Go and Weep
I wrote about this four years ago, but I recently have been reading some more about the role of weeping in the Orthodox tradition.
Holy persons and holy fools in the Orthodox tradition will often weep, and spiritual counsel is often to be told to go and weep. As one of the desert fathers said, "Whoever wishes to be liberated from sins is liberated from them by shedding tears, and whoever wishes to acquire the virtues acquires them by shedding tears. Tears are the way which Scripture and our Fathers have handed down to us, saying 'Weep.' There is no other way but this."
Another saying from the Orthodox tradition: "A brother asked an old man, ‘What should I do?’ And the old man said to him, 'We ought always to weep.'"
The desert solitary Evagrios of Pontos said: "Pray that you may receive tears, so that through mourning you may tame what is savage in your soul."
What is the source and cause of our weeping? Two main answers come from the tradition. First, as noted above, there is sorrow for sin and through this sorrow we tame what is savage in our soul. But the deeper reason is love and compassion for the world. The famous description of the merciful heart from Isaac of Nineveh captures this well:
What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for every created thing. And at the recollection and sight of them, the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation.
The vision here is of a heart so exquisitely attuned to the suffering of the world that it weeps in compassionate response.
And so we weep. We weep for ourselves. We weep for the world. We weep for sin. We weep for love. And this weeping washes the heart clean. Weeping is the path to holiness.
Go and weep. There is no other way than this.
+Christ is risen+. One side effect that i have experienced during years of taking an anti-depresant is that i'm pretty much unable to cry. I miss it.
The neurobiology of human crying is a fascinating process and exploring its properties might be an essential prerequisite to embracing (ToM) empathy. Not only does human crying function as a social signal in a variety of contexts, but also as an interpersonal cathartic purge linked to our metaphysical condition. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex, Basal Ganglia, Thalamus, Hypothalamus, Amygdala and other brain areas, work in tandem with the Lacrimal Nerves to produce the effect for a variety of motives and reasons – gratitude, selfishness, anger, physical pain, joy, etc... It’s almost as if our brain structure itself (whether evolved, designed, or both) dynamically and harmoniously interacts to create the process both autonomically and deliberately.
Paradoxically though, tears can be shed when ‘evil doesn’t triumph’ as well. There’s no guarantee that the demonstration of higher emotions; aka: “Crying & Weeping”, are going to be a reflection of an empathetic, egalitarian and balanced heart and can often be used to manipulate others for selfish and nefariously dishonest ends within certain social contexts – The insincerity of “Crocodile Tears”.
Scripture basically records three times when Jesus wept (potentially there were many, many more). To think that he was overwhelmed with human emotion in those moments, is to realize and accept his full humanity, all the while knowing that he simultaneously placed his full trust and complete faith in his Father, is to see the power of his Divinity. It is an enigma that our tears both disclose our total brokenness, and yet can reveal the best of our redeemed humanity.