Thoughts for the Day

Jesus said, 'Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labour, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The phrase "Vale of tears" is a Christian phrase referring to the sufferings of this life, that our belief in Jesus says we leave behind only when we enter Heaven. The phrase appears in some translations of Psalm 84:6, which speaks of those who are blessed by God as passing 'through the valley of tears', but it could also come from Psalm 23 that refers to the 'valley of the shadow of death'. Both imply that sadness is part of the physical world and so a part of life's experience. In today's reading Jesus is predicting that the disciples will suffer great tribulation and go through the "vale of tears", while those who persecute them will rejoice. But he also says that their future is one of great joy. when he will see them again, in Heaven.

All of us experience suffering in our life whether it's the death of loved ones, or the pain of our own ill health. No-one is totally immune, yet sometimes it can seem as though multiple disasters seem to affect one person or one community, while others sail on their way oblivious. Today, we remember Mrs Josephine Butler who came home from a visit abroad to see her beloved daughter Eva, in her joy at welcoming her parents, accidentally fall from a balcony to her death. Josephine was to focus her terrible sorrow on helping others - her strong sense of justice and religious belief saw her campaigning for women and children's rights, and writing 90 books and pamphlets. I am also reminded today of Christian Palestinians caught up in the war in the Middle East and unable to escape their current situation.

Jesus does not offer us an untroubled life just because we are His followers. Whatever the reason for suffering, we need to learn from it and continue to trust that Jesus stands alongside us in the middle of the pain and confusion. Perhaps we can take this poem by the American, Robert Browning Hamilton (1880-1974), to heart:

'I walked a mile with Pleasure.
She chatted all the way,
but left me none the wiser,
for all she had to say.

I walked a mile with sorrow,
and ne’er a word said she.
But, oh, the things I learned from her,
when sorrow walked with me!'

Lord Jesus Christ
give us the faith to know that we do not suffer alone.
Give us the strength to bear the pain and loneliness
that sometimes seems to separate us from others.
Give us the wisdom to look outside ourselves
and see others who are suffering.
Then give us the will to engage with their pain
by listening to them,
or helping them,
and always by praying for them.
Amen.