Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:

Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!

Jesus wept.

If you want to impress your friends with reciting Bible verses this is the one. It is easy to memorize, yes, but that’s where easy ends. Jesus weeps and it’s hard to watch. The fully divine don’t weep, do they? But the fully human do, I know, those who feel deeply the plight of the human spirit trying to survive in a world turned upside down and sideways.

Jesus weeps twice in the gospels. In Luke 19:41 he weeps over Jerusalem as he makes his final trip there. In John 11:35 we see Jesus weeping over his friend Lazarus who has died.

We call Jesus by many names–Teacher, Friend, Savior, Guide, Lord, among many others. Now we see him as Weeper.

The first time I saw my mom cry stunned me and the scene became etched in my soul. It was on the second floor of our big rambling house in Wooster, Ohio, on Bowman St. next to the church and owned by it. We were all in a wide hallway, my two older brothers, my mom, and me. I was no more than three. We were apparently out of control and were doing something wrong and we kept doing it. I can’t remember now what it was we did, but I can see, even now, mom with her head in the crease of her arm leaning against the wall crying. It stopped me in my tracks. My mom was crying and I never wanted to see her cry again.

I wonder if that’s why Jesus was crying. That we are doing something wrong. And keep doing it.

Maybe he sees the potential of humanity and weeps over the lost opportunities, our lost days, when we could be enjoying one another in the mix of diversity and the surprise of our commonality.

Maybe he is deep-down tired with the casual cruelty of Empire where power and compassion don’t know each other.

Maybe Jesus weeps because others are doing so, or no longer have the strength, or whose tears have been cried out years ago. For the loss of a job, a home, a way of life, a loved one, a hope.

I’m not sure what to do with all this except to say thank you, Jesus, One Who Weeps, for your tears. Thank you for feeling deeply the human spirit and connecting us with God’s spirit of total love and constant compassion.

Thank you, One Who Weeps, who understands how hard it was for a little boy to see his mom crying, and how hard it is for me, and maybe you as well, to see others cry today.

Grace and peace,

Harry