to ask Him, and He said to them: Of this do you inquire among yourselves, because I said: A little while, and you shall not see Me: and again a little while, and you shall see Me? Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice: and your joy no man shall take from you.
What is the meaning of the expression, " yet a little while"?
Jesus meant that He was soon to leave His disciples, and that during the time of His passion they would have much to endure; but that He would soon see them again, and that then no one should any more take their joy from them. What, in deed, are the sufferings of time, in comparison with the eternal joy to follow, but a small and trivial thing, passing away in the twinkling of an eye? (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.)
Why did Jesus tell His disciples beforehand of their sufferings and joys?
1. That they might bear their trials the more easily. 2. That they might not believe their master to be unable to preserve them from sufferings. 3. That by looking to the eternal joy they might make light of .present troubles, and keep up their courage! Therefore, says St. Chrysostom, "Tell me, if you were called to a temporal kingdom, but before entering into the palace, where you were to be crowned, had to spend the night in a dark and offensive stable, would this be hard for you? would you not bear it cheerfully, in expectation of the kingdom?"
ENCOURAGEMENT TO PATIENCE IN ADVERSITY.
"You shall lament and weep." John xvi. 20.
Many think that true happiness on earth consists in honors, riches, or pleasures, but Christ, calls, not the rich, but the poor and persecuted, "blessed. " He even predicts to His disciples
