JOY-CREATING SORROW

JOY-CREATING SORROW

(Wednesday, May 31)

In today’s Gospel-reading our Lord again talks about a productive kind of sorrow; the kind in which we are born again, into a new freedom and a new happiness: “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.” (Jn 16:20-21) While we are still in our sorrow, we tend not to see God, nor any sense in it, just as the Apostles saw no sense in the Cross, death, and burial of the Lord, and were perplexed by His ascension: “A little while, and you will not see Me;” He says to them, “and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.” (Jn 16:16)

If any of us are in sorrow right now, let us stick around “a little while,” as did they in Jerusalem, both after Christ’s death on the Cross and after He ascended. And let us stick together, as did they, with like-minded friends that may also not see any sense in whatever is going on, but share our pain. A new Comforter is coming, “And in that day you will not ask/question (ἐρωτήσετε) Me (about) anything. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask (αἰτήσητε) the Father in My name He will give you.” After we are born anew, we shall not need to ask Him the questions we have today in our confusion, because we will be asking of the Father in His Spirit and in sync with His vision and will for us. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done with all of us, our loving Father, I say this Wednesday morning, and thank You for all of it.