“Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.”
John 16:20
Our spiritual sadness will be turned into joy.
Jesus warned His disciples that they will be greatly affected by His death, while His enemies will rejoice. But they will rejoice at the time of His resurrection. Their sadness will not just be followed by joy, it will be transformed into joy. It is precisely that which saddened them that will bring them joy. They will mourn the death of Jesus, but this death will bring them salvation. They will weep because Jesus has left His earthly body, but they will rejoice to see Him clothed in the glorious resurrection body. They will mourn His departure from the world of the living but will rejoice in the activity in the world of the departed (1 Pet 3:18-19).
Jesus also proclaimed His return to the Father. The disciples will be sad to no longer see Him but will rejoice that He is preparing a place for them with Him.
Jesus’s promise is also valid for us: our sadness will be turned into joy. This does not mean that we have to be unhappy on earth to be happy in heaven. We share the same fate as our contemporaries and are exposed, like them, to misfortune. No more, no less. But this suffering has no salvific effect in itself. The sadness we are talking about here is of a spiritual nature.
Answering Christ’s call, we have chosen good and renounced evil. We suffer as sin continues to rule the world—the life of the ungodly is often more pleasant than that of the faithful (Ps 73:1-16). But we remain determined to do good, convinced that this spiritual suffering will be turned into joy when Christ returns.
We deeply love Jesus Christ, our bridegroom. This love makes us suffer. We are sad not to see Him as He is and we suffer not to be near Him. Let us not try to drown our sorrow by indulging in the pleasures of this earth. Let us remain firm in this love—God will grant eternal life to those who love Him.
Like Paul, we are aware of our imperfections (Rom 7:18-19). Let us not settle for that, just because we are no worse than others. Let us repent, as did the sinful woman (Lk 7:37-50) and Peter (Mt 26:75). God will turn the repentant person’s sorrow into joy: He will grant them His grace and make them perfect in Christ.
Loving our neighbor can be a source of sadness. We weep with those who weep (Rom 12:15). We suffer because we cannot help the unfortunate as much as we would like. We can give food to the hungry, but we can only ease the pain of the sick and the imprisoned, not heal them or set them free (Mt 25:35-36). Love for our neighbor that makes us weep today will soon be turned into joy: we will rejoice for every soul that God will save!
Jesus wept before Jerusalem because His people did not accept Him (Lk 19:41-42). It saddens us to see so many people losing interest in Jesus Christ. But we do not give up our mission—we continue to testify about Christ. Those who walk while weeping, when they carry the seed, will return with joy at the time of harvest (Ps 126:5-6).
We suffer from being in this world, far from Christ. We weep because of our imperfections. We share the pain of others. We are sad when our testimony is not accepted. God will turn this sadness into joy.