Why the Church reads the Last Supper discourses in Eastertide
Our Lord spoke enigmatically before the Passion about going away, and returning—but what 'going away' was he talking about?
Our Lord spoke enigmatically before the Passion about going away, and returning—but what 'going away' was he talking about?
Editor’s Notes
In this part, Fr. Coleridge tells us…
How Christ foretells his departure and return with a veiled phrase—“a little while”—to prepare the Apostles with gentleness and truth.
That even in announcing sorrow, he promises unshakable joy, transforming their grief into the very source of their consolation.
Why Christ avoids harsh detail, choosing instead language of calm mystery to sustain the peace created by the Blessed Sacrament.
He shows us that true consolation lies not in avoiding sorrow, but in having it turned into joy by the victory of the Resurrection.
Most of all, the “dual sense” of Christ’s words—pertaining to his Passion and Resurrection, as well as his Ascension and Second Coming—explain why these passages are read at this part of the Liturgical Year.
For more context on this episode, see here.
Parting Words
Passiontide, Part III, Chapter VI
Chapter VI
St. John xvi. 16-33, Story of the Gospels, § 156
Burns and Oates, London, 1886
His words about ‘A little while’
The next words recorded of Him are those in which He did what it yet remained for Him to do, that is, to break to them His own immediate departure, and this He does in the words which immediately follow.
‘A little while and now you shall not see Me, and again, a little while and you shall see Me, because I go to the Father.
‘Then some of the disciples said one to another, What is this that He saith to us, A little while and you shall not see Me, and again a little while, and you shall see Me, and because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He saith, A little while? We know not what He speaketh.
‘And Jesus knew that they had a mind to ask Him. And He said to them, Of this do ye inquire among yourselves, because I said, A little while and you shall not see Me, and again a little while, and you shall see Me?
‘Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice, and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in labour hath sorrow, because her hour is come, but when she hath brought forth the child she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
‘So also you now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you.’
His leaving them imminent
Thus in the most tender way did our Lord proceed to hint at the imminent nearness of His leaving them. He had spoken in very plain words of His Passion and of His Resurrection also, from the time at which their faith in His Divinity had become firm and clear, that is, from the time of the Confession of St. Peter. He had, indeed, several times over, and with ever increasing distinctness, spoken even of the details and circumstances of the Passion, the betrayal, the scourging, His being mocked and spit upon, and the like.
But now that the time was drawing so near, He said not a word of all these. He speaks as if He were merely about to depart, and come back again.
‘A little while and you shall not see Me.’
Under the little while He includes all that He had formerly predicted of the sufferings which were to end in His death, which He speaks of as His not being seen.
‘And again a little while and you shall see Me.’
Under this second little while He includes all the wonderful triumphs which were to ensue between His Death and Resurrection, after which they were to see Him again. He calls both the mysteries which He has in His mind by the same simple term of which He was so fond, especially on this last night of His Life—His going to His Father.
For in truth He went to His Father through His Passion, on which followed the Resurrection and Ascension. By His Resurrection He took up again the glory of His Body, which He had laid aside that He might die, and thus His Passion and Death were the causes and necessary preludes of His going to His Father as He did.
Perhaps our Lord used this language for the purpose of keeping back everything that might disturb or alarm the disciples, perhaps it was simply the language which it was most natural to use at the time, when the recent institution of the Blessed Sacrament, and the discourse which had followed on so many Divine mysteries of the faith, had created an atmosphere of peace and rapturous calm which would have been broken in upon rudely by the mention of the violences and outrages of the Passion.
Catholic critics will be aware that there exists another strain of interpretation of this passage which is maintained, after St. Augustine and St. Bede, by one of the most brilliant and ingenious of modern commentators, Maldonatus. According to this, the little time which our Lord speaks of in the first place is the interval which was to elapse between the time at which He spoke and the date of His leaving them at His Ascension, and the second little time was to be the period between the Ascension and the Second Advent at the end of the world.
The time between the last days of our Lord’s earthly course and His return to His Father was certainly not long, although we understand thereby not His Death, but His Ascension. Nor is there any great difficulty in understanding that He might speak of the interval between the Ascension and the Second Advent as a little time, for there are several texts of the New Testament which speak in that way, although they are qualified by others.
The first generation of faithful certainly thought ordinarily that the Day of Judgment was to come in their own time, or in the days immediately after them, and we know that the Apostles had sometimes to warn them that they must not be misled by the common misconception, which might involve some errors. There is a good deal in our Lord’s language which may seem to support the view of which we speak.
Seldom mention of the Ascension
But He seems rarely to have spoken of His Ascension till after the Resurrection, when it became the next of the great mysteries to follow in order of fulfilment.
It seems most natural to think that, in these words about the little time, He was breaking the truth as gently as He could to the disciples, who would think so much of the interval beyond which their immediate separation from their Lord was not to extend, and with that thought in His mind He is not likely to have omitted what would console and encourage them so much as His Resurrection after three days and His conversing with them for forty days from that date.
In this part of His discourse He was specially occupied in giving them all the consolation and in sparing them all the pain in His power. There is the same strain of loving consideration and delicate forbearance as to touching any sore point, as it were, running through the whole context.
He could hardly be silent about His return after the Resurrection
We cannot therefore think that it is quite in keeping with this consideration of our Lord that He should be supposed to have kept silence on a point which was so important to the consolation of the disciples as His revisiting them after the three days, and indeed it may be fairly said that the language in which He speaks in this passage of the affliction of the disciples is hardly consistent with the theory of which we are speaking.
‘You shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.’
This is intelligible of the condition of the Apostles before the Resurrection of our Lord, but not so easily intelligible of the whole period up to the Day of Judgment. In a certain sense it was true, as our Lord said, that in the world they should have tribulation, but at the same time He warned them that they were to have confidence because He had overcome the world. This sentence seems truly to describe their state during the period after the Ascension, when they certainly were not always weeping and lamenting, as a woman in travail, but had great tribulations to suffer, in the midst of which they were rejoicing and giving thanks.
The Apostles not understanding him
The Apostles did not understand Him, as it is easy to imagine, when we remember how little they had realized the many warnings which He had given them on these subjects. Moreover, ever since the departure of Judas, all that they had heard and seen must have produced an unbroken peace and sense of security in their minds.
They may have understood in a general way that our Lord’s departure was at hand, but it was quite new to them that He was to go immediately, although some of His words to St. Peter, earlier in the evening, might have aroused their fears. Then in His tender way He broke the truth to them in the words on which we are now commenting, and it seems that He spoke enigmatically, for the very purpose of arousing their attention and provoking their questions.
But at this time perhaps the great solemnity of the mysteries which He had been celebrating, and the unwonted fervour and Divine majesty of His language and actions, hushed them into silence to Him, although they spoke of their perplexity among themselves.
Subscribe now to never miss an article:
Parting Words
Here’s why you should subscribe to The Father Coleridge Reader and share with others:
Fr Coleridge provides solid explanations of the entirety of the Gospel
His work is full of doctrine and piety, and is highly credible
He gives a clear trajectory of the life of Christ, its drama and all its stages—increasing our appreciation and admiration for the God-Man.
If more Catholics knew about works like Coleridge’s, then other works based on sentimentality and dubious private revelations would be much less attractive.
But sourcing and curating the texts, cleaning up scans, and editing them for online reading is a labour of love, and takes a lot of time.
Will you lend us a hand and hit subscribe?
Follow our projects on Twitter, YouTube and Telegram: