Reading
John 16:21-23
20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
Comment
The suffering of the saints is a joy for sinners, but the painful experience of the disciples is not a definitive state, because the risen Christ will make himself present and then joy will blossom. To describe this reversal of pain into happiness, Jesus uses the image of the mother giving birth, applied in the Old Testament to the messianic era (Is 66,7-9). To the proof that now grips the disciples - "her time" (v. 21) of the woman in labor acts as a parallel to the hour of the passion (Jn 2,4; 13,1) - an incorruptible joy will ensue, linked to the new presence of Jesus after the glorification of him.
Instead of the Greek word odin, which specifically indicates the labor pains, the evangelist uses the word lype, which refers not only to physical pain but to that particular trepidation that gives intimate suffering. The joy of the woman is not motivated only by having given birth to a child (gr. paidion), but by a human being (gr. anthropos): like Eve she rejoiced and exclaim: "'I have acquired a man'" (Gn 4:1) believers will rejoice in having acquired the risen Christ, the culmination of the new creation. Their joy cannot be taken away because it is supported by the evidence of the resurrection and aroused by the Spirit.
After the resurrection, Jesus will appear on several occasions to his disciples (Jn 20:19-29; 21:1-23; 1 Cor 15:1-8). For forty days he will show himself alive to them (Acts 1:3) and after his ascent to heaven, he will remain present in the Church with his Spirit, until his return, as he had promised: "'I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever... I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you'"(Jn 14:16.18). The disciples will be allowed to address their requests directly to the Father, through the Spirit, in the name of Jesus (v. 23).
The Acts report that in the early church "the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 13:52) and "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts" (Acts 2:46).
If the joys that the world gives us can be taken away from us by numerous adversities, nothing and no one will be able to separate us from the joy that comes from the love of Christ (Rm 8:35-39), a treasure well guarded in heaven (Mt 6:19-20. ).
Prayer
O Lord God, source of joy, sustain us in the sufferings of the present moment, so that your glory may be manifested in us. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
