10-05-24 Melampaui Kemurungan: Menemukan Kekuatan dalam Janji Sukacita Kekal

Friday 6th week of Easter "Jn 16:20-23" "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you." He never promised it was going to be 'easy'; He said it was going to be 'worthwhile'. Jesus makes several promises here. The first one is rather negative: "You will weep and lament". But then the positive ones come: "Your sorrow will turn into joy" and "no one will take your joy from you." No one; ever! Know it well: gloominess is the mark of the enemy; it is the ally of the devil. But the joy of the children of God is like rubbing salt in the enemy's wound. St Paul said it: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice." Billy Joel says in one of his songs, "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun." We are really certain (and sad) that he never met a saint. Saints have never lost their joy and good humour in the middle of their distress. "Laugh and grow strong," St. Ignatius said; and to one of his novices, "I see you are always laughing, and I am glad of it." St Josemaría said that he founded Opus Dei just with "the grace of God, twenty six years of age and good humour." St Francis de Sales comforted a hunchback with these words: "The works of God are perfect." "What!" replied the man. "Perfect, and yet deformed?" "Well..." answered the saint, "a perfect hunchback!" St Philip Neri, St John Vianney, St Teresa, St Francis of Assisi... There are thousands of stories in any saint's life. In 1534 two martyrs were on trial for refusing to swear a solemn oath acknowledging Henry VIII as head of the church in England. The judge said plainly, "If you don't swear you'll be tied up and thrown into the Thames". They replied with a big smile, "We just want to go to Heaven. We don't really mind if it is by water or by land!" That is it: good-humoured and cheerful until the end. My Mother, Cause of our Joy, when things become difficult for me, please make me consider slowly: no one, ever 'will take my joy away from me.'