Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 27, 2022
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn,
while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.
When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived;
but when she has given birth to a child,
she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy
that a child has been born into the world.
So you also are now in anguish.
But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.
On that day you will not question me about anything.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.”
As I find myself grieving a death, the hope that my “grief will become joy” seems a far too distant reality. And yet, I am struck today by Christ’s analogy of a mother and child. I immediately recall the depiction of Jesus meeting his Mother in the movie, The Passion of the Christ. We see her unimaginable, piercing grief, but Jesus promises her: “See, Mother? I make all things new.”
To all who grieve, these are Christ’s words: “I make all things new—I am creating a new joy from your grief.”
When, like Mary, we give our grief to Christ, when we stay and grieve with him through his passion, death, and tomb, our suffering becomes transformed by the victory of the resurrection.
Our Lord’s victory over death has transformed even the scandal of the cross into the means of our salvation. He bore it all: every sin, every wound, every grief. And so, we can be confident in the hope that he transforms it all into something fundamentally better than if that grief had never occurred.
This points to the victory of the resurrection: Christ’s victory over death is re-manifested in his transformation of every grief and wound we incur into something fundamentally better than if it had never occurred. We can be firmly convinced of this because Christ, our king, is victorious over death: He does not negotiate with death. He shows his power through transformation. Everything he promises in this gospel he will do for each of us, again and again.
This changes everything.
Our God, the Divine Creator, brings forth eternal newness from something so seemingly destructive and final as death. Christ will not leave us alone, wrecked, or lost. His transformation of our grief is anchoring our souls in the joyful hope of his resurrection.
Prayer
Gracious God, you remind us that sometimes we must bear the pain of trials and tribulation before we come to the new life you promise us. Give us patience we need to bear the suffering that may come our way, hope in the joy that awaits us at the end of our trials, and trust in knowing you are present with us through it all. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Augustine of Canterbury was a missionary who re-evangelized England in the late sixth century through his administrative skills and miracle-working faith.
When Romans withdrew from England in 410, the English were left vulnerable to attacks from the Germanic Saxon tribes. The faith had come to England with the Romans, and it went underground when they left.
In 596, Pope St. Gregory the Great decided it was time to re-evangelize England, having received news that the Church would be welcomed among the kingdoms there. He sent 30 missionaries from the monastery to which he belonged, including the leader of the community, Augustine.
The group arrived in the north of France and were vehemently warned against crossing the channel to England because of the danger of the voyage and the savagery of the people there. Discouraged, Augustine and the group returned to Rome, but Pope Gregory sent them back.
They landed in Thanet and were received by the local king, who would be baptized and later crowned a saint himself—St. Ethelbert. He was open to their mission, gave them the use of a local, unused church, and gave them permission to teach the faith.
Their work helped the faith take root in the region, the king himself was baptized, and Augustine was raised to the position of archbishop. Ethelbert gave Augustine land in Canterbury for a church, where he built Christ Church and an abbey that now bears his name. The Church spread through England, and new dioceses were established in London and Rochester.
Augustine spent his last years consolidating the faithful communities that had been underground, and administering the growing Church. Under Gregory’s guidance, he did not destroy pagan temples, but consecrated them for Christian use; and retained local customs and festivals, using them as occasions to celebrate the Christian faith instead.
His detailed correspondence with Pope Gregory described miracles worked through his intercession—Gregory warned Augustine of pride, and told him to stay focused on the inward realities that the outward signs pointed to.
St. Augustine of Canterbury, you re-established the faith in England—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Augustine of Canterbury is available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Last accessed March 11, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons. Modified from the original.
