What do the tears of a believer express?

In the Church, tears are associated with worship in the practice of repentance and in the experience of inexpressible spiritual joy, when the soul stands in amazement before the wondrous love of God and His invitation to be in communion with Him through His divine grace working in him. In the Second Watch of the Midnight Hour of the Agpeya, the believer entreats in the spirit of repentance saying, “Give me, O Lord, many fountains of tears, as You gave in the past, the sinful woman. Make me worthy to wash your feet which liberated me from the path of straying …”⁵¹²

In the Life of St. Arsenius, the teacher of the kings’ children, we learn that when his heart was inflamed with the love of God, he left the worldly wealth and honor he enjoyed as a teacher of kings and set out for the wilderness of Egypt. His tears never ceased to express his rejection of the pleasures of this world as well as his joy at resting in his Savior’s bosom. Although his tears overflowed continually until the moment his soul departed to paradise, he was always smiling. His disciple, Abba Daniel, said about him that he was “always cheerful in the midst of his tears.” His silence, solitude, and asceticism did not stifle him, but rather filled him with joy and produced not emptiness, but fullness. He had a big heart, abundant in love for God and people. This was reflected in his face and expressions, so that his appearance witnessed faithfully to the hidden work of grace within him much more than could any words or sermons.⁵¹³