But your grief will become joy

At 18,1-8; Ps 97; Jn 16,16-20
30 MAY

It is right to read the words of Jesus in an eschatological and not just a Christological key: “But your sadness will change into joy”. Today the sequel of Jesus is martyrdom because of the world that hates the truths and the light and kills and fights the bearers and the witnesses of them. But death for Christ leads to eternal glory, to joy that knows no end.

After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.” All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshiped God, and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honour, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “For this reason they stand before God’s throne and worship him day and night in his temple. The one who sits on the throne will shelter them. They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For the Lamb who is in the centre of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev 7,9-17).

Paul announces the same truth. Today living as missionaries of the light of Christ Jesus is suffering and martyrdom. Tomorrow the glory will be of a disproportionate quantity.

But we hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since, then, we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, therefore I spoke,” we too believe and therefore speak, knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence. Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God. Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal (2Cor 4,7-18).

The Christological reading of Jesus’ words tells us that today Jesus will be on the cross. The disciples will be in sadness. Tomorrow He will rise, He will return to them and their sadness will change into joy. Suffering for Christ always produces this fruit.

“A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.” So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ (of which he speaks)? We do not know what he means.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.

Saint Paul adds a third truth to it. Suffering for Christ is a grace. It is a grace because we have the certainty of being introduced by Jesus the Lord into his eternal glory. This faith is not only to be announced, it must also be shown and witnessed. Our humanity is fragile and weak. Faith must always be supported by those who are strong in it. Witnessed and announced, lived and declared suffering help the faith of many.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, teach us how to grow and to witness this faith.