The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Ver. 20. — Verily , verily, I say unto you , that ye shall weep and lament , but the world shall rejoice : ye shall be sorrowful , but your sorrow shall be turned into joy . Understand by this that the joy of the world will be changed into sorrow, says Rupertus. But (1.) S. Chrysostom, Cyril, Leontius, Theophylact, and others, explain this of our Lord's sufferings and death, which will cause just sorrow to you, and rejoicing to the Jews, and of His Resurrection on the third day, at which the Jews will be sorrowful, and full of indignation at My victory over them. But in a secondary sense He intended to signify the like sufferings they would have to endure for His sake. Whence (2.) S. Augustine, Bede, and Maldonatus explain of the sufferings which the Apostles would have to undergo in preaching the faith (at which the world will rejoice), and of the eternal blessedness they would afterwards enjoy with Him.
Morally. Holy Scripture frequently teaches that the righteous suffer adversities in this life, and that the ungodly exult in their prosperity. (See Job xxi. 9 ; Ps. lxxxiii. 2 ; Jer. xii ; Hab. iii.) Daily experience teaches us the same. But Scripture teaches us also that the godly are happy and the wicked are sorrowful at their death; see Luke vi. 25 ; S. James v. 2, 3 ; and Rom. viii. 18. “ It is difficult (says S. Jerome, Epist. xxxiv.), nay, impossible, for any one to enjoy his good things both here and hereafter, to fill his belly here, and his soul there, to pass from delight to delight, to be the first in both worlds, to appear high in glory both in heaven and earth.”
Accordingly, Tertullian ( de Spect. cap. 28), commenting with elegance and tenderness on these words, thus writes : “ This is ordered in turns. Now they rejoice, we are in conflict. ‘The world will rejoice; but ye will be sorrowful.' Let us mourn while the heathen rejoice, that we may rejoice when they begin to mourn ; lest if we now rejoice with them, we shall then also mourn with them. Thou art over-nice, O Christian, if thou desirest pleasure in this world ; also most foolish, if thou considerest it pleasure.” And again, “ Pray tell me, cannot we live without pleasure, since we must die without it? For what else is our wish than that of the Apostles, to depart out of the world, and to be received with the Lord? This is our pleasure, as it is also our desire.” He goes on, “ What greater pleasure than the loathing of pleasure, than contempt of the world, than true liberty, than a pure conscience, than sufficiency of life, than no dread of death, than trampling down the gods of the heathen, than casting out devils, than working cures, than living to God? These are the pleasures of Christians, holy, ever abiding, free, &c. Bestir thyself at the signal of God, awake at the trump of the angel, glory in the palms of martyrdom. Behold uncleanness cast down by chastity, unbelief slain by faith, cruelty beaten by mercy, wantonness overshadowed by modesty. Such are the contests in which we are crowned.” And again, “ What is that exultation of angels, what the glory of the rising saints, what hereafter the kingdom of righteousness, what the city of the New Jerusalem ? ” Isaiah graphically describes this (lxv. 14).
Hence S. Cecilia, who ever bare the Gospel of Christ in her bosom, and also preached it, converted Tiburtius and others. And she inculcated this first of all : Seek not the fleeting joy of this life, in order that ye may obtain the eternal joy of that life which follows after. In this ye will live but a short time, in that ye will live for ever. And when the Prefect Almachius said that she was foolish in despising the joys of this world and embracing the hard and austere life of Christians, her husband Valerian replied, “ The time will come when we shall receive a thousand-fold the fruits of our affliction, and they who are now elated with joy will weep when we are rejoicing.” This is the time of sowing. They therefore who sow tears in this life will in that blessed and eternal life reap everlasting joy.
Lastly, S. Cyprian in his treatise De Mortalitate (the Pestilence), chap. 3, says : — “ If to see Christ is to rejoice, and our joy cannot be, unless we see Him, what blindness is it, what madness, to love the sufferings, the pains and tears of the world, and not rather to hasten to that joy which cannot be taken from us ?”
