Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41–44)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

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St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Sermon CXXXI (on Luke 19:41–44), trans. R. Payne Smith, Library of Fathers, 1859. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_luke_12_sermons_124_134.htm

On the tears of Christ as the sure token of His compassion, and of His true humanity:

For it even says, that "when He saw the city, He wept;" that we hereby might learn that He feels grief, if we may so speak of God, Who transcends all. But we could not have known that He pitied them, wicked as they were, had He not made manifest by some human action that sorrow which we could not see. For the tear which drops from the eye is a symbol of grief, or rather, a plain demonstration of it.

On why He wept over the city, desiring for it peace with God:

We say therefore that He wept also over Jerusalem for a similar reason: for He desired, as I said, to see it in happiness, by its accepting faith in Him, and welcoming peace with God.

On "the things which belong unto thy peace":

Would that you had known, even you, the things of your peace: the things, that is, useful and necessary for you to make your peace with God. And these were faith, obedience, the abandonment of types, the discontinuance of the legal service, and the choice in preference of that which is in spirit and in truth, even that which is by Christ, of a sweet savour, and admirable, and precious before God.

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–254)

Homilies on Luke (on Luke 19:41–44), as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain. Full text: https://www.isidore.co/aquinas/CALuke.htm

On how the Lord confirmed in Himself the beatitude He had preached:

All the blessings which Jesus pronounced in His Gospel He confirms by His own example, as having declared, Blessed are the meek; He afterwards sanctions it by saying, Learn of me, for I am meek; and because He had said, Blessed are they that weep, He Himself also wept over the city.

On the tears understood also of the soul that falls away after receiving the truth (a moral reading; some of Origen's speculations were later condemned in 553, so he is quoted here with care):

I do not deny then that the former Jerusalem was destroyed because of the wickedness of its inhabitants, but I ask whether the weeping might not perhaps concern this your spiritual Jerusalem. For if a man has sinned after receiving the mysteries of truth, he will be wept over. Moreover, no Gentile is wept over, but he only who was of Jerusalem, and has ceased to be.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260–340)

As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke (on Luke 19:41–44), trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain. Full text: https://www.isidore.co/aquinas/CALuke.htm

On the peace He came to bring, and the siege foretold when that peace was refused:

He here declares that His coming was to bring peace to the whole world. For to this He came, that He should preach both to them that were near, and those that were afar off. But as they did not wish to receive the peace that was announced to them, it was hid from them. And therefore the siege which was shortly to come upon them He most expressly foretells, adding, For the days shall come upon you, &c.

On the fulfilment of the prophecy, as recorded by Josephus:

But how these things were fulfilled we may gather from what is delivered to us by Josephus, who though he was a Jew, related each event as it took place, in exact accordance with Christ's prophecies.

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1055–1107)

Explanation of the Gospel of Luke (on Luke 19:41–44), as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain. Full text: https://www.isidore.co/aquinas/CALuke.htm

On "the time of thy visitation", which is the time of His own coming:

That is, of my coming. For I came to visit and to save you, which if you had known and believed on Me, you might have been reconciled to the Romans, and exempted from all danger as did those who believed on Christ.

St. Gregory the Great (c. 540–604)

Forty Gospel Homilies (on Luke 19:41–44), as preserved in the Catena Aurea on Luke, trans. J. H. Newman, 1841. Public domain. Full text: https://www.isidore.co/aquinas/CALuke.htm

On the merciful Redeemer weeping over the city that knew not its fall was near:

The merciful Redeemer wept then over the fall of the false city, which that city itself knew not was about to come upon it.

On the Roman leaders by whom the overthrow was made:

By these words the Roman leaders are pointed out. For that overthrow of Jerusalem is described, which was made by the Roman emperors Vespasian and Titus.

On the city laid even with the ground, not one stone left upon another:

This too which is added, namely, They shall not leave in you one stone upon another, is now witnessed in the altered situation of the same city, which is now built in that place where Christ was crucified without the gate, whereas the former Jerusalem, as it is called, was rooted up from the very foundation. And the crime for which this punishment of overthrow was inflicted is added, Because you knew not the time of your visitation.