bit less. As I stared up at the sky and wiped away my tears, I noticed that everything just seemed to be better, more vibrant, and exude a heretofore unseen level of radiance. I felt filled with the love of God, and I wept.

Christ wept because he loved man, and I wept because I loved God. I imagine that when we reach heaven, we will weep when we see God, and we will finally be able to see all that He has done for us. St. John says that in heaven, every tear will be wiped away; I would say that this implies that we will have tears for God to wipe away. I don’t think that they will be tears of sorrow, but rather tears of joy. If then, you weep because of sorrow or joy, weep for love, because God wept for love.

James Pritchett
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