Ver. 21. — A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow , because her hour is come : but when she is delivered of the child , she remembereth no more the anguish , for joy that a man is born into the world. As hoping that the child will be a support and credit to her in this life, and will succeed her after her death. For since men cannot themselves live for ever, they hope in a sense to live in their children. A queen rejoices in her first-born as having borne a king. This illustration is most apposite. For Christ compares His death to child-birth, and His resurrection to the joy after childbirth . For Christ suffered anguish and tortures like a woman in child-birth, but when He saw Himself rising again through the merit of His death, and knew that we should in like manner rise again, He greatly rejoiced Himself, and inspired the Apostles and all the faithful with great joy. For He brought them forth as His children, by dying for them on the Cross. So S. Chrysostom, Cyril, Theophylact, Euthymius. You may apply this also to the persecutions and sufferings of the Apostles and faithful in this life, and to their joy and exultation at the Resurrection.
A man-child . “ Because,” as says S. Augustine (in loc.), “ the joy is wont to be greater when a boy is born, to signify mystically that the faithful ought to be of a masculine mind both in doing and suffering, for they are called to the contemplation of heavenly things, and even to take heaven by storm, not to the softness of this world,” as says Gloss, inter. Moreover, this man-child is afterwards called “ a man ” to signify the Resurrection of Christ, for by His resurrection Christ, as it were, is bom again, not as a child, but as a perfect man. So S. Chrysostom says: By saying a man He simply suggests His own Resurrection, and our own blessedness after death; further, says Alcuin, “ we shall be born into eternal life.” Whence Bede says, “ It ought not to seem a strange thing, if he who departs out of this life is said to be ‘born.’ For as he who comes forth from his mother’s womb into this light, so is he who is freed from the bonds of the flesh raised up to eternal life. Hence the solemnities of the Saints are said to be their birthdays, not their burials.”
Moreover, the sorrow of the disciples is rightly compared to that of a woman in travail : (1.) Because both are painful, and the pain is greater at the birth of a boy. (2.) Because they are short. (3.) And perilous. (4.) Both turned into joy, the one by the birth of a child, the other by the Resurrection of Christ and His followers. So S. Cyril. (5.) As the same child is the cause of pain in being born, and of joy afterwards, so Christ also caused great pain to the disciples by His death, and great joy by His Resurrection. (6.) The joy in either case is surpassing and very great, and swallows up all the preceding pain.
Ver. 22. — And ye now therefore have sorrow : but I will see you again , and your hearts shall rejoice , &c. This is the application of the parable, points out its scope and profitable teaching. He compares the two cases, of a woman in child-birth and the Apostles, both in the present suffering and the subsequent joys. Your joy will remain for ever. For I shall rise glorious and immortal, I shall die no more. I shall be present to aid you in all your persecutions and afflictions ; I will make you superior to all adversities, and at last crown you with a glorious martyrdom, and raise you to heavenly and eternal joys which no one will take from you. Christ then speaks first of the joy of the Apostles at His own Resurrection, and secondarily of their own resurrection and happiness, which is brought forth by the labour and pain of this life, as a child by the pain of child-birth. S. Cyprian (ad Demetrium) [chap. xl.] excellently says, “A man whose whole glory and happiness is in the world, suffers punishment by worldly misfortunes. He weeps and groans if evil befall him in this world, who cannot fare well when life is past. Whose pleasure is all enjoyed in this life, whose consolations all end here, whose frail and brief life counts upon having some sweetness and pleasure here. But when they go hence, pain and sorrow alone await them. But they whose hopes rest on future blessings , feel no pain at the assaults of present ills. In a word, we are not astounded, or crushed, or grieved by adversities. We murmur not at any disaster, or bodily weakness ; living in the Spirit more than in the flesh, we triumph over the weakness of our body by the strength of our mind.” And just below: “There flourishes among us the strength of hope, and the stedfastness of faith, and even among the ruins of a falling world our mind is erect, our resolution unmoved, our patience is ever full of joy, and our soul ever rests secure on its God.”
Ye have sorrow . Ye are sorrowful on account of My departure, and after My death ye will be sorrowful on account of your impending persecutions and crosses. “ And so also will other believers be full of sorrow, who through tears and sufferings are striving after eternal joys,” says Alcuin. Moreover, as S. Augustine observes on these sufferings, “ we are not sorrowful without joy, but as the Apostle says (Rom. xii. 12) “rejoicing in hope,” for the travailing woman to whom we are compared, is gladdened more at the child who is about to be born, than saddened by her present pangs.”