You will weep and mourn, but your grief will become joy. Jesus was definitely referring to his impending death and resurrection, that although his death will fill the disciples with grief, their grief will be short-lived for after three days, good would overcome evil as Jesus would rise from the dead. In verses that follow, Jesus compares it to the entire birth process, that the joy experienced at the sight of a new life supersedes the labor pangs that the mother might have gone through. However, I also believe that the resulting joy that Jesus talks about results from the vindication that Jesus’ death brings about. For although Jesus’ death was seen as marking the end of the new order Jesus was proclaiming, it was instead to become the beginning of a new world order. What was seen as the last nail in the coffin of pessimism (“we had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel” cf. Luke 24:21) was turned into an occasion for songs of thanksgiving and praise (Responsorial Psalm of today). It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that we remember each time we gather of a Eucharistic service. It is what was seen as the beginning of the end that has become an occasion for recalling the wonders that God has continually wrought on our behalf. In the death of Jesus Christ, God has scored a vital victory, the salvation of men and women (the will of God is that all come to the knowledge of salvation [cf. I Tim 2:4]). It is in the death of Jesus that we are reunited with God.