Tears of the Saints

My discovery of a great new band and one of their incredible songs has beautifully coincided with a huge event in my family's life.  My grandmother, in her 70s, who was married to my grandfather, a devout Catholic, for over 50 years, and who raised 4 wonderful Catholic children, this past week came home and was fully received into the One, Holy, Apostolic Church.  She had been thinking about converting for a long time, but just never really did.  With much joy, my family converged on the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in tiny Greenwood, Mississippi in the heart of the Delta last weekend to witness her reception.  It was beautiful.  I couldn't hold back the tears.  This woman, my wonderful grandmother, whom I have adored for so long for her strength and ability to unite our family, for her real understanding of motherhood, was home.  And she was now united to me and my family in a new and profoundly beautiful way--through the Holy Eucharist.  Indeed, things will never be the same.  At that moment, I already felt closer to her, as she received the Eucharist for the first time.  Hearts united.  The beautiful collision, where depravity meets divinity.  Oneness.  Truth.  Beauty.  Love.

The band is Leeland.  Their song is "Tears of the Saints."

there are tears from the saints

for the lost and unsaved

we're crying for them, come back home

we're crying for them, come back home

and all Your children will stretch out their hands

and pick up the crippled man

Father, we will lead them home

Father, we will lead them home

I can't help but think on these words.  What does that look like?  Tears of the saints?  To think of the tears the saints in heaven shed over our depraved world.  The sorrow they feel for the lost, for the weary, for those who do not know real Love.  The sadness when God's own children on earth aren't helping those lost.  Or when we, His children, turn from Him.  

Yet, at the same time, they also can shed tears of joy.  I know they were last Sunday as my grandmother came home.  Heaven greeting earth in a holy kiss in the Mass, as she encountered heaven on earth for the first time in her life.  Tears of the saints, heaven rejoicing, as she entered into the fullness of Truth and Love.  If my feeble little heart shed tears at that moment, there is no doubt that the pure hearts of heaven were, too.

"There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance."

~Luke 15:7