"Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 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. 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."
-John 16:20-22
Recently, while in Adoration, I read this passage of Scripture and reflected on it for some time. I think that it is a beautifully poetic passage that speaks a great deal to me. Hardship and suffering is a universal experience; perhaps the most universal experience. And often it seems that we will never rise out of our hardships and suffering.
The question of evil ("Why does it exist?") is one of the most prominent philosophical questions in the minds of people from all walks of life, regardless of age, gender, race, or position in life. And rarely does an answer present itself that is convincing. There are reasonable answers that hold great truth, and I have found many of these through my own personal searching (and by that, I mean complementing my inner meditation with some Peter Kreeft, C.S. Lewis, and G.K. Chesterton. But that is another blog post.)
But in this passage, Jesus Christ offers to His disciples an answer that is very difficult to accept, as it was for them. Yet Christ, as He so often does, offers an answer through a metaphorical analogy that is quite understandable:
Childbirth.
I will not claim to know the pains of childbirth. I will never know. But I imagine it's something awful.
That being said, we can understand that Christ compares the hardships of life to childbirth. No one will deny that it is incredibly painful. But how much joy does a woman take in gazing upon her child for the first time? How could anything else erase so great a pain save for so great a joy?
The Son of God speaks here with the history of all Christianity in mind. For centuries, the Jewish people awaited a savior; the Messiah. They suffered, they toiled, they wept and mourned and grieved. But then, the waiting was over, and the advent of our Lord arrived. The weeping, mourning, grieving was over. The angel of the Lord descended to Mary, bringing good tidings of great joy, and the Savior of the World came into the world as man, born of the Virgin Immaculately Conceived, and all evil was destroyed, all darkness cast out!
In this season of Advent, what greater joy is there then the knowledge that soon, all darkness will pass and only light will remain. You will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. Think about how long the people of God waited for the coming of Christ. It is allegorical of our waiting for Christmas at the end of Advent to make way for the Christmas season, allegorical of our waiting for the joys of Heavenly death at the end of life to make way for eternal life with Christ; the joy that cannot be taken away.
For all those suffering or enduring hardship, or even for those who have a difficult time waiting, this is a wonderful passage on which to reflect. Especially for those who fear death. Death is only the beginning; quite literally, childbirth. Through death, you are born anew into true life. True joy, true happiness, lies at the end of life, not within it. Christ knows all things, and He knows this and teaches this to us during this Advent season.
This Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent which is dedicated to joy, reflect on this passage and keep in your prayers all those who fear death.
And if your heart beats twice, then you can love twice as much. : )
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