March 27, 2026
If you are struggling, as many of us are, with the current divisiveness in our country and our politics, consider attending Jim Duffy’s April book and theological discussion group, featuring The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage by Richard Rohr.
With his classic wisdom, Richard Rohr presents a heartfelt and hope-filled model for navigating contemporary challenges by focusing on the prophets of the old testament.
As Rohr explains, “the tears of things” first appears in Virgil’s Aeneid. Seamus Heaney translates it to mean that there are tears at the heart of our human experience which invite us to move past our understandable anger and despair at injustice, evil and death with a sense of empathy and unity with the other.
“There is an inherent sadness and tragedy in almost all situations: in our relationships, our mistakes, our failures large and small,” Rohr writes. “We must develop a very real empathy for this reality, knowing that we cannot fully fix things, entirely change them, or make them to our liking. This ‘way of tears’ is opposed to our normal ways of seeking control through willpower, commandment, force, retribution and violence. Instead, we begin in a state of empathy with and for things and people and events.”
One of Rohr’s significant positions in this book is that prophets do not stand outside the circle and chastise those on the inside, but remain part of the circle, though admittedly standing at the outer edges, to bring a sense of objectivity and detachment in the way they challenge the status quo. This expresses itself in their ability to love and respect those with a different opinion, while still bringing insight into the problems that exist and proposing solutions.
“They have a capacity for some degree of objective thinking beyond their own agenda, ego and grievances,” Rohr explains. “The issue they are confronting is really the issue, and not merely a means for them to achieve power, importance or fame.”
Even as he elucidates his points through historical prophets, he honors our modern prophets who exhibited these characteristics in their work: Mother Teresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandh, and Viktor Frankl.
Rohr invites us to move away from the current “us vs. them” mentality, which he points out only exacerbates the situation by breeding more fear and divisiveness. Instead, he invites us – like the profits of old – to acknowledge the inherent problems and then to produce solutions with an approach fueled by empathy and compassion that brings everyone back into the fold.
“Radical unity with God and neighbor is the only way any of us truly heals or improves,” he notes, explaining that it all comes down to love.
“The prophets and Jesus are the ones who have the courage to make God’s way of loving action the source, the goal, the criterion, and the standard for all human morality and behavior,” Rohr concludes. “And they are what makes prophets mistrusted and dangerous to any culture and religion in which the standards are invariably law, power, money and personal advantage.”
Jim Duffy’s 3-part discussion of Rohr’s book will take place on three Thursdays, April 16, 30, and May 7. Reading the book is highly recommended and joining the conversation promises to be life changing.
~ Syndie Eardly
Please register here or call (216) 228-7451.