Fifth Sunday in Lent

Those who go out weeping,
   carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
   carrying sheaves with them.” (Psalm 126)

It is one of the enduring mysteries of our faith: how does God turn
struggle, suffering, and even death into something good? Yet we see
that promise in today's Psalm. And we see it in today's reading from
Isaiah: our God is the one who makes a way in the wilderness and makes
streams flow in the desert places. We see it in the Gospel: Jesus'
suffering and death turns into a universe-changing triumph.

It is a mystery we cannot explain, but it is nevertheless a truth we
cling to. Healing for the nations has been a promise of God since the
beginning--and we see it in Jesus, we see it in the giving of the Holy
Spirit, we see it in John's Revelation (though there, too, suffering
gives way to goodness and healing).

The seeds in the Psalm are hope. Like Israel, we also go out with
hope, and some days or months we do this with weeping. But a fifteenth
century Christian mystic concluded, “All shall be well and all shall
be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” She was right. That's
God's promise to those who trust in him: all shall be well.

That doesn’t necessarily take the hurt or struggle away right now, but
looking to Jesus and to promises fulfilled through him, hanging on
tightly in faith and hope, will help us through.