18. So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ [of which he speaks]? We do not know what he means.”
19. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing with one another what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’?
20. Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.
21. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
22. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.
23. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
24. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
25. “I have told you this in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father.
26. On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.
27. For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have come to believe that I came from God.