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| Chapter XXIX. The answer on the varieties of conviction which spring from tears.
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Chapter XXIX.
The answer on the varieties of conviction which spring
from tears.
Isaac: Not every kind of
shedding of tears is produced by one feeling or one virtue. For in one
way does that weeping originate which is caused by the pricks of our
sins smiting our heart, of which we read: “I have laboured in my
groanings, every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with
my tears.”1620
And again:
“Let tears run down like a torrent day and night: give thyself no
rest, and let not the apple of thine eye cease.”1621
In another, that which arises from the
contemplation of eternal good things and the desire of that future
glory, owing to which even richer well-springs of tears burst forth
from uncontrollable delights and boundless exultation, while our soul
is athirst for the mighty Living God, saying, “When shall I come
and appear before the presence of God? My tears have been my meat day
and night,”1622
declaring with
daily crying and lamentation: “Woe is me that my sojourning is
prolonged;” and: “Too long hath my soul been a
sojourner.”1623
In another way
do the tears flow forth, which without any conscience of deadly sin,
yet still proceed from the fear of hell and the recollection of that
terrible judgment, with the terror of which the prophet was smitten and
prayed to God, saying: “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant,
for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.”1624
There is too another kind of tears, which
are caused not by knowledge of one’s self but by the hardness and
sins of others; whereby Samuel is described as having wept for Saul,
and both the Lord in the gospel and Jeremiah in former days for the
city of Jerusalem, the latter thus saying: “Oh, that my head were
water and mine eyes a fountain of tears! And I will weep day and night
for the slain of the daughter of my people.”1625
Or also such as were those tears of which
we hear in the hundred and first Psalm: “For I have eaten ashes
for my bread, and mingled my cup with weeping.”1626
And these were certainty not caused by
the same feeling as those which arise in the sixth Psalm from the
person of the penitent, but were due to the anxieties of this life and
its distresses and losses, by which the righteous who are living in
this world are oppressed. And this is clearly shown not only by the
words of the Psalm itself, but also by its title, which runs as follows
in the character of that poor person of whom it is said in the gospel
that “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven:”1627
“A prayer
of the poor when he was in distress and poured forth his prayer to
God.”1628
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