John 16:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Here He also hints at something mystical: that He destroyed the pangs of death and brought it about that a new man was born.

He did not merely say that sorrow passes away, but that not even the memory of it remains. So great is the joy that follows it.

So it will be with the saints. Yet a woman rejoices not because a man has come into the world, but because a child has been born to her.

If she rejoiced for the former reason, nothing would prevent women who have not given birth from rejoicing over others who do.

Why, then, did He speak in this way? He gave this example only to show that sorrow is temporary and joy abiding, that death is a passage to life, and that great benefit comes from sorrow.

He did not say, “a child has been born,” but “a man.” By this, it seems to me, He hints at His own Resurrection.

He also hints that He was to be born not for this painful death, but for the Kingdom. Therefore He did not say, “a child has been born to her,” but, “a man has been born into the world.”

See, He did not say that the woman no longer remembers the sorrow because a child has been born “to her,” but because a man has been born “into the world.”

He did not say this without purpose. He spoke so in order to hint, enigmatically and veiledly, that He Himself is the Man born not for Hades, which had travailed with Him, but for the world.

For from the Resurrection there was born for us a new and incorruptible Man, Jesus Christ our God.

Therefore the example of the woman in childbirth does not require adaptation in every detail to the events concerning Christ.

Its purpose is only to show that sorrow is temporary, that these pangs bring great benefit, and that the Resurrection gives birth to life and to a new being.

Everything else in the comparison has no application, and rightly so. For this is a parable. If a parable were preserved in all its parts, it would no longer be a parable, but the very thing it depicts.

There is the end which is enough for us. It will be eternal, because no end will be enough for us except Him Who has no end. This thought inspired Philip when he said: Show us the Father, and it is enough for us (Jn 14:8). And the Son shows Himself, saying that He is in the Father and the Father in Him. Such joy no one will take from you.

Then He adds and says: A woman, when she is giving birth, has sorrow, because her hour has come. But when she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a man has been born into the world. So you now have sorrow. But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you (Jn 16:21-22).

This comparison does not seem difficult to understand, because the likeness is evident. The very context makes clear why it is introduced. The pangs of childbirth are compared with sorrow, and the birth with joy, which is greater when a boy, not a girl, is born.

As for the words, and your joy no one will take from you, since their joy is Christ Himself, they imply what the Apostle said: Christ, having risen from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has dominion over Him (Rom 6:9).

Until this point in the chapter of the Gospel about which we are speaking today, everything has been sufficiently easy to understand. What follows requires more serious attention. What does He mean when He says: And in that day you will ask Me nothing (Jn 16:23)?

This verb, to ask, rogare, means both to request, petere, and to question, interrogare. The Greek Gospel from which this translation was made contains a word that can be understood in either way, so that the ambiguity cannot be avoided here.

Yet even if it could be avoided, the question would remain unresolved. For we read that the Lord Christ, after He had risen, was both questioned and petitioned. Before He ascended into heaven, the disciples asked Him when He would manifest Himself and when the kingdom of Israel would come (cf. Acts 1:6).

When He was already in heaven, Saint Stephen asked Him to receive his spirit (cf. Acts 7:59). Who would dare to think or say that Christ, dwelling in heaven, should not be petitioned, or that He was not questioned while He dwelt on earth?

Or that one should not petition the Immortal One, but had to question Him while He was mortal, that is, while He remained in a mortal state? Certainly not, beloved. Let us ask Him to untie the knot of this question Himself, granting light to our hearts, so that we may discern what He said.

I think that His words, But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you, should not be referred to the time when He rose and showed them His flesh for examination and handling (cf. Lk 24:39).

Rather, they refer to what He said: He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him (Jn 14:21). He had, of course, already risen, already shown Himself to them in the flesh, and already sat at the right hand of the Father.

Yet the same Evangelist John, to whom this Gospel belongs, said in his Epistle: Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is (1 Jn 3:2).

