YOUR GRIEF WILL BECOME JOY

At 18,1-8; Ps 97; Jn 16,16-20
10 MAY
Present and future are one the fruit and the other the tree. On the tree of the present can grow a fruit of eternal life or eternal death. The tremendous choice is up to man. The fruit of life matures handing all of the present over to the Word of Christ Jesus. We do not give life to Christ today, we live it for ourselves, we do not produce eternal life.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom” (Mt 16,24-28).

The damned of hell will forever cry their folly. They used the things of this world for their exclusive use. They did not share them with Christ, who is the poor before their eyes. Christ cannot share his Paradise of joy with them.

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (cf. Mt 25,41-46).

The Book of Wisdom reveals to us what the wicked who consume their lives in the torments of hell say. They curse their folly and ignorance forever.

We, then, have strayed from the way of truth, and the light of justice did not shine for us, and the sun did not rise for us. We had our fill of the ways of mischief and of ruin; we journeyed through impassable deserts, but the way of the Lord we knew not. What did our pride avail us? What have wealth and its boastfulness afforded us? All of them passed like a shadow and like a fleeting rumour; Like a ship traversing the heaving water, of which, when it has passed, no trace can be found, no path of its keel in the waves. Or like a bird flying through the air; no evidence of its course is to be found – But the fluid air, lashed by the beat of pinions, and cleft by the rushing force Of speeding wings, is traversed: and afterward no mark of passage can be found in it. Or as, when an arrow has been shot at a mark, the parted air straightway flows together again so that none discerns the way it went through – Even so we, once born, abruptly came to nought and held no sign of virtue to display, but were consumed in our wickedness.” Yes, the hope of the wicked is like thistledown borne on the wind, and like fine, tempest-driven foam; Like smoke scattered by the wind, and like the passing memory of the nomad camping for a single day (cf. Wis 5,1-16).

The Apostles, both today for the death of Jesus and tomorrow for their death, will be in sadness. Christ will rise again and they will be in joy. After their martyrdom they will be welcomed into the blessed skies and their joy will be eternal. The present must always be given to Christ.

“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.

The present of pain, martyrdom, deprivation must always be lived in view of eternal joy.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints give us true wisdom today.