Friday May 26
Jesus knows that once he leaves the Cenacle, two trials will commence: his conviction and torture and then the crucifixion. Despite this he still uses a maternal, sweet and lovely image, to refer to his “hour”: he describes it as the excruciating pain of women in childbirth. And when the suffering ends, the joyful and proud mother embraces her child. She is happy because a new being is born. The same applies to Jesus after the darkness of the Passion, the bright dawn of Easter breaks. Just as the disciples goes through trials, light and full glory will shine.
Alternative
“Your sorrow will turn to joy.” He did not say “Your sorrow will be replaced by joy.” The joy will somehow be born out of the heart of the sorrow. Then it will be able to endure; it will not see sorrow as a threat and an enemy. It will not be at the mercy of sorrowful circumstances. Sorrow itself will give birth to a strange deep kind of joy. An enlightened woman was weeping at the death of her daughter. Someone expressed surprise that such a person would weep. “Every tear is a jewel,” she replied. Her sorrow was real sorrow, but it did not lead her into desolation, as it does the rest of us, but into greater depth.
Jesus did not turn back from death; he went through the heart of it, and it was transformed into resurrection. “Your Son the royal path of suffering trod,” says the hymn. Our faith does not hold us back from life or life’s sorrows, but it enables them to be a royal path to God.