These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world

 "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father."  Then some of His disciples said among themselves, "What is this that He says to us, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, 'because I go to the Father'?"  They said therefore, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'?  We do not know what He is saying."  Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'?  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.  A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.  Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.  And in that day you will ask Me nothing.  Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

"These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father.  In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.  I came forth from the Father and have come into the world.  Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."

His disciples said to Him, "See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!  Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You.  By this we believe that You came forth from God."  Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?  Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.  And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." 

- John 16:16-33

In our current readings, Jesus and the disciples are at the Last Supper, the Passover supper of Christ's final year of His earthly life.  It is Holy Week, and He is about to go to His Passion.  He is giving to His disciples what is known as the Farewell Discourse.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus said to them,  "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.  They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.  And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.  But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.  And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.  But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'  But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.  I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine.  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."

 "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father."  Then some of His disciples said among themselves, "What is this that He says to us, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'; and, 'because I go to the Father'?"  They said therefore, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'?  We do not know what He is saying."  The first little while here, my study bible explains, is referring to Jesus' arrest, death, and burial.  The second refers to His time in the tomb before His Resurrection.

Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'?  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."  In a classic form of language of Scriptures and the promises of God (such as in Mary's Song, Luke 1:46-55), Jesus tells the disciples that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

"A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.  Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.  And in that day you will ask Me nothing.  Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."  Again, in a parallel to Mary's Song, Jesus gives them an image of a woman in labor.  My study bible says that no longer remembers does not imply that the faithful should forget the Passion and Cross of Christ, any more than a woman "forgets" labor.  Instead, we now see these sufferings in the light of the victory of the Resurrection, and this victory is a transfiguration of our perception of suffering.  In this way, Christ's victory enables us to rejoice in anguish, because there is infinitely greater good that comes out of it (Romans 5:3-5; Philippians 3:10).

"These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father."  My study bible says that the time when Christ would speak plainly about the Father was during the 40 days following the Resurrection (Acts 1:3).

"In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.  I came forth from the Father and have come into the world.  Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."    Prayer is offered in the name of God the Father, for Christ taught us to pray that way (Matthew 6:9).  Christ also prayed to the Father Himself (11:41; 12:28; 17:1).  My study bible tells us that in Christ, we have direct access to the Father.  Therefore we pray in the name of the Son as well.  After Pentecost, it's understood that the Holy Spirit Himself "makes intercession for us" (Romans 8:26), and we are also instructed to pray always "in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18).  We pray continually and with confidence, therefore, to all three Persons of the Trinity:  "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

His disciples said to Him, "See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!  Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You.  By this we believe that You came forth from God."  Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?  Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.  And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."   Again, a warning comes from Jesus about what is to come for them, despite what is being revealed at this moment.  They will be scattered, each to His own, and will leave [Christ] alone.  But again, as has so frequently been the case in the Gospel of John, Jesus refers back to His closeness and union with the Father.  He is not alone, because the Father is with Him.  St. Chrysostom comments that the disciples may have peace in always turning to Christ through all tribulation.   He has overcome the world not only in overthrowing the ruler of this world, but also in the work within the faithful through their own struggles with the world.

How has Christ overcome the world?  If we but look around we see all manner of evils all around us.  Harassment of all religious across the board seems to be on the increase, with reports of countries in which Christians were harassed topping the list, according to this article regarding a recent Pew Research publication.  Aside from direct religious harassment, we don't need a research study to tell us of the evils in the world, and the explosive and unmistakable ways in which it doesn't look to our eyes like Christ is victorious here -- or perhaps more specifically, like the world is at all living in the ways that Christ has taught us to live.  So what does it mean that He has overcome the world?  What is it that makes Christ victorious?  First of all, there is the Cross itself.  In His "hour of glory" as Christ puts it throughout John's Gospel, is the great victory.  Perhaps the greatest reason that we can point to for this is precisely the thing with which He instructs the disciples here:  the Cross is a victory because it is an act of absolute faith and obedience to the Father, it is in some sense a final seal of union with the Father -- and in this the world is overcome.  This is indeed a strange paradox for us, and we know that it is characterized by St. Paul as "to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks [meaning Gentiles] foolishness" (1 Corinthians 1:23).  Does the Crucifixion look like victory?  Certainly the religious leaders and others such as Herod Antipas who collaborated in His death couldn't have seen it that way.  But the key here is that there is so much more than is understood through a surface act.  This Cross becomes a symbol not only of life, but of Resurrection, of transcendence and transfiguration.  It is a symbol of liberation, of overcoming.  It is in itself the power to transform -- to defeat death and to give life.  All of this is so not only because we read of it in the Gospels and because the Church teaches us that it is so.  All of this is so by virtue of the many witnesses we have who testify to this reality.  The disciples have told their stories, and in the Gospels and the whole of the New Testament we read their testimony to what they have seen and experienced.  But through the whole of two millennia, countless faithful have also experienced the liberation of the Cross, life from death in some form in their own lives, and the power of prayer in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This isn't only a victory of Christ, but it is His victory shared with all of us.  It is His power to overcome which is shared with each of us, and in which we may each participate as we face struggles and tribulations in our own lives, and the testimony of uncountable witnesses confirms that it is so.  We only have to look and hear and listen to those around us who tell us so, in their own testimonies and about their own lives and faith.  The power of Christ's Cross is a victory that each of us can feel and experience.  We may not have something obvious to show and to tell.  Christ Himself refused to give miracles and signs and proofs on demand.  But the experience and power contained in the Church as a whole is something unassailable.  Through the experience of the faithful this power works and overcomes, and we are not alone, no matter who else has abandoned us.  We celebrate Resurrection because it is alive in us.  It is not an event that took place once, and so we tell the story.  But Christ's victory is eternal.  It lives in the here and the now, and we are invited in to participate, with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living and dwelling with us and within us.  We pray in the name of the Trinity and grow in likeness to our Creator through His holy power and especially through His victory which lives in us and is experienced in our own lives.  Give up the restrictions on what that victory looks like, and instead find  it through faith.  Ultimately, the victory of the Cross is sacramental.  We exchange our lives for another kind of life, for something better.  We may not have all of our worldly expectations met, but Christ has His own way to meet us, with Father and Holy Spirit at work in us.  We do our part in faith through tribulation and look to what we don't know, in the good cheer He gives us.  Resurrection is a fuller reality, a different experience than the world gives us.  But its peace is real and abiding, and in it we overcome as well.