The Power of Tears
Through the works of great thinkers like Aquinas and Augustine, we see the beautiful tapestry that forms human nature. The whole person is created in a collective union of the mind, body and soul. No single thread defines this magnificent design. The three are divinely interlaced together in a manner that cannot be undone.
Both ancient masters see the human intellect as the highest intrinsic power existing not on its own but belonging to the soul. According to St. Augustine, the mind is a “Trinity” mirroring the Triune relationship of the three Divine Persons. The given gifts of memory, understanding, and free will constitute the sweet essence of each single life. For the Bishop of Hippo, the soul and the body have two distinct natures. The former is incorporeal (immaterial) and the latter is physical matter subject to all the elements of time. However, the soul rules the body, acting as the seat of human reason and will. It bears the image of God (imago Dei) as the book of Genesis reveals (ST. Q.75).
Although St. Aquinas also illumines that the nature of the body and soul are distinct, he points to vital nuances bringing them together as one unified human nature. The soul is the form and source of life that gives the body its shape, nature and existence. The mind relies on the body’s senses to experience the material world, and it is through the soul that the world is understood. Moreover, it is the soul that moves the body. It survives bodily death because its highest operation (intellect) does not depend on any physical organ to source its life (ST. Q.75). Thus, the relationship of the soul and the body is like the inseparable bond between heaven and earth. As Aquinas teaches, “the soul is united to the body as its form and must necessarily be in the whole body.”
What about tears?
Do the tears we cry have some unseen importance or unique role in the beautiful design of the whole person?
Tears are lifetime companions. We cried them as infants entering the world not knowing where they came from or what made them stop. Tears can pour from our eyes at any moment and do not exclusively belong to the experience of sorrow. How blissful it is when we burst out in laughter at the silliest joke. Gasping for air, we weep streams of tears with a force that could keep a river flowing.
Tears stay with us, always ready to make an appearance when the heart is stirred by something or someone it loves. Love is the principal source of this stirring, and every tear drop that comes after. The loss of a child, helplessness to stop the suffering endured by another or feeling the despair rising from a broken world are life altering events that can bring an ocean of anguish to the heart beyond repair.
Coping with loss in my own life, I find that crying at the passing away of my parents and brother killed on 9/11 keep me feeling close to them. The presence of my falling tears somehow signals their beautiful entrance into my heart.
And in the silence, I whisper:
“O’ happy tears, do come, do stay
However long you wish today
And take these tears of mine away,
On to my beloved, you freely may
This gift of tears
Each drop – do lay
As love’s sweet bouquet
Whilst I keep watch, here wait and pray
To the Holy One I hear say
Trust in Me – I am the Way.
Jesus Sanctifies Tears
No greater love for tears will ever surpass the moment when Jesus sees the weeping crowd mourning the death of Lazarus.
Jesus weeps.
Surrounded by the lamenting crowd, He openly sheds tears in deep sorrow. Not only is his heart pierced with grief, but his Spirit groans at seeing how the people have lost faith in who He is.
My heart is consoled each time I return to this moment. Jesus makes tears holy by crying them Himself. In so doing, He makes tears eternally sacred and sanctifies them as an essential part of human nature.
Tears are the beautiful bridge that connect the mind, body and soul together. Whatever joy or sorrow enters the intellect through the soul, soon prompts tears from the body at the stirring of the heart. Only tears touch all three and emerge in a form that our eyes can see.
However, as each person is a unique mind, body and soul, the events that cause the shedding of tears vary person to person. No two people will feel things precisely the same way. At mass, tears fill my husband’s eyes at the start of the Gospel reading. Something unique in his nature makes that happen.
For some of us, encountering beauty can touch our heart so profoundly that we cry each time our mind recalls the memory of it.
Tears never fail to come when I remember the beautiful way my father enjoyed a plump tomato. He would pick it up and eat it just like an apple. On one sunny afternoon, I was so excited to pick the most perfect one from my garden to enjoy with his lunch.
Arriving at the house, my mother quickly let me know that he wasn’t feeling well. Enduring paralysis from a stroke, my father lost all mobility on one whole side of his body.
As he rested, I went to his bedside and gently whispered, “Dad, I brought something for you – put out your hand and close your eyes.” As he did, I placed the sweet fruit into the palm of his working hand.
“Now open your eyes,” I said.
In an instant, blissful joy filled my father’s face taking in the beautiful tomato. Smiling ear to ear, the three of us reveled over the beauty coming from the simple fruit – with tears in our eyes.
The Holiness of Tears
Perhaps the search to understand the power of our tears in shaping who we are is best achieved through the spiritual texts of Saint Ignatius.
In The Spiritual Exercises, he writes “Since the whole person experiences spiritual consolation, sometimes the movements of the heart find bodily expression through tears, which can be seen as a grace-filled physical manifestation of God’s consoling work that can bring about deep healing for the heart. Tears may manifest, accompany, or complete the heart’s experience of God’s love.”
The power in the shedding of a single tear.
Perhaps tears are the soul’s most powerful way of giving the heart a physical means to speak into the world. In the moments they come, we learn something precious about who we are, what we value and the most sensitive parts of our human nature.
Tears have the power to soften hearts made of stone.
They can change the world in an instant, in a profoundly more powerful way than spoken words.
So great is their significance, God records the number of tears we cry.
As the psalmist writes, “You have kept count of my tossing; put my tears in your bottle.”
At times, tears may be the only prayer we can say and the fastest means to ask for God’s mercy.
Jesus blesses those who weep.
Remember always, the blessed power held within every tear.