Third Sunday After Easter GOSPEL John 16:16 The Sunday Meditation


GOSPEL
John 16: 16-22
At that time Jesus said to His disciples: A little while, and now you shall not see Me: and again a little while, and you shall see Me: because I go to the Father. Then some of His disciples said one to another: What is this that He saith to us: A little while, and you shall not see Me: and again a little while, and you shall see Me, and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore: What is this that He saith, A little while? We know not what He speaketh. And Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask Him. And He said to them: Of this do you inquire among yourselves, because I said: A little while, and you shall not see Me: and again a little while, and you shall see Me? Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow: but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice: and your joy no man shall take from you.

Sunday

After Christ had fed his disciples with his body & blood in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and ordained it to be the ordinary food of their and our souls, promising to be with them and us, to wiz in that Sacrament, till the end of file world, he made them a Sermon, & among other things he spake these words unto them. 

A little while, and now, you shall not see me, & a little while and you shall see me. 

He might have said thus: you are always joyful & think your selves happy because of my presence but especially now, I have so lovingly fed you with my; blood in my Sacrament of the Eucharist, & kneeled down & washed your feet, before you received it, & made you a comfortable Sermon, and sing a Hymn of praise to God, now I say you rejoice, but after a while, to wit, this night I shall be taken from you, and put to death, but a little while 2- aime, less then three whole days, I will rise again, & then you shall rejoice again, and no man shall be able to take your joy from you. 

Thus Christ might have spoken plainly to his disciples (as indeed he meant in those obscure words aforesaid) bur because he would not contriſtate them so much as he knew he should if he had spoken it in plain terms , he spake not so plainly that they could not understand it, nor so obscurely but that they might understand there was some great cause of ſorrow at hand, becauſe he said they should mourn and weep, and they mighs ſuſpe:t vehemently what it might be by that he had told them before, he must go to Jerusalem & there he should be betrayed, taken,taken, ſcourged , and put to death, and would ariſe again the third day,and this he did to the end, they ſhould not be op- preſſed and ſwallowed up with overmuch ſorrow, & yet might have a vehemét ſuſpicion ther- of, the better to prepare them. ſelfes to beare it when it came, eſpecially having comforted them with the joy that ſhould quickly enſue.

Now for as much ros., as the fife of man is ſhort , and ...” full of miseries, as patient Job say who had good experience thereof,and none more then the best servants of God, and that joy and ſorrow, proſperity and adversity goes by turns, one successively after another; we may learn here not to ſuffer our selves to be ſwallowed up with the preſent ſorrow , ſo much as to forget the joy that may enſue, nor ſo much to be tranſported with the preſent joy,as to forget the ſorrow that may ensue aſſo; but when we are 111: in the one to foretell our ſelfes of the other, as Chriſt here did his diſciples,and by this meanes we ſhall be able ſo to temper our ſelfes in both, that we may beare them vertuouſly and well whé they happen, which other- wiſe will be hard to do , and be- ing not done will be the cauſe cfmany inconueniences, both of body and ſoule ; fame , and fortunes. 

If wine be to ſtrong for our braines, we vſe to allay and temper it with water: proſ. perity and aduerſity are both of themſelfes to ſtrongfor vs, if we mingle the one with the wa- ter of premeditation of the o- ther, we ſhall beare it wel. 

God doth ſwingle it for vs, by alter- mall and cnterchangeable tur- nes of aduerſity and proſperity in ſucceſſion of tymes one after another, and it doth vs much good, nay it is almoſt of neceſſi- ty vnto vs that it ſhould be ſo: but oftentimes we take hurt by the one,before the other comes, cſpe-eſpecially if it belong betwene, wherefore it is neceſſary we mingle them both together at one tyme by way of premedita- tion, as if they were both pre- ſent together: as when we are in proſperity to thinke of aduer- ſity that may enſue, and when we are in aduerſity, to thinke of profferity, & therfore Chriſt ſaid to his diſciples: A little while, and (now) as it is in the Text,you ſhall not ſee me, as if he ſhould ſay, being now in ioy, thinke now of your enſu- 1ng ſorrow, as if it were now preſent, and of the enſuing ioy after ſorrow, as if it were then preſent. 

Thus doth a woman in trauaile of childe-birth arme herſelfe againſt the preſent pai- nes with her enſuing ioy of a child to be borne, after a little while : an example for fitnes worthy of the mouth of Chriſt. Thus doth S. Tawl exhort the ºrieg. Theſſalonians to comfort them-º. v.a. ſelfesfor the death of one ano- ther,88 The 111. Sonday ther, to wit with the reſurre- Čtion of them againe; ſuch a comfort was the hope of the re- ſurrečtion of Chriſt to his bleſ- ſed mother and diſciples, in the tyme of his dolorous death & paſſion : and when we are as it were dead and buried in affli- Čtion and aduerſity, kit vs ſtill confort our ſelfes with hope of a reſurre&tion of ioy & proſpe- rity after it againe in this life. 

Which if it be expedient for us, we are sure to have it, if not to comfort ourselves with our joyful resurrection after this life, the joy whereof, besides the infinite greatness, no man shall be able ever to take away from us: in comparison whereof all the troubles in the world, if it were all the time of our life, is as Christ said here, to his disciples, but a little, or rather nothing.

A Plaine Path-Way To Heaven By Fr.Thomas Hill 1634
 

Comments

Popular Posts