v. 19, 20 — Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask Him, and He said unto them, Do ye enquir…

As then they were thirsting for information and sought to know more exactly the meaning of His words, He gives a clearer exposition of His Passion, and vouchsafes them the foreknowledge of the sufferings that He was about to undergo to their great profit. It was not in order that He might engender in them premature alarm that He deemed it meet to give them this explanation beforehand, but in order that, forearmed by their knowledge, they might perchance be found more courageous to withstand the terror that would assail them. For that of which the advent is expected is milder in its approach than that which is wholly unlooked for. When then you who are truly Mine and united to Me by your love towards Me shall behold your Guide and Master undergoing the brunt of the madness of the Jews, their insults and outrages, and all that their mad frenzy will prompt, then, indeed, ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; that is, those who are not minded to follow God's Will, but are, as it were, enchained by worldly lusts. He refers also to the vulgar herd of Jewish rabble, as well as the impious band of enemies of God who had secured the lead among them, namely, the Scribes and Pharisees, who made jests at the trials our Saviour had to endure, and raised many cries to their own damnation, at one time saying, If Thou art the Son of God come down now from the cross, and we will believe Thee: and at another, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save Thyself----for such will be the foul utterances of the blasphemous tongue of the Jews. But while the men of the world would be of this mind, and such will be their deeds and cries, "you will mourn;" but not for long will you have this suffering to endure, for your sorrow will be turned into joy. For I shall live again, and will wholly remove the cause of your despondency, and I will comfort the mourners, and will renew in them a good courage that will be eternal and without end. For the joy of the Saints ceaseth not. For Christ is alive for evermore, and through Him the bonds of death are loosed for all mankind. It is perhaps, too, not impertinent to reflect that the worldly will contrariwise be doomed to a fate of endless misery. For if, when Christ died after the flesh, those who were truly His mourned, but the world rejoiced at His Passion; and if, when death and corruption were rendered powerless by the Resurrection of our Saviour Christ from the dead, the mourning of the Saints was turned into joy, surely in like manner also the joy of the worldly-minded will be lost in sorrow.

CyrJn 11.19.1

21, 22 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 the joy that a man is born into the world. And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh from you.

CyrJn 11.19.2

He once more dilates upon the solace He had given them, and illustrates it by divers words, in every way aiding them to dispel the bitterness of their sorrow. For observe how earnestly He persuades them, by obvious illustration, of the necessity of endurance, and of not being over dismayed by troubles or sorrows, if they must surely and inevitably end in rejoicing. For the child, He says, is the fruit of sore travail; and it is through pain that the joy they have in their children comes to mothers. And if at the first they had felt fainthearted at the prospect of the travail of childbirth, they would never have consented to conceive; but would rather have chosen to escape marriage, which is the cause, and would never have become mothers at all; avoiding by their cowardice a state which is highly desirable and thrice blest. In like manner then will your suffering also not fail to meet its reward. For you will rejoice when you see a new child born into the world, incorruptible and beyond the reach of death. Plainly He alludes to Himself here. He tells them that the joy of heart that they will have in Him cannot be taken away from them or lost. For, as Paul says, or rather as the Very Truth Itself implies, having died once for all, He dieth no more. The joy of heart then that rests upon Him hath in very truth a sure foundation. For, if we mourned at His death, who shall take from us our joy, now that we know that He lives and will be alive for evermore----He Who gives and ordains for us all spiritual blessings? No man then "taketh their joy" from the Saints, as our Saviour says; but they who nailed Him to the Cross were bereft of their joy once and for ever. For now that His suffering is ended, which they thought an occasion for rejoicing, sorrow will be their portion of inevitable necessity.

CyrJn 11.19.3

23, 24 And in that day ye shall ash Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it you in My Name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled.

CyrJn 11.19.4

He says that His holy disciples will increase in wisdom and knowledge when they should be clothed with power from on high according to the Scripture, and with their minds illumined by the torchlight of the Spirit should be able to conceive all wisdom, even though they asked no question of Him Who was no longer present with them in the flesh. The Saviour does not indeed say this because they will have no more need of light from Him, but because when they had received His own Spirit, and had Him indwelling in their! hearts, they would have in their minds no lack of every good thing, and would be fulfilled with the most perfect knowledge. And by perfect knowledge we mean that which is correct and incapable of error, and which cannot endure to think or say any evil thing, and which has a right belief concerning the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. For if we see now in a mirror darkly, and we know in part, still while we wander not astray from the doctrines of the truth but adhere to the spirit of the holy and inspired writings, the knowledge that we have is not imperfect, a knowledge which no man can acquire save by the light of the Holy Spirit given unto him. Hereby he exhorts the disciples to pray for spiritual graces, and at the same time gives them this encouragement----that what they ask they will not fail to obtain; adding the comforting assurance of the word "verily" to His promise that if they will go to the Father's throne and make any request, they will receive it of Him, He Himself acting as Mediator and leading them into the Father's Presence. For this is the meaning of the words in my Name; for we cannot draw nigh unto God the Father save by the Son alone. For through Him we have obtained access in One Spirit unto the Father, according to the Scripture. Therefore also He saith: I am the Door: I am the Way: no one cometh unto the Father but by Me. For inasmuch as the Son is also God, together with the Father He conveys good gifts to the Saints, and associates Himself with Him in granting us the portion of the blessed. Moreover, the inspired Paul most evidently confirms our belief herein by writing these words: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And in right of His titles, Mediator, High Priest, and Advocate, He conveys to the Father prayers on our behalf, for He gives us all boldness to address the Father. In the Name then of Our Saviour Christ we must make our requests, for so will the Father most readily grant them, and will give to those that ask good gifts, that we may take them and rejoice therein. So being fulfilled with spiritual graces, and enriched with the grant of knowledge from Him through the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, we shall gain a very easy triumph over every strange and abominable lust; and thus being active in good works, and attaining to the practice of every virtue with fervent zeal, and strengthened with everything whatsoever that maketh for sanctification, we rejoice with exceeding joy at the prospect of the reward that awaits us; and, dismissing the despondency that springs from an evil conscience, we have our hearts enriched with the joy that is in Christ. This did not enter into the life of the men of old time; they never practised this manner of prayer, for they knew it not. But now is it ordained for us by Christ, at the appropriate season, when the time of the accomplishment of our redemption was fulfilled, and the perfect fruition of all good was gained for us by Him. For just as the Law accomplished nothing, and as righteousness according to the Law was incomplete, so also was the mode of prayer inculcated thereby.

CyrJn 11.19.5