Cry Like A Man

Weeping as we behold the Holy

 Revelation 5:1-5

             I, John, saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a mighty angel who proclaimed in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to examine it. I shed many tears because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to examine it. One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed, enabling him to open the scroll with its seven seals.”

  

            Have you ever heard the old expression, “Grown men don’t cry”?  Or as Tom Hanks said in the movie, “A League of Their Own,” where he was manager of a women’s baseball team, “There’s no crying in baseball!”  Real men play baseball and they obviously don’t cry.  There’s probably been a moment or two when you’ve tried to hold back the tears believing that is being strong and somehow that’s more helpful to others.  The person who shattered this saying for me was my first pastor, Msgr. Gaston Hebert.  I have a lot of respect and admiration for Msgr. Hebert, and I consider him a man’s man.  But I noticed that whenever we celebrated First Holy Communion Masses, and all those boys in suits and ties and girls in veils paraded down the center aisle, Msgr. Hebert had tears running down his face.  At that moment Msgr. Hebert taught me how to cry like a man.  In other words, Hebert showed me that tears are not a sign of unmanliness, but rather a sign of true manhood, a sign of Christian manhood.

            The first reading today shows us another Christian man who was wont to cry, namely, St. John the Evangelist.  He sees a heavenly scroll closed up with seven seals that no one can open or read, and he cries like a man.  John explains why he cried, “I shed many tears because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to examine it.”  But Jesus comes to answer John’s prayers and to wipe away his tears.  You see, both St. John and Msgr. Hebert knew how to cry because they both beheld something holy, the presence of God in innocent children, in a divine scroll.  Tears are not a sign of unmanliness; they are a sign of real manhood, a man who can see God.

            Today, let me invite you to open your hearts to the holy and to behold God’s beauty, and to open your tear ducts, too!  Now, I’m not talking about those “crocodile tears” that small children cry to manipulate mom and dad.  Instead, I’m talking about not holding back your tears when you behold the birth of a baby, when you see a bride takes her first steps down the aisle on her wedding day, as you hold your mother’s hand as she takes her last breath, as you gaze at the priest raising the white Host and golden chalice at the Consecration of the Mass.  Let the tears flow and cry like a man.

            Rudolf Otto wrote a famous book in 1917 called, “The Idea of the Holy.”  He said the “holy” (or God) is at the same time both terrifying and fascinating; we are afraid but also irresistibly drawn to it.  He wrote, “[The holy] presents itself as wholly other…where by the human being finds himself utterly abashed.”  That holiness, that presence of God, is what made Msgr. Hebert cry and that’s what made St. John cry.  And if that doesn’t make you cry, you’re not much of a man.

            Praised be Jesus

Christ!