Chris Campbell
In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!
Beloved in the body of Christ,
Today's Gospel is one that addresses the strange paradoxical nature of life in faith. For in life, much of what we know is either pain, or touched by it. Yet Jesus shares with us the truth of Christian faith, which is joy being birthed from pain.
He gives an example of this that we might understand within the context of our own mortal experience:
When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
While we may not all know either the pain, nor joy, of childbirth, there is an image tied to this example that we can relate to. It is the notion of suffering greatly only to come to an even greater joy. Perhaps it was years of stress and hard work leading to graduation. Or decades loneliness leading to finding a new family and love. However we can relate to it, this example is only to help us grasp onto the greater truth which he shares just before:
Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.
This statement is not merely a platitude meant to comfort us. What Jesus is saying he is saying to his closest friends moments before his betrayal, and days before his resurrection. And he speaks to us as well, about this world is full of pain. And we weep and mourn our condition, but the world will rejoice; for while we have pain, our pain will turn into joy.
For just as Jesus suffered and died, and his friends wept and mourned, so did he rise, and his friends given true hope, and ever since the world has rejoiced. How could we not rejoice upon the revelation of the risen God!
It is truly a changed world that we live in now, not because our sorrow is gone, but because this pain, much like this world, has been conquered by the Son of Man!
In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!
And with this knowledge, bound in faith, we can now face our suffering, weeping not in sorrow but instead weeping with joy. For this time we have now is merely the labour pains of the new heaven and the new earth. And it will be when we meet the end of time, in the glory of the triune God, that we will find rest for our souls and truly live, in pure joy forgetting the pains of the birth of the kingdom of God!
May you live in Truth, Peace, and Love,
—Christopher Campbell