This vision belongs not to this life, but to the life to come. It is not passing, but eternal. And this is eternal life, as He Who is Himself Life said: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent (Jn 17:3).

Of this vision and knowledge the Apostle says: Now we see as through a dim mirror, in an enigma, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am known (1 Cor 13:12).

The Church now gives birth, awaiting the fruit of all her labor. Then she will bring it forth, seeing it face to face. Now she gives birth in groans; then she will give birth in joy. Now she gives birth by offering prayers; then she will give birth by rendering praise.

This fruit is male, because all our actions are directed toward this fruit of contemplation. In the vision of God by man, blessed Augustine distinguishes contemplation accessible in this life, such as prayerful meditation, from the blessed vision face to face, which belongs to the age to come, except in rare cases by a special gift of God.

For this fruit alone is free, liber, because it is self-sufficient and bound by nothing. Blessed Augustine often speaks of Christ's exceptional freedom in the sense that He alone freely chooses His lot: when to be born, when to accept death, and so forth.

This fruit is desired for its own sake, not for the sake of something else. We act for its sake. Every righteous act belongs to it, because it is done for its sake. It is desired and possessed not for something else, but for itself.

Here precisely is the end that will satisfy us. For it is eternal, since no end will satisfy us except the one that has no end. It stirred Philip when he said: Show us the Father, and it is enough for us (Jn 14:8).

And the Son promised to show Himself, saying: Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? (Jn 14:10). Thus, concerning what is enough for us, we have heard with complete certainty: Your joy no one will take from you (Jn 16:22).

In like manner they give birth from the spiritual Fountain of salvation, as Scripture says: “Because of Your fear, O Lord, we conceived, and travailed, and gave birth to the spirit of salvation” (Isa 26:18).

Thus the soul bears fruit to God. “A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow… but when she has given birth, she rejoices, because she has brought a man into the world.”

So the soul, receiving the heavenly seed into itself, endures sorrow until it gives birth, being subjected to manifold temptations.

When it gives birth, that is, when it becomes perfect, it rejoices with constant and ineffable joy, because a heavenly and new man has been born into the world above.

The Savior’s voice also touched them: “Do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves” (Lk 23:28).

The triumph of the world and of wickedness showed them what the joys of the world mean. It showed what its hopes mean and what its dreams of the earthly greatness of the Messiah mean.

The time of sorrows gave them freedom to look more deeply into their own hearts.

It led them more than once to question themselves, whether it was not for their sins, or for their not always worthy conduct toward the great Messenger of God, that He had been taken from them.

On the other hand, their love for the beloved Teacher suffered together with Him.

The torments by which the evildoers tortured Him stirred up still greater love for the wondrous Righteous One whom they were losing.

This man born in sufferings, the bearer of the mysteries of God, is that new man whom the Lord appointed to conquer the world.

He was to plant the Cross, the emblem of sufferings, love, and self-renunciation, in places defiled by the exultations of the flesh, by cruelties, and by egoism.

The whole struggle of the Christian and of Christ’s Church against the pagan world was likened to the same mother, grieving in the pains of birth and forgetting her sufferings in the joy of a new man’s appearance.

“Sorrow is temporary; joy is abiding,” says Chrysostom on the same passage.

There is also a significant passage in the Prophet Hosea, where he speaks in the Lord’s name about the sons of Ephraim.

“The pangs of childbirth shall come upon him, Ephraim… From the power of Hades I will ransom them; from death I will deliver them. O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (Hos 13:13; 1 Cor 15:55).

The name Ephraim, in the dual number, is interpreted as “doubly fruitful.” Therefore, in the Prophet, the words about Ephraim do not refer only to Ephraim’s descendants or to the tribes composing the kingdom of Israel.

Ephraim represents the symbolic name of all who are called to bear fruit in the Lord’s vineyard.

These are all who formed the community of Christ. In the pains of birth this community found the joy of creating the new man, created according to the image and likeness of God incarnate.