19 May 2023

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

Because we live in the last times, the time between Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and his final appearance in glory, we live in a time that is marked by both joy and anguish. In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the image of a woman in labor to describe the disciples’ anguish, an anguish that is followed by joy at the new birth that is the resurrection of Jesus. And as Jesus says, this joy is not one that can be taken away from us (John 16:22). It is only if we turn away from that joy, by turning away from Jesus, that we could lose it.

But the fact that resurrection joy cannot be taken away from us does not save us from anguish. This anguish can be personal, but it is also ecclesial: even today the Church is in anguish as she labores to give birth to the many members of the Body of Christ, through trials, persecution, and even division within her own household. At the end of this anguish, though, we have a sure hope that, through the Spirit, new children will be born to take their place as members of Christ’s Body, and this sure hope is a source of joy.

If today we find ourselves in anguish, let us enter once again into this mystery of death and resurrection, so that we might at last bear fruit in joy. And if we find ourselves in joy, let us unite ourselves in prayer with the members of the Church in anguish in so many parts of the world.