"Remember, I am with you always to the end of the age" (Mt 28:20)

Dominus Flevit (Latin for “the Lord wept”)

Teardrop-shaped Church of Dominus Flevit

T
he term reverentia appears 13 times in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola. This is the Latin for the Ignatian virtue of reverence. The simplest meaning of reverence is respect. It appears several times not only in the Spiritual Exercises but also in the Spiritual journal of St Ignatius. The Spanish word for reverence is “acatamiento.” Ignatius would put the virtue of reverence almost synonymously with respect. The two go together in Ignatian Spirituality.

Ignatian reverence refers to our overall attitude of mindful presence and perceptiveness to the sacred. For Ignatius, our best response to the sacred is reverence and when we enter into the Spiritual Exercises for example 30 days we are entering into the holy ground. We're going into sacred space and we move from the secular world to the sacred with reverence and respect.

Given this virtue of reverence Saint Peter Canisius one of the earlier Jesuits shares how Ignatius himself pursued and concretized this virtue of reverence in his life he says Ignatius would regularly go for his early morning prayer on the roof of the Jesuit Generalate in Rome and there in the roof area he would stand and slowly take off his hat and without moving he would fix his gaze on the heavens for some time then sinking going down to his knees he would make a lovely gesture of reverence and respect to God and after that, he would sit on a bench to rest his weak sickly body because at that time he was already quite sickly and there he was head uncovered tears trickling drop by drop in such sweetness and silence that no sob no sigh no noise no movement of the body was noticed he was just very still gazing at the heavens. This is what we mean by Ignatian reverence and that is one of the attitudes a retreatant may take or should take as he or she enters into a long retreat hopefully with the assistance of the retreat guide.

In St Ignatius’s Autobiography which was written towards the end of his life, he has such a growing devotion to easily finding God in all things. “At whatever time or hour he wanted to find God, he found him” (Autobiography 99). He was always crying, which was a sign that he was in great consolation, it means those tears are tears of consolation. Tears were signs of the sacred taking place in his interiority.

Secondly, tears are elicited also not only because of consolation, but because of desolation. This is what we see happening in the gospel, our Lord himself weeps out of great desolation over the city of Jerusalem. If you go to Jerusalem there is the so-called Wailing Wall, which dates from about the 2nd century BCE. The authenticity of this Wall (160 feet long and 60 feet high) has been confirmed by tradition, history, and archaeological research. The wall is the remnant of the Old City of Jerusalem, which was a place of prayer and pilgrimage sacred to the Jewish people as this was the site of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem. The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587–586 BCE, and the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Texts explaining the survival of the wall vary; one suggests that God saved this fragment for the Jewish people whom God has chosen, while another holds that the Roman Emperor Titus left it as a painful reminder of the defeat and subjugation of Judea. Jesus wept for Jerusalem already (13.34-35), and he weeps over Jerusalem once as he arrives and again as he leaves the city on the way to his execution (23.28-31). Jesus prays what is called the prayers of lamentation which is composed entirely of phrases from the prophets of old. There is another time instance, when Jesus wept, which was when his best friend Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary died.

The third and last point, is a question, When was your last good cry? We must be comfortable with shedding tears yes! "To weep is to make less the depth of grief," Shakespeare tells us in one of his plays. Even more poignantly, St Teresa of Calcutta says, "More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones." Let us not wait when we are only in consolations, but also in desolations because the two go together. I would like to use one beautiful piece of creation that we are blessed to look upon each night—the moon, which is as steady and unwavering as the sun. The moon serves as a perfect mirror image for consolations. For one, it shines not its own light. Also, the moon is always present and moving together with our earth around the sun. Sometimes it is hidden only to come out again at another time. In the same way, consolation is always around the corner. Like the moon, it does not have a light of its own except that which shines from the Creator. We just need to be more discerning when it is dark because this is often the window of opportunity used by the enemy to deceive. This is why in every discernment process, it is very important to attach ourselves to the source of all consolation, the Heart of Jesus, we need to cultivate holy indifference towards His consolations.

The moon reflects light in the darkness following God's command from the beginning, "Let there be light." See the moon as God's way of continuously creating you. Anytime you catch a glimpse of the moon, take that moment to thank God for the little graces. When you glance up at it, say, "The Lord bless us and watch over us; the Lord, make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us; the Lord look kindly on us and give us peace."

The moon has often been seen as a symbol of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ever the apple of the Father's eye. Without the light of her own, she reflects the light of Jesus Christ which makes her a most formidable intercessor in times of darkness. Mary is the “ladder” that joins heaven and earth without deception. Like the moon, she is the brightest, closest, and the easiest path between the human heart to God's. In the words of the great English poet William Wordsworth, Mary is "our tainted human nature's solitary boast." But Mary also shed tears not only when she saw her Son’s passion and death, she was occasionally in tears of consolation and yes also desolation. But consolation or desolation, tears are a sure sign of God’s closeness nonetheless. Let me end with Psalm 126:2-6.

