«Your sorrow will turn into joy» (Jn 16:20).
We know these words from the Gospel according to Saint John, which Jesus addressed to His disciples in view of His return to the Heavenly Father. He had previously told them: “A little while, and you will see me no more; again a little while, and you will see me” (Jn 16:16). Jesus, for His part, is filled with joy at returning to His Father and at having fulfilled His mission on earth.
If we walk our way hand in hand with our Father, we will be able to experience that joy to which St. Paul exhorts us when he says: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”(Phil 4:4).
However, there remains in us a trace of sadness that will not disappear as long as our earthly life lasts and that our Father, in His wisdom, leaves us. It is a ‘holy sadness’ that arises in the soul when it realises that it cannot feel completely at home in this life. It knows that something is missing and that it is not yet fully united with God.
This ‘holy sadness’ should not be confused with a disordered melancholy that seeks an unattainable happiness on earth. This sadness harms the soul and the devil can use it to cloud and paralyse life.
‘Holy sadness’, on the other hand, expresses a great longing for the Lord. We consider ourselves pilgrims who have not yet reached our goal and await its soon fulfilment so that we may return forever to the Father’s house. This sadness does not discourage us. Rather, the Lord uses it to urge us to focus always on Him and to fulfil our task on earth as Jesus did. In this, we are always accompanied by His promise: ‘Your sadness will turn into joy.’