Kneemail from Saint James Church

         Recently, I was recounting with an old friend meeting one of the holiest and most gracious persons I ever met, His Holiness, Pope Shenouda III, of blessed memory. He was the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church for over four decades. I met him while I was an undergraduate at Loyola University of Chicago in the 1980’s. As the Coptic Pope, he led nearly eight million Coptic Christians through some of the most violently difficult times they ever faced since the founding of Christianity in Egypt. His See was in Alexandria.

         He was a soft spoken, gentle, pastoral man with great communication abilities. He was a holy bishop, extraordinarily dedicated to Christ and the Church.

         One of the things I remember Pope Shenouda III saying has left a lasting impression on me about the nature of God and His love for His children. He said, “God is the most easy person you can negotiate with. One tear from you is enough to dissolve all His threats and punishments, if your tears are true and from the depth of your heart.”

         What tremendous words those are! What great comfort and joy there is in knowing we can move and stir the heart of our heavenly Father by a teardrop.

         In twenty-eight years of the priesthood, during my time as a psychotherapist intern, and in my role as police officer, I often heard comments or questions from people wondering if God truly loves them and cares for them in their anonymous life. They wonder if God hears and listens to them. Most of all they wonder if God will grant them forgiveness. The answer is an emphatic, yes! I believe those words the Coptic Pope said, not because of his primacy as the successor of St. Mark the Evangelist. It was the way he said it.
   
      Pope Shenouda III’s eyes were full of empathy and compassion. His face shown with unshaking faith, confidence and love. His words sounded soothing, comforting and beckoning. I thought of all the tragedy he must have seen and endured in his cherished Egypt, with his beloved flock. As I listened to him, I somehow knew he had shared more than a tear and experienced God dissolving so much pain in his life, and those of his people. I listened to him for thirty minutes, but these words were the only ones I recall.

         One tear falling from the eye, but originating in a sincere heart, is all it takes for us to see how much God desires us to be one with Him. In the reception of Holy Communion, we receive love unbounded. In the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, we receive Christ who unhesitatingly and lovingly leaves His throne in heaven to come down into our very lives in the form of Bread and Wine. After all we have seen, done and endured in our lives, God tenderly chooses us to be His own and does so repeatedly.

         Through Christ, the Father is moving in us and transforming us to be His forever. Such knowledge should move us to tears.

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