POPE Francis reminded us of this need
in one of his
messages during his pastoral visit here. We have to learn to cry! Yes,
we need it, not in the sense that we should always be crying, but that
crying is somehow part, a significant part of our humanity, and yes,
even of our Christianity.
As babies, we cry because that is how we communicate our
needs to our parents and others. As babies, we are completely helpless
and dependent on others. We cannot even speak. We just cry and
practically the whole world comes to pay attention. There’s a certain,
unique eloquence of babies’ cries.
And even if are already grown up, somehow we cannot wipe
out all our state of helplessness and dependence. There will always be
some reason to cry, because despite our best efforts, we will always
be hounded by unmet needs, if not problems and difficulties, and some
of them can be insoluble. We can even have calamities and disasters,
physical and moral, and we cannot help but cry.
As lovers, we also cry. Loving and crying seem to be
intimate partners in life. And that’s simply because loving is an
increasingly demanding act of self-giving, a self-giving without
measure, without limit. It can never be satisfied and contented to get
stuck at a certain level.
This somehow gives us reason to cry. That constant
striving to give more, to have more, to be more, which is what loving
entails, will always lead us to cry. Thus, many love stories and love
songs are filled with episodes of crying. And true lovers are
unabashed about it.
In this regard, I remember songs like “Cry me a river,”
“Crying in the rain,” “As my guitar gently weeps,” etc. They express
sentiments in so intense and vivid a way that you can practically see
and feel the heart of the lover and the beloved.
As children of God and Christian believers, we even have
more reason to cry, because we cannot help but reflect Christ’s life
that was also marked by crying. He wept over the crowd because he saw
them like sheep without a shepherd. He cried when he saw the widow
burying her only son.
In his prayers to the Father, he cried. That’s what
happened in the garden of Gethsemane and right there on the cross,
moments before he died. “Father, why have you forsaken me?” We cannot
imagine those words spoken without tears.
And this is Christ already, who is both God and man. He
could not help but cry too. His divinity did not detract from his
humanity, and vice-versa. When Christ cried, he cried as both God and
man.
Besides, Christ is always moved when people approach him
crying. The sinful woman who gate-crashed into a dinner where Christ
was and started to bathe his feet with her tears and wipe them with
her hair is proof of this. Christ told his sceptical host, Simon, that
her sins were forgiven precisely because she repented much through
crying.
Crying is an integral part of our humanity and
Christianity. If we don’t cry, we would have reason to suspect that we
are losing or at least weakening in our humanity and Christianity.
This is now a challenge to us because our present,
dominant culture, especially affecting the young ones and the
so-called go-getters, seems to altogether write-off the need for
crying. For them, crying is by definition an anathema.
It’s obvious, of course, that we should not exaggerate the
need to cry. We have to avoid being cry-babies, whining and
complaining at the slightest touch of inconvenience. But it also is
definitely wrong to go to the other extreme of avoiding crying at all
costs.
We need to cry sometimes. It will be a sure and healthy
sign that we are still human and Christian. If done properly, with the
proper motives and in the right occasions, our crying will do us a lot
of good.
We have to realize that we will always have reason to cry
because we will always have an abiding need that cannot be fully met,
and that is to be definitively with God. We will always be “poor in
spirit,” as the first beatitude would put it, always in need of God.
That’s the reason why Christ told his disciples to always insist in
praying.
“Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened to you.” (Mt 7,7) These words, if
followed earnestly, will always involve some form of crying. We have
to learn to cry!
messages during his pastoral visit here. We have to learn to cry! Yes,
we need it, not in the sense that we should always be crying, but that
crying is somehow part, a significant part of our humanity, and yes,
even of our Christianity.
As babies, we cry because that is how we communicate our
needs to our parents and others. As babies, we are completely helpless
and dependent on others. We cannot even speak. We just cry and
practically the whole world comes to pay attention. There’s a certain,
unique eloquence of babies’ cries.
And even if are already grown up, somehow we cannot wipe
out all our state of helplessness and dependence. There will always be
some reason to cry, because despite our best efforts, we will always
be hounded by unmet needs, if not problems and difficulties, and some
of them can be insoluble. We can even have calamities and disasters,
physical and moral, and we cannot help but cry.
As lovers, we also cry. Loving and crying seem to be
intimate partners in life. And that’s simply because loving is an
increasingly demanding act of self-giving, a self-giving without
measure, without limit. It can never be satisfied and contented to get
stuck at a certain level.
This somehow gives us reason to cry. That constant
striving to give more, to have more, to be more, which is what loving
entails, will always lead us to cry. Thus, many love stories and love
songs are filled with episodes of crying. And true lovers are
unabashed about it.
In this regard, I remember songs like “Cry me a river,”
“Crying in the rain,” “As my guitar gently weeps,” etc. They express
sentiments in so intense and vivid a way that you can practically see
and feel the heart of the lover and the beloved.
As children of God and Christian believers, we even have
more reason to cry, because we cannot help but reflect Christ’s life
that was also marked by crying. He wept over the crowd because he saw
them like sheep without a shepherd. He cried when he saw the widow
burying her only son.
In his prayers to the Father, he cried. That’s what
happened in the garden of Gethsemane and right there on the cross,
moments before he died. “Father, why have you forsaken me?” We cannot
imagine those words spoken without tears.
And this is Christ already, who is both God and man. He
could not help but cry too. His divinity did not detract from his
humanity, and vice-versa. When Christ cried, he cried as both God and
man.
Besides, Christ is always moved when people approach him
crying. The sinful woman who gate-crashed into a dinner where Christ
was and started to bathe his feet with her tears and wipe them with
her hair is proof of this. Christ told his sceptical host, Simon, that
her sins were forgiven precisely because she repented much through
crying.
Crying is an integral part of our humanity and
Christianity. If we don’t cry, we would have reason to suspect that we
are losing or at least weakening in our humanity and Christianity.
This is now a challenge to us because our present,
dominant culture, especially affecting the young ones and the
so-called go-getters, seems to altogether write-off the need for
crying. For them, crying is by definition an anathema.
It’s obvious, of course, that we should not exaggerate the
need to cry. We have to avoid being cry-babies, whining and
complaining at the slightest touch of inconvenience. But it also is
definitely wrong to go to the other extreme of avoiding crying at all
costs.
We need to cry sometimes. It will be a sure and healthy
sign that we are still human and Christian. If done properly, with the
proper motives and in the right occasions, our crying will do us a lot
of good.
We have to realize that we will always have reason to cry
because we will always have an abiding need that cannot be fully met,
and that is to be definitively with God. We will always be “poor in
spirit,” as the first beatitude would put it, always in need of God.
That’s the reason why Christ told his disciples to always insist in
praying.
“Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened to you.” (Mt 7,7) These words, if
followed earnestly, will always involve some form of crying. We have
to learn to cry!
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