Jesus wept. At seeing the sepulchre of Lazarus (although Chrysostom supposes that He wept when He groaned and was troubled, which is equally probable), to signify His love for him, and the grief He felt at his death.
Secondly, that He might weep with the sisters and the Jews who were weeping, and teach us to do the same. So S. Augustine. Hear S. Ambrose: "Christ became all things to all men; poor to the poor, rich to the rich, weeping with the weeping, hungering with the hungry, thirsting with the thirsty, full with the abounding; He is in prison with the poor Prayer of Manasseh , with Mary He weeps, with the Apostles He eats, with the Samaritan woman he thirsts.
Thirdly, that adding tears to His speech, He might make it stronger and more efficacious; for tears are a sign of vehement grief and affliction, and also of desire and longing: wherefore God is accustomed to hear and answer prayers seasoned, and as it were armed, with tears. So Christ on the [eve of the] Cross offering up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, was heard in that He feared. [E. & Hebrews 5:7, pro su reverenti, Vulg.] So Tobit (12:12) heard from S. Raphael, "When thou didst pray with tears [the words "with tears," cum lacrymis, are not in the LXX Greek], and didst bring the dead, . . . I brought thy prayer before the Lord." So Jacob, wrestling with the angel, obtained a blessing ( Genesis 32:29). Wherefore? because he wept and besought him (Hosea xii4). "The tears of penitents," says S. Bernard, "are the wine of angels." For it is the anguish of the mind in prayer which influences, and as it were compels God to pity, according as it is said, "a contrite and humble heart God shall not despise" ( Psalm 51:17); just as the tears of an infant influence the mother, and obtain from her what it asks; for God shows toward us the heart of a mother.
Other writers give different causes for the tears of Christ. First, Cyril says that Christ wept for the miseries of the human race brought in by sin. Secondly, Andrew Cretensis says that He wept for the unbelief of the Jews, and because they would not believe in Christ, even after they had seen the miracle of the raising of Lazarus. Thirdly, Isidore of Pelusium and Rupertus think that Christ wept for the very reason that he was about to recall Lazarus out of Limbo, that Isaiah , from the haven and state of peace, to the storms, dangers, and sufferings of this life.
Further, we read that Christ wept thrice: here at the death of Lazarus; at the Cross ( Hebrews 5:7); at the sight of Jerusalem, and its impending ruin ( Luke 19:41). S. Bernard (Sermon3 , in Die Nativ.) says, "The tears of Christ cause me shame and grief. . . . Can I still trifle, and deride His tears?" And soon after: The Son of God sympathises (compatitur), and He weeps; man suffers (patitur), and shall we laugh?" And S. Augustine says: "Christ wept—let man weep for himself: wherefore did Christ weep, unless to teach man to weep? Wherefore did He groan and trouble Himself, except that the faith of Prayer of Manasseh , rightly displeased with himself, should in a manner groan in accusation of his evil works, so that the habit of sinning should yield to the violence of repenting."
