If You Don’t Learn to Weep, You Can’t Be a Good Christian
When Jesus saw her weeping, and [those] with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved … and Jesus began to weep. – John 11:33-35 (NRSV)
Several years ago, the late Pope Francis visited the Philippines. In a mass gathering in Manila, he was greeting children from local parishes when, in an unscripted moment, a little girl asked him why God allows children to suffer.
She’d just told him in front of millions of people that she scrounged food from the garbage every day and slept outside every night on a cardboard mat.
For a moment Francis was silent. Then he enfolded the sobbing child in his arms and admonished the crowd to be still and pay close attention because, he said, “she has just asked the one question with no answer.”
After the crowd hushed, he said to her, “We can’t answer you now. Only when we can weep about the things you have lived will we understand anything. Only then will we be able to answer you.”
Then he taught the crowd, “The world needs to weep. The marginalized weep, the scorned weep, the sick and dying weep, but we who have what we need, we who are privileged, we don’t know how. We must learn. There are realities in this life you can see only with eyes clarified by tears. If you don’t learn to weep, you can’t be a good Christian.”
Whenever someone who’s suffering asks us why awful things happen, let’s not rush to speak, to wring from it some meaning, even to acknowledge it’s a mystery. But first, be still. And then enfold. And only after, say a word. A word that falls from tears.
Prayer
Give us tears so that we may perceive clearly; and by perceiving, join each other’s suffering; and by joining, love; and by loving, heal.
About the AuthorMary Luti is a long time seminary educator and pastor, author of Teresa of Avila’s Way and numerous articles, and founding member of The Daughters of Abraham, a national network of interfaith women’s book groups.