“The LORD has done great things for them.”

The LORD has done great things for us;

We are joyful.



Restore our fortunes, LORD,

As the streams in the South.

Those who sow in tears shall harvest with joyful shouting.

One who goes here and there weeping, carrying his bag of seed,

Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Amen.

Fr JM Manzano SJ

Comments

  1. Thanks for this wonderful reflection po, Fr. JM...

    I would like to sum up my thoughts with this poem...

    COMFORT IN TEARS
    Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe

    How happens it that thou art sad,

    While happy all appear?
    Thine eye proclaims too well that thou

    Hast wept full many a tear.

    "If I have wept in solitude,

    None other shares my grief,
    And tears to me sweet balsam are,

    And give my heart relief."

    Thy happy friends invite thee now,--

    Oh come, then, to our breast!
    And let the loss thou hast sustain'd

    Be there to us confess'd!

    "Ye shout, torment me, knowing not

    What 'tis afflicteth me;
    Ah no! I have sustained no loss,

    Whate'er may wanting be."

    If so it is, arise in haste!

    Thou'rt young and full of life.
    At years like thine, man's blest with strength.

    And courage for the strife.

    "Ah no! in vain 'twould be to strive,

    The thing I seek is far;
    It dwells as high, it gleams as fair

    As yonder glitt'ring star."

    The stars we never long to clasp,

    We revel in their light,
    And with enchantment upward gaze,

    Each clear and radiant night.

    "And I with rapture upward gaze,

    On many a blissful day;
    Then let me pass the night in tears,

    Till tears are wip'd away!

    Thank you very much po... God bless you always! TC

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    1. Thanks so much for sharing this beautiful poetry! COMFORT IN TEARS by Goethe... They say we will never be able to thank God enough in our lifetime but I think tears could! God communicates through our tears and His! GBU!

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    2. Many times in my reflections, I ask the Lord, how will I be able to console His Heart... Tears fell off my eyes whenever I express to Him this desire of mine... Yet in many times as well, I received His answer as, "your tears are enough". That's why I love this part of the poem particularly...

      The thing I seek is far;
      It dwells as high, it gleams as fair
      As yonder glitt'ring star."

      The stars we never long to clasp,
      We revel in their light,
      And with enchantment upward gaze,
      Each clear and radiant night.

      "And I with rapture upward gaze,
      On many a blissful day;
      Then let me pass the night in tears,
      Till tears are wip'd away!

      And thanks for this reminder, "God communicates through our tears and His!", These words for me are somehow that indirect way of telling how much I desire to love Him and how much He desires me to be His own.

      Thank you very much po, Fr. JM... For giving such good inspirations every time you are posting your reflections.
      Actually, I really love reading them. Aside from they are simple and informative, I can feel that, at the same time, they are profoundly rooted from the heart of a person who loves the Lord so much. God bless you always.
      Take care!

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  2. After reading this, I can recall many unexpected/sudden moments of tears especially like beholding a magnificent sight or reading the story of a soul or watching a scene of St. Francis letting go of all his possession or praying the Rosary...which during those moments I do not understand why it is happening.. tears are signs of the sacred taking place in the interiority...I believe the Spirit within is moving...awaking within me the seed of vocation and watering it and make it grow in those moments of tears... Moments of reverence, awe, awareness of sinfulness, unworthiness and being loved in the presence of Infinite and Unconditional Love of our Triune God. Thank you for your beautiful reflection, Fr. Jom! And Thank you Lord for the gift of tears!... condensation of the transformation within..GBU!

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  3. I have something to show you below when you click my profile. "Come and see! Ah! Dewfall living life to the full. Born to catch daybreak's light, all it takes is to fall. Like sea water that tosses in calm wind and glints, Green grass glistens rose-pink light from God's fingerprints." [Click on the 'Wishlist' link to gaze at the austere grandeur of the dewfall while it lasts.] GBU!

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  4. Good morning, Fr. Jom! When I look out f my window after I woke up...I saw a beautiful shining full moon behind the trees this morning....A nd I remember to whisper these words..."The Lord bless us and watch over us; the Lord, make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us; the Lord look kindly on us and give us peace." I was looking forward to watch a partial lunar eclipse last night but learned cannot be seen in our country... when it happened it was below our horizon...But thanks be to God! He inspires me to look out my window this morning... Have a nice day ahead Fr. Jom! GBU!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your sharing! Happy Solemnity of Christ the King to all of us! GBU!

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