Today is the 3rd Sunday of Easter in the traditional Latin mass. In our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells the disciples, “A little while, and you will see Me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” They were confused what He is talking about, and they were hesitant to ask further explanations. But Jesus knew that they didn’t get it, He could tell they were dumbfounded. And, like so many times, Jesus gives them an answer, though maybe not the answer they wanted.
Jesus could have just told them that He was referring to His death, burial, and resurrection. But no, instead He starts to talk them of the sorrow and the joy they feel as His followers. He speaks of a woman in labor experiencing the sorrow that the hour has come for birth, but then the joy that overwhelms in that a human being is born into the world. This imagery of labor and childbirth is actually referring to the prophet Isaiah proclaimed of Israel’s suffering and deliverance in a similar way in 26:17-19, “Like a pregnant woman who writes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of You, O Lord; we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen. Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.”
We all believe that God’s power does not stop at the grave. Christ is risen! At His command, the dead comes to life. He can raise the whole nation, a whole people, who are seemingly entombed forever in exile and oppression. Jesus’ work upon the cross and the resurrection guarantees that our bodies will also rise. Those made righteous through faith will experience the resurrection of their bodies and life everlasting. Those who refuse to believe in Christ, who would prefer He stayed in the tomb, will rise at the resurrection to everlasting punishment and condemnation.
The Epistle for today teaches us to train ourselves in godly virtues while we await the final restoration of creation. To endure through sorrowing and suffering and trials and temptations, and by doing so, give witness to the eternal joy of the resurrection. Some of the strongest witnessing that takes place is while a person is full of sorrow. In the way that person handles it, where they look for help and comfort and peace.
Therefore, let us enter into suffering Himself, to bear our sorrow in Himself. To endure the sorrow of the grave. To bring restoration to His people by the forgiveness of sins. It draws us closer to our Savior.
Jesus speaks of His death and resurrection to us today. Because the same body and blood of Christ is in you by means of the Sacrament, like Jesus, the resurrection comes after tarrying in death for a moment. For Jesus, the grueling night of His passion gave way to the break of day on Easter morning. You too will arise at the break of the new day, the glorious Day of the Lord. For you are baptized, washed with the blood of the Lamb, clothed in the joy of the resurrection Because you have been united into His death and resurrection in Your baptism, your sufferings have become His and His works have become yours. So the Father now looks with joy upon you. He is pleased to call you His child. His is overjoyed to hold you in His arms.
Christ comforts His disciples that the coming change was not loss but gain. The approaching grief was to last for just a little while. Christ comforts us that the coming change in our world is not loss but gain.
May we be faithful to Christ, our Savior! God bless you.
Fr. Arlon, osa
