“You will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”
I can only guess that by saying “while the world rejoices,” Jesus means that his absence from them after his death, resurrection, and ascension will be for the world a cause for rejoicing. Since this is before Jesus’ death, the disciples experience great uncertainty at this point in his time with them, the mention of joy might seem foreign to them. The Easter joy that I take for granted was something the disciples knew nothing about at this moment.
God, open my mind to understand the first reading in relation to daily life. There is something there worth paying attention to. In it, Silas and Timothy oppose and revile Paul for testifying to the Jews. He left them, saying, “From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” He then meets a man named Titus Justus, whose house was next to a synagogue. Because of Paul, a synagogue official “came to believe in the Lord,” and many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized. Here is where it’s relevant: just as Paul preached and brought to conversion the Gentiles, God blessed him abundantly by bringing to conversion the synagogue official as well.
God, I know you want to break through the anxieties and distractions of the day to make yourself present. Do I dare say to myself and believe, “I want to see you face to face?” Is that what I want, and do I want to make that temple within me for no material gain other than to be before you? I know that as the day burns by my thoughts will tend toward matters at hand.
Today I want to look for the abundant blessings of God. In the midst of anxiety and grief, light pierces the darkness; let me trust in the words of truth that come from Jesus’ lips: “you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”