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 disciples wept and mourned during the crucifixion and death of their Lord. At the same time, the world, that aggregation of all of the powers hostile to God in society, religion, and politics came together to rejoice. They rejoiced that the enemy who sought to expose their corruption, who would not leave the status quo unchallenged, appeared to have been defeated. Their joy was marked by hostility, by mockery, and by callous indifference to suffering. They enjoyed the death of Jesus as though it was nothing more than a spectacle, as one might watch a TV show. They shouted, as it were, it the screen, and took pleasure in supporting, as they thought, the winning side. How disappointed and unsettled they would be when they heard the tomb was empty.
This pattern of the cross and resurrection was not only descriptive of Jesus, but is also emblematic of Christians who are called to take up our crosses daily and to follow him. Just as Jesus endured suffering and persecution for the joy set before him so too must those who would be his disciples. To be able to do so we must internalize this perspective of Jesus that puts our Godly grief in the proper context of our impending joy. We are called to remember that no matter what suffering we must undergo in our earthly lives that "the bad inn lasts for only a night" as Saint Teresa of Avila said. Or, as Paul said, "this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (see Second Corinthians 4:17).
When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived;
but when she has given birth to a child,
she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy
that a child has been born into the world.
How much strength it must give a woman to know that her labor pains are leading to the joy of childbirth. How different the experience would be if those pains were borne without any understanding or explanation. But we are often like those in labor pains that do not remember toward what those pains are tending. Rather than timing our breathing and efforts to cooperate with the process we lose heart. At best this takes the form of seeking distractions. At worst it leads us on the path of sin.
The world is not willing to concede that much of what it celebrates as happiness and joy is limited, sinful, and corrupt. It cannot see beyond its own horizon to recognize the places true joy can be found. It is constrained to try to maximize pleasure in this present age and so fails to value things that transcend our earthly lives, not only God and his Kingdom, but even interpersonal relationships with other men and women. For the world things become a zero sum game where every individual must eek out for himself such pleasure as he can.
The world will mock our Christian hope. It can't help itself but to do so. It will often be critical of Christians, calling us irresponsible, ignoring how we do our best to build up the earthly city, even as we seek first the Kingdom. We must be ready to be misunderstood and yet stand our ground as we pursue something more than temporary pleasure.
But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.
Now it is clear that the fullness of this "see you again" will be realized for us when Jesus comes to bring us home. And yet, as we die to self and learn to live in love more and more, as we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and his fruit, we begin to experience this unrelenting and unshakable joy even in this life. Already the divine life becomes fruitful within us and we become compelling signs of God's action in our midst to a world without hope.
It is clear that Paul's missionary life was marked by joy. We see that it was not a joy dictated by circumstances but one that required a higher explanation. It no doubt fed into the desire of others to persecute him. But to others it made him irresistible. If we desire the world to see what we have to offer as more than a matter of arguments over doctrine and titles we must embrace this paradigm of Jesus so that the joy he desires to pour out can be a sign to the world that he is himself alive and at work among us, an invitation to those who are barren to come to him to find life.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
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