56. No less real were the tears He shed for Lazarus687    St. John xi. 35.. The first question here is, What was there to weep for in the case of Lazarus? Not his death, for that was not unto death, but for the glory of God: for the Lord says, That sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be honoured through him688    Ib. 4. The Greek is δι᾽ αὐτῆς, through it.. The death which was the cause of God’s being glorified could not bring sorrow and tears. Nor was there any occasion for tears in His absence from Lazarus at the time of his death. He says plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I rejoice for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent that ye may believe689    St. John 14, 15.. His absence then, which aided the Apostles’ belief, was not the cause of His sorrow: for with the knowledge of Divine omniscience, He declared the death of the sick man from afar. We can find, then, no necessity for tears, yet He wept. And again I ask, To whom must we ascribe the weeping? To God, or the soul, or the body? The body, of itself, has no tears except those it sheds at the command of the sorrowing soul. Far less can God have wept, for He was to be glorified in Lazarus. Nor is it reason to say His soul recalled Lazarus from the tomb: can a soul linked to a body, by the power of its command, call another soul back to the dead body from which it has departed? Can He grieve Who is about to be glorified? Can He weep Who is about to restore the dead to life? Tears are not for Him Who is about to give life, or grief for Him Who is about to receive glory. Yet He Who wept and grieved was also the Giver of life.

56. In Lazaro quid fleverit. Fletus ille an Dei, animaene, 0387C an corporis.---Pari quoque lacrymarum veritate et Lazarus fletus est (Joan. XI, 35). Et quaero primum, quid fleatur in Lazaro? Non utique mors, quae non 0388A usque ad mortem est, et pro Dei gloria est. Dominus enim ait: Infirmitas ista non est usque ad mortem, sed pro gloria Dei, ut honorificetur filius Dei per eum (Ibid. 5). Mors ergo, quae glorificandi Dei causa est, flendi tristitiam non afferebat. Sed ne in eo quidem flendi necessitas exsistebat, quod Lazaro moriente afuisset. Nam ipse ait manifeste: Lazarus mortuus est, et gaudeo propter vos, ut credatis, quod non eram ibi (Ibid. 14 et 15). Absentia itaque ejus non habuit causam lacrymandi, quae ad Apostolorum fidem proficiebat: cum aegri mortem conscientia divinae cognitionis absens pronuntiasset. Nulla ergo restat necessitas flendi: et tamen fletum est. Et tamen quaero, cui imputabitur flletus ille? Deo, an animae, an corpori? Sed corpus per se tantum non habet lacrymas, 0388B quas ad dolorem animae moerentis profundit. Longe autem minus est, ut Deus fleverit, qui glorificandus in Lazaro est. Non convenit autem, ut anima de sepulcro Lazarum vocet, et ad animae innexae corpori praeceptum atque virtutem, in mortuum suum (supple corpus) 362 anima jam ex eo dissoluta revocetur. Dolet, qui glorificandus est? Flet, qui vivificaturus est? Non est vivificaturi flere, nec glorificandi dolere: et tamen vivificat, qui et flevit, et doluit.