Thursday May 25
The heart and face of the disciples were sad because the words of the Last Supper had a tone of farewell. Actually, Jesus expresses enigmatically: in a little while you will see me, and in a little while you will see me no more. The phrase refers to a specific moment that Christ faced: the hour of the passion and death. But later, in the time of the resurrection, they will live with him forever. So Jesus concludes that suffering will be rough but their sorrow will turn into joy. Here we have the two seasons of the Christian life.
Alternative
The answer is always in the question. Studying arithmetic in school we learned that by turning the question around, the answer would ‘come out’; it was in there all the time! In life, the solution is always in the problem. If I look for solutions elsewhere they will not ‘fit’, they will be solutions to a different problem. I need the patience to stay with my questions, with my problems, and wait for them to unfold wisdom for me: to teach me what God wants to teach me through them. There are few who were so aware of this as Johann Tauler, the 14th century German mystic. “If only we could shake ourselves free!” he wrote, “and learn to seek peace in tribulation...! To seek elsewhere is to go astray inevitably. You will always find that this is true. If only we could seek joy in sadness, peace in trouble, simplicity in multiplicity, comfort in bitterness! This is the way to become true witnesses to God.” “Your sorrow will be turned to joy,” Jesus said (the last verse of today’s reading). He did not say that it would be replaced by joy, but that it would be turned into joy.