Do tears of longing for God render tears of sorrow in distress unnecessary, and vice versa?

The answer

St. Didymus the Blind says, “Since weeping has different meanings, laughing needs to be understood accordingly; for weeping does not have only one meaning, nor does laughing. And since laughing is split in two meanings — sometimes praiseworthy, sometimes reprehensible — even weeping must be seen in this way, so that praiseworthy laughing corresponds to praiseworthy weeping and the same with reprehensible laughing and weeping. Often, thus, a life which is prone more to lust than to the love of God is laughing in such a way that the laughter itself is made into a god. And as some consider their stomachs divine and others consider them mammon, so a third person who loves entertainment and wants to be witty and so on, builds altars for laughter by making it divine so that he sacrifices to it … There is, however, also a praiseworthy laughter. It is said that God ‘will yet fill your mouth with laughter’ with (of course) praiseworthy laughter. This corresponds to the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy, for, ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.’ Laughter, therefore, that corresponds with joy is praiseworthy. Any weeping that is opposed to this kind of laughter and to the condition that opposes the joy of the Holy Spirit is reprehensible. That kind of weeping did not help Jerusalem. (Luke 19:41, 23:28) And why was that so? It is because it did not repent at the time when it should have repented, but after it was too late.”⁵²⁷

St. Ambrose says, “Paul teaches us that we must not abandon those who have committed a sin unto death, but that we must rather coerce them with the bread of tears and tears to drink, yet so that their sorrow itself be moderated. For this is the meaning of the passage, ‘You have given them tears to drink in large measure’ (Ps. 80:5), that their sorrow itself should have its measure, lest perchance he who is repenting should be consumed by overmuch sorrow, as was said to the Corinthians: ‘What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of meekness?’ (1 Cor. 4:21). But even the rod is not severe, since he had read: ‘You shall beat him indeed with a rod, but shall deliver his soul from death’ (Prov. 23:14).”⁵²⁸

Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty