These days the following lines have become a creed that I recite very often. I have even made it into a song: “I believe in the Sun, even when it is not shinning. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. And I believe in God, even when he is silent.” The words were written by an unknown victim of the Nazi reign of terror in Germany, and found in a dark cold basement room at the end of World War II. The words have indeed become an article of faith for me and taken on a new meaning in recent times.
As I watch the local and international news daily, and all I hear are stories of war, terrorist bomb explosions, counter-terrorist violence, political assassinations, juvenile crimes, abductions and kidnappings, robbery and rape, plane crashes, motor accidents, floods, hurricanes and cyclones, and widespread corruption, degrading poverty, disease and death, especially in many developing countries, as well as the legalisation of abortion and what amounts to sodomy in a number of countries, I have a terrible feeling that darkness has momentarily engulfed the world, and very often with tears in my eyes, I pray for sunshine.
When I watch on TV the human victims of the fratricidal war in Sudan, reduced to ugly frames, the human victims of the senseless carnage in Iraq, swearing and cursing in angry desperation, and the human victims of the prolonged regime of corruption and criminality in Nigeria giving in to futility, I am often overwhelmed by a flood of tears, moved by a profound sense of solidarity with all my brothers and sisters that are victims of suffering, pain and avoidable death all over the world.
These days my heart collapses at the sight of adults who are daily shedding tears of sorrow, and children who are wailing uncontrollably in my homeland and elsewhere. Yes I think of the tears of those who are losing their loved ones to natural disasters, motor accidents and plane crashes. I think of the tears of family members who are losing their bread winners or their children to political conflicts, ethnic skirmishes and religious intolerance. I also think of the tears of those who hunger for truth and thirst for justice everywhere, but who are often rejected and condemned to a life of agony. I think of the tears of the righteous few in this world of darkness whose passionate commitment to the evolution of just societies where human dignity and equity are upheld, has condemned them to a life of misery.
I have often reflected on the tears of sorrow shed everywhere by a multitude of victims of countless injustices and misfortunes, those who mourn daily the loss of a meaningful existence. I have often imagined these tears as constituting an enormous pool that should not be wasted. Thus I have stumbled on something positive and creative - the idea of "sowing our tears," so that we may reap a harvest of truth, justice, peace, security and prosperity. I have been thinking seriously of how we all can sow our collective tears, because I hate to think that this enormous reservoir of human suffering would simply go down into the ocean of decay. I hate to think that these tears which I see as a valuable human resource, brewed as they are in pain and anguish, should be simply shed away or lost to humanity.
Relying on the mysterious logic of the resurrection, there should be a way by which our collective tears could be recycled in order to yield for us a harvest of joy. There should be a way by which our flood of tears, which today appears as a cesspit of shame, could be transformed into an oasis of fortune, by the power of God who transformed the embarrassment of the crucifixion to the joy of the resurrection, the one who is capable of bringing the utmost good out of the greatest evil. I am thinking of how the abundance of tears in our land and in the world could generate a counter-force to the pervading features of futility and the cold wind of despair which will only increase human misery.
I am inspired in this enterprise by my Christian faith in the victory of truth over falsehood, in the power of light over darkness, and in the ultimate triumph of good over evil. I believe that falsehood shall not prevail for ever, and that the war-monger, the oppressive ruler, the corrupt elite, the mischief maker, and the cudgel-wielding bully, shall not have the last laugh. I believe that shame, destitution, humiliation, defeat and death, are not the true end of those who hunger for truth and thirst for justice; that joy is the ultimate lot of the just who may now and again have to endure anguish and tribulation, but only momentarily.
As I reflect on the theme of "sowing our tears," I think of a twist in fate, a change in fortune, or a reversal in the tragic drama of our lives, by which the poor and the weak, the meek and the humble, victims of corruption and dictatorship or the human cost of political manipulation and economic subjugation, who are today crushed beyond recognition, will rise from the pool of shame by virtue of the sowing of their valuable tears of sorrow. I imagine a process of regeneration or rejuvenation by which the dreamer and the sage, the visionary and the prophet, who are today derided and ignored, if not pushed underground by brute force, shall someday rise to prominence, by virtue of the sowing of their precious tears of sorrow.
This is a positive strategy that borders on the dynamics of hope. And it is not a new concept. Instead it is a fundamental pillar of Christianity, with deep roots in ancient Judaism. In our day, the concept of "sowing" has perhaps acquired an all too materialistic interpretation, especially among certain categories of Christian preachers. But on a more spiritual level, what I refer to as the sowing of tears is at the very heart of the Christian world view. When understood as pain, persecution, suffering and sacrifice, taken gracefully and surrendered to God faithfully, the sowing of tears is a core concept in the salvation history that was brought to completion in Jesus Christ.
I think for example of the tears of Sarah, the barren wife of Abraham, the tears of Rachel, the bereaved wife of Jacob, the tears of Jacob who was robbed of his favourite son, and the tears of Joseph the dreamer who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. I think of the tears of Hannah the barren wife of Elkannah and the tears of David who was a target of assassination at the hands of Saul, and who therefore for a while became a vagabond. I think of the tears of King Hezekiah who had spent his life serving Yahweh but who at the point of illness was told he would die prematurely, and the tears of the mother of the seven Maccabean Brothers who were killed one after the other for refusing to violate the sacred prescriptions of Yahweh. I think of the tears of Elizabeth the barren wife of Zachariah, and of Mary who watched her innocent Son die in agony on the Cross of Calvary. Then I think of the tears of Jesus at the grave-side of his friend Lazarus, his tears over Jerusalem the great city that was soon to be destroyed, his tears at the garden of Gethsemane, and his tears while hanging miserably on the Cross.
I believe that all these tears, shed in faith, and gracefully offered in hope make up the foundation of Christian salvation. And this is the central irony that defines the Christian religion. The religion is built upon the mystery of "the glorious cross," that is, the shameful death that paved the way for a new, joyful and peaceful life that is everlasting. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the salvation wrought for humanity in this event, is seen by Christians as the cumulative result of the collective tears of generations of good men and women and prophets and kings from the time of Abraham up to the coming Jesus Christ, who gracefully endured pain and persecution, and made incredible sacrifices in the cause of truth, righteousness and justice, believing, trusting and hoping that there would someday be a twist in fate, or a transformation by which their tears of sorrow shall become an oasis of fortune. It is this faith that inspired the composition of the great and resolute Afro-American spiritual “We Shall Overcome” while the Blacks were subjected to the worst form of human degradation called slavery.
We live in largely dysfunctional societies, wherein those who lose out momentarily in the political, social, economic and ideological equation of the time, are abandoned to the margins, where they must weep and gnash their teeth ceaselessly. As the army of suffering people continue to increase in different corner of the world, and as their cup of sorrow is filled up to overflowing, the challenge is for all these victims and casualties of the reign of darkness to resist the temptation to despair.
The challenge is for suffering people everywhere – from Nigeria to Zimbabwe, and from Sudan to Iraq, to appreciate and embrace the dynamics of hope which does not disappoint. The challenge is for those in pain and those who mourn everywhere to strive to sow their tears and invest their sorrows, to let the agony of their fragmented existence melt away gradually in the warm pool of tears that will be gracefully surrendered to the hands of the Just Judge, the Mysterious Lover, and the Master Craftsman, whom we call God. In this way we can look forward to reaping very soon a harvest of joy, peace, security and prosperity. Is this not the meaning of the Resurrection?
