In today's Gospel, John 16: 20-23, we are again reminded that here on earth we will have times when we "will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; [we] will grieve but [our] grief will become joy. When a woman is labor," Jesus says to us, "she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world." The sufferings of this life that cause us anguish, I believe, are "birthing" us, if you will, into the persons God intends us to be. We might think of suffering as a means of being "born" into holiness, a way in which God is "birthing" us into the self that resembles God and molds us into our Christ-self! And if a natural birth is painful, and it is, then, too, is being "born" into our best selves, our God-self. Suffering could be perceived, I believe, as the "birth canal" into a new self according to God's holy will.
Wanting life to be easy would be as unreasonable as wanting the birth of a child to be easy. It is not and neither is life lived for and with and through God. Jesus models for us how to deal with life's difficulties. He shows us how to deal with the traumas of life: being betrayed, being rejected, being ridiculed, being condemned, being impoverished, being bullied, being a refugee or a stranger in a foreign land, being misunderstood. He even shows us how to deal with death and those causing us "death": "Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing." And throughout His life up to and including the crucifixion on the cross, I believe, that Jesus often forgave his persecutors, his detractors, and those who scoffed at His teaching, those who hated Him. Jesus kept His eyes on His Father and spent time each day in communication with Him. May we do the same so that we, too, are able to put things in their right perspective, especially when they cause us to weep and mourn.
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