Mourning Into Joy

When Jesus gave his "last will and testament" during the "Farewell Discourse" (Jn 15-17), at the Last Supper, his encouraging promise of sending the Holy Spirit was tempered by his realistic warning, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the word rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy." (Jn 16:20) As the followers of Jesus proceeded after his Ascension to spread his word, they suffered all kinds of persecution, rejection, imprisonments, beatings and eventual death.  Surely there was grief, and this grief has continued through the centuries as persecutions have continued to our present day. But in all of this, there has been joy:  joy in suffering with Jesus, and even in giving one's life for him.
Outside this dramatic realm of pain, suffering and martyrdom, which may never be ours, there is the natural course of life's cycle which brings sickiness, pain suffering and death into our own families.  We all become part of this cycle.  Yesterday at the wake of a man who would have turned 95 in two weeks, I listened at length to his son, who extoled his father's accomplishments and wisdom and expressed his gratitude for his father and for the time they had together in his last weeks, which helped turn his mourning into joy, for he had the grace to  appreciate his father's greatness and the gift he was to his family. He mourns, yes, but his joy and gratitude override his grief.   May it be so for all of us.
Bro. Rene