In his comment, Joe makes the point 

·        Strength is not the absence of tears. Strength is the presence of resolution in the midst of crisis. 

Men should be able to show emotion: Jesus wept.

 

My mother died in my arms. I arranged the funeral, and a friend of mine led his choir. I kept my composure until the In Paradisum, when I began weeping uncontrollably.

 

I was not ashamed of it. My mother had suffered the pangs of childbirth and shed many tears over me as I was growing up. The least I could do was weep for her when she parted from this world.

 

My mother-in-law died  immediately after my mother’s  death. When I drove to her house the first time after her death, I was playing Celtic music. As I drove down the lane to the now-empty house, Lori Pappajohn began playing “I Will Ever Love Thee.” Again I wept. What better tribute could I bring?

 

Another friend of mine had become alienated from his family. He died in my arms, and I had to buy a burial plot and arrange for his funeral.

 

And so on. As I grow older, the list of the dead I pray for every days grows longer and longer, from infants to 12-year-olds to the elderly.

 

Sunt lacrimae rerum.

Leave a Comment