Section 3

What spring would you compare with these tears? The spring in Paradise that watered the whole earth? You would still name nothing equal to them, because this spring of tears watered souls, not soil. If someone could show us Paul in tears and groaning, would that not be far better to behold than countless choirs brightly crowned?

I am not speaking about you. But suppose someone took a licentious young man away from the theater and stage, while he was burning and frenzied with bodily desire, and showed him a young virgin in the very flower of her age, surpassing those of her own age in every respect, and especially in her face: her eye tender and soft, resting gently and moving gently, moist, mild, calm and smiling, surrounded by great modesty and grace, crowned above and below with dark lashes; the pupil itself seemingly alive; her forehead radiant; beneath it her cheek reaching the exact shade of red, smooth and even like marble. Then suppose someone showed me Paul weeping. I would leave the sight of the young woman and rush toward the sight of him, because a spiritual beauty shone from those eyes.

The other kind of beauty drives young souls out of themselves, kindles them, and sets them on fire. This beauty does the opposite: it calms them. Whoever beholds Paul’s eyes makes the eye of his own soul more beautiful, restrains his appetites, becomes filled with philosophy and great compassion, and can soften even a soul as hard as diamond. With these tears the Church is watered; with these tears souls are planted. Even if there is fire—whether visible, bodily fire or spiritual fire—these tears can extinguish it. These tears quench the flaming arrows of the Evil One.

Let us therefore remember Paul’s tears, and we will laugh at all the things of the present life. These are the tears Christ called blessed when He said, “Blessed are those who mourn,” and, “Blessed are those who weep, for they shall laugh.” Isaiah and Jeremiah also poured out tears like these. One said, “Leave me alone; I will weep bitterly.” The other said, “Who will give water to my head and springs of tears to my eyes?”—as though the natural supply of tears were not enough.

Nothing is sweeter than tears like these; they are sweeter than any laughter. Those who mourn know how much consolation there is in this. Let us not think it something to pray against, but something greatly to be desired—not that others should sin, but that when they do sin we should be brokenhearted for them. Let us remember these tears and these chains.

Surely tears fell even while Paul was in chains. The joy he might have felt because of his chains did not allow him to forget the death of those who were perishing—even of those who bound him. He grieved for them too. For he was a disciple of the One who wept over the leaders of the Jews, not because they were about to crucify Him, but because they themselves were perishing. And Christ not only did this Himself; He also exhorted others in the same way, saying, “Do not weep for Me, daughters of Jerusalem.”

Those eyes of Paul saw Paradise; they saw the third heaven. Yet I do not call them blessed so much for that vision as for those tears through which they saw Christ. To see Christ is indeed blessed, and Paul himself takes confidence from it when he says, “Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” But to weep in this way is even more blessed. Many shared in the sight of Christ, and Christ even calls blessed those who did not share it: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” But not many attained to tears like Paul’s.

If remaining here for Christ’s sake was more necessary than departing to be with Him because it served the salvation of others, then grieving for others is also more necessary than seeing Him. If, for Christ’s sake, Paul could regard even being in Gehenna as more desirable than being with Him, and separation from Him for His sake as more desirable than being united with Him—for this is what he meant when he said, “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ”—then how much more would he choose to weep for His sake.

“I did not cease,” Paul says, “to admonish each one with tears.” Why? Not because he feared dangers for himself. Rather, as someone sitting beside a sick person, uncertain of the outcome, weeps out of love and fear that the sick person may lose his life, so Paul wept when he saw someone spiritually sick and found that rebuke was not enough. Christ did this too, so that if people would not respect the rebuke, perhaps they would at least respect the tears. Someone sinned: He rebuked him. The person being rebuked despised Him and turned away: then He wept, so that even by this means He might draw him back.