You will grieve, but your grief will become joy

9 MAY (Jn 16,16-20)

To climb up, to reach the Lord, one must always go through the great tribulation of persecution, death, denial, betrayal and every other affliction both physical and spiritual, both of distant people and neighbors. Here is how the Book of Revelation of the Apostle John reveals us this mystery.

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, honor, 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 center 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).

Ancient Prophecy also announced loyalty in tribulation as the true way of salvation, denying the false prophets who spoke of no difference between those who serve the Lord with the tears of faithfulness and who instead indulges in all ungodliness.

You have defied me in word, says the Lord, yet you ask, “What have we spoken against you?” You have said, “It is vain to serve God, and what do we profit by keeping his command, And going about in penitential dress in awe of the Lord of hosts? Rather must we call the proud blessed; for indeed evildoers prosper, and even tempt God with impunity.” Then they who fear the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord listened attentively; And a record book was written before him of those who fear the Lord and trust in his name. And they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my own special possession, on the day I take action. And I will have compassion on them, as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. Then you will again see the distinction between the just and the wicked; Between him who serves God, and him who does not serve him. For lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts. But for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays; And you will gambol like calves out of the stall 1) and tread down the wicked; They will become ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day I take action, says the Lord of hosts. (Mal 3,13-21).

Jesus must pass through the cross, which is the tribulation of tribulations, to go up to his Father. The world seeing crucified Jesus will be in joy, in great exultation. It has finally gotten rid of the One who disturbed its conscience of sin, deceit, falsehood, lie, pride and arrogance. On the contrary, the disciples will be in great sadness. The one upon whom they had hoped is no more. He died. It is all over, the world thinks. But even some of the disciples think that everything is finished.

“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.

Jesus resurrects on the third day. The world is plunged into a never-ending sadness. It failed to extinguish the light of truth. The disciples instead are born to the great joy.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints, lead us to true joy.