Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051812.cfm

So you also are now in anguish.
But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.
On that day you will not question me about anything.

As we anticipate the feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost the Church invites us to reflect again upon waiting.

In the hospital as a chaplain I often address the dual suffering of waiting and not-knowing. There is physical pain, of course, but even that is complicated by the miseries of waiting for it to pass and not knowing. Will it pass? When? And what does it mean? 

I suffered a shoulder injury once that caused me crippling pain until the doctor assured me it was not broken. It was only a first-degree separation; which, he said, is not as bad as a second- or third-degree separation. I went home greatly relieved.

In today’s gospel Jesus reminds us of the laboring woman’s pain, which is immediately forgotten when she has borne a child. Even men understand that experience as we too labor to give birth to various enterprises and find satisfaction in their completion.

Although we are certainly “now in anguish,” and immersed in the struggle to give birth to God’s kingdom, Jesus’ promise should soothe our hearts: I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice. Later, Saint Paul would speak of the Holy Spirit as a “down payment” in advance of the fullness to come.  We’ve got the job; we’re doing the work; we must only wait for payday.

Jesus also promises, On that day you will not question me about anything. His disciples had many questions:

So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”

Like his disciples, we ask many questions: 

• Why do the innocent suffer? 
• Why do the wicked prosper? 
• Why does God permit such injustice and cruelty to go 

These questions express our anguish. But does anyone think they can be answered with words? Would an explanation satisfy anyone? What we really want to see is an end of these dilemmas. We want satisfaction.

Jesus assures us, that day will come. And because we live by faith his promises satisfy us.