Praise be Jesus and Mary.
Today's responsorial psalm we say that God is king of all the earth and this is good
news that God is omniscient, that is he knows everything that is going on throughout the
earth, that he is all powerful, that all these things that are going on are perfectly in
his control, and that he is all good, right, that he makes everything work for the good
for those who love him.
And we see this truth being played out in today's first reading where Paul was in Corinth
and he was afraid, and he had some good reason to be afraid, he had just converted Crispus
who was the head, the leading synagogue official there, and this got a lot of people angry,
right, a lot of the Jews who did not embrace Paul's preaching and teaching, but our Lord
appears to him in a vision and says, do not be afraid, go on speaking, do not be silent,
do not cry, for I am with you, and right so, our God who is king of all the earth
is always with us, both by his essence and power and presence, but also by means of grace
for the soul that is in the state of grace, and our Lord is with us also in the Eucharist,
and he's also with us through our brothers and sisters in the mystical body, and that's
why our Lord says, no one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city,
right, we need to remember that, it's not only our Lord who is with us, but we're with
each other, right, we have our brothers and sisters in Christ who are making this journey
through this difficult world along with us, and so our Lord explains in today's gospel
that we will certainly meet up with our share of difficulties, contradictions, and opposition
in this world, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices, you will grieve, but that
grief and weeping and mourning, the trials and difficulties don't last forever, our Lord
says that these things will turn into joy, and he compares it to a woman who is in labor
and who is suffering because of that labor, but her pain is then turned into joy, and
she no longer remembers the pain, this reminds me of St. Faustina's vision of those souls
who are traveling the narrow and difficult path that leads to heaven, and she said they
would stumble and fall, that the path was strewn with rocks and thorns, and tears were
in their eyes, but she said as soon as they passed over into heaven, they immediately
forgot all of those former pains, and it was as if they didn't even exist, and so this
is what our Lord is encouraging us to, competence in him, in his protecting presence during
the trials of this life, and also looking forward to the end, that they don't last forever,
and we will pass into heaven where our hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy
away from you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.