Sermon for Jubilate, the Fourth Sunday of Easter

Jesus compares his death and resurrection for you to the necessary and difficult work of becoming a mother. When a woman is pregnant, especially for the first time, she knows and hopes for the future child, but does not completely understand what having the child will be like. She sees the effect on herself in bearing the child, but will not fully see the child until he is born. Then when the time to be born comes, she is no longer in joyful anticipation, but in great pain and sorrow. This sorrow only lasts for a time – when the child is born, a joy comes which is greater than the anticipation during her months of pregnancy.