Jesus Wept

Poet Ann Weems (1934–2016) suffered tragedy firsthand when her twenty-one-year-old son was murdered. She poured her profound grief into writing her own versions of lament psalms. Here she takes heart from Jesus’ own weeping:

Jesus wept,

            and in his weeping,

                he joined himself forever

                to those who mourn. 

      He stands now throughout all time,  

            this Jesus weeping, 

                    with his arms about the weeping ones: 

      “Blessed are those who mourn,  

            for they shall be comforted.” 

          He stands with the mourners, 

                for his name is God-with-us. 

Jesus wept. 

          “Blessed are those who weep, for they shall be comforted.” Someday.  

     Someday God will wipe the tears from Rachel’s eyes. 

                   In the godforsaken, obscene quicksand of life,  

                   there is a deafening alleluia 

                   rising from the souls  

                   of those who weep, 

                   and of those who weep with those who weep. 

                   If you watch, you will see 

                   the hand of God 

                   putting the stars back in their skies 

                   one by one. 

Reference:  

Excerpted from Psalms of Lament. Copyright © 1995 Ann B. Weems. Used by permission of Westminster John Knox Press. All rights reserved. 

Image credit: A path from one week to the next—McEl Chevrier, Untitled. CAC Margi Ahearn, Exercise on Grief and Lamentation. McEl Chevrier, Untitled. Used with permission. Click here to enlarge image. 

On retreat, the CAC staff used watercolors to connect to our collective grief. This is one of the watercolor paintings that came from that exercise.