1 Thess 3:7-13 / Matthew 24:42-51 (2023)
When the clouds are heavy, the rains come down. (Ecclesiastes 11:3). Similarly when the heart is heavy, the tears will fall.
The earth has received many tears from humanity since time began and the tears have yet to cease.
We shed tears when in pain; we shed tears when in grief and sorrow; we shed tears when overcome by emotions. When the heart is heavy, the tears will fall.
In the 1st reading, St. Paul mentioned a little about his own troubles and sorrows but with not much details.
But in other letters to the other early Christian communities, he did mention about shedding tears for them.
To shed tears over our own trials and tribulations is understandable; but to shed tears for someone would mean that the person(s) really matter to us.
Such was the story of St. Monica in her prayer for the conversion of her son St. Augustine. St. Monica never gave up her prayers for her son. She would fast, cry and beg God for her son’s conversion. Legend says that a drain formed in the ground where her tears fell while she prayed for her son. St. Monica approached the local bishop and ask him to win her son over to the faith.
The bishop would often console her saying, “God’s time will come. Go now, it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish”. St. Monica was a mother who never gave up.
In a way, it can be said that St. Monica "stayed awake" and kept waiting for God's time to come. Her tears for her son St. Augustine saved him from possible "weeping and grinding of teeth".
May we also stay awake at all times, praying and making sacrifices for others, so that their tears will cease, and so that there will be no more weeping and grinding of teeth.