Is there a contradiction between shedding tears of repentance and having a cheerful personality?

St. Basil the Great suffered much, but he always had a smile on his face, which revealed his inner peace and joy. Even though he went through a lot, he referred to the tears of repentance as the tears of love. According to St. Basil, tears are a sacrifice of love to God through repentance and the full desire for the believer to become an icon of God. On the other hand, his tears were offered as a sacrifice for his brothers and sisters in humanity, praying for the salvation of all if possible. In this, he shares the feelings of the Savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

St. Basil’s answer to the question of whether it is appropriate for someone to laugh was that he could understand how a good Christian could laugh “especially since there are so many who through their transgression of the law dishonour God (cf. Rom. 2:23) and are dying in their sin s (cf. John 8:24), over whom it is fitting to sorrow and to groan unceasingly.”¹⁴⁶⁴ He says in his homily on the Martyr Julitta: “When you see your brother weeping in repentance over his sin, weep with him. So then through others’ sins, you save yourself from sin. Whoever pours those tears over his neighbor’s sins, will be healed through his grief over his brother. As the case of him who says: ‘Indignation has taken hold of me because of the wicked, who forsake Your law’ (Ps. 119:53).”¹⁴⁶⁵

He also says, “‘You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness’ (Ps. 30:12). The joy of God is not found in just any soul but, if someone has mourned much and deeply his own sin with loud lamentations and continual weepings, as if he were bewailing his own death, the mourning of such a one is turned into joy, and here it is praiseworthy to mourn … The prophets make a lamentation for us, summoning us to mourn, in order that, becoming aware from the prophetic words of our own sins, we may bewail our destruction, afflicting our flesh with hardships and toils. By such a person, the mourning garment, which he put on when bewailing his sin, is rent, and the tunic of joy is placed around him and the cloak of salvation, those bright wedding garments, with which, if one is adorned, he will not be cast out from the bridal chamber. (Matt. 22:11–13).”¹⁴⁶⁶

1464 St. Basil of Caesarea, The Rule of St. Basil in Latin and English: A Revised Critical Edition , trans., Anna M. Silvas (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2013) Q. 53: p. 153. 1465 PG 31:257D.

1466 St. Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on the Psalms 14.7 On Psalm 29 (FOTC 46:224).