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The Tears of Jesus
Kevin Raedy on Augustine & Refusing to Grieve As Others Do
As Christians, how should we respond to the death of someone we love? Should we grieve openly or privately? A little or a lot? In defending the truth of Christ's Resurrection and articulating a theology of bodily resurrection, St. Paul exclaims to the church at Corinth that death has been "swallowed up in victory" (1 Cor. 15:54). To the church at Thessalonica, where some were worried about the fate of those who died before the return of Christ, Paul explains that the righteous dead will be raised at Jesus' second coming and gathered up into heaven, so that those still alive should not "grieve as others do who have no hope" (1 Thes. 4:13).
Paul's words suggest that our grieving should be attenuated, although in what way or to what extent is unclear. St. Augustine, ever immersed in Scripture, seems to have found little maneuvering room in Paul's words, as we learn in his recounting of the death of his mother, Monica, in Book IX of The Confessions. When Augustine's son Adeodatus erupted into tears at Monica's death, Augustine swiftly subdued him into emotional restraint, and he suppressed his own weeping by sheer force of will.
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Kevin Raedy holds MTS and ThM degrees and writes from Hillsborough, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and two children. He has published in the journal Nova et Vetera and at Aleteia.org.
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