The Tears of Our Lord

Taken From The Love of the Sacred Heart by Saint Mechtilde

We are never told in the Gospels that Jesus smiled, but we often hear that He wept. He wept at the grave of Lazarus, an image of a soul dead in sin; and He wept over Jerusalem, the ungrateful and hardened city; and at other times tears fell from the eyes of our divine Master. Why did these tears flow, and what
became of them ? Let us listen to Jesus
: On earth, whenever I thought of My ineffable union with the Eternal Father by which I am One with Him, My humanity could not refrain from weeping. Also every time I thought of the immense love which had drawn Me from the Father’s bosom to unite Me with human nature, My humanity was fain to weep. Then Mechtilde asked: And where are those tears which love
made Thee shed? He answered : They are in a special place in My Heart, they are a loved treasure, guarded in a chosen, secret place. She replied: Thou didst tell me once that these tears of love disappeared in Thy Heart as in a furnace. Our Lord replied: That is quite true, for in the furnace of My Heart they disappeared as drops of water thrown into the fire, but they are not consumed, they remain in the depth of My Heart.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is therefore the source of the tears He shed while here below and the mysterious
reservoir which received and guards them even now in Heaven. The love of Jesus for His Father, the love of Jesus for men, was then the cause of His tears, tears of joy because of the glory He was about to procure for His Father and the salvation He was bringing to the world by His sacrifice, tears of sadness on account of the insults continually
offered to that well-beloved Father and because of the ingratitude of which mankind was guilty. The tears of Jesus were gathered together and are kept
in His Heart. Notwithstanding the burning flames of which that Heart is the seat, they are not consumed. Let us draw near to the precious treasure which contains them. Somewhere there we shall find a tear shed for ourselves, but let us bring our own so that they may be sanctified, even those we shed for frivolous reasons.Thou shalt say to the person for whom Thou prayest said our Lord one day to St. Mechtilde, that she should not weep so much, but if she cannot help doing so that she should unite her tears to Mine, regretting that she had not shed them for sinners or through love. I will then offer them to the Father, united to Mine, when she
asks me to do so. Our Lord continued: Tell her from Me, that she should beg Me in My goodness to change the nature of her tears as if they had been shed from love or devotion, or from contrition for her sins. At these words St. Mechtilde wondered much that tears shed so uselessly could be changed into such holy tears. And our Lord said to her: I ask her only to believe in My goodness, and according to her faith My love in her shall become perfect. Let us therefore take our tears to the Heart of Jesus. Mingled with His, they will become meritorious. Is it not a consolation for those who weep to be able to do so on the heart of a sincere and sympathizing friend? Where, then, shall we find a friend whose heart is more devoted to us than is the Sacred Heart of Jesus ?