"I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.  You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.  A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anquish because of her joy that a child is born into the world" (John 16:20-21).

I'm trying to imagine what Jesus was feeling at the moment He said these words to His disciples.  They had eaten their last meal together and he had shared the last of His incarnational teaching with them.  Judas was already gone to tell the opposition where to find Jesus, and the cross was perhaps no more than twelve hours away.  Though He had been warning them for  months by this time, they were still not prepared for what was coming.  He looks at them and in the middle of trying to teach them about the Holy Spirit realizes they are not really listening.  They are stuck on a minor point they can't make out.