Then said Jesus, »This night all of you will stumble and fail in your fidelity to me; for it is written, `I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered in all directions.'
»Can the bridegroom's party mourn,« He replied, »as long as the bridegroom is with them? But other days will come (when the Bridegroom has been taken from them) and then they will fast.
No one mends an old garment with a piece of unshrunk cloth. Otherwise, the patch put on would tear away from it– the new from the old– and a worse hole would be made.
Then, turning to His disciples, He said, »There will come a time when you will wish you could see a single one of the days of the Son of Man, but will not see one.
Dear children, I am still with you a little longer. You will seek me, but, as I said to the Jews, `Where I am going you cannot come,' so for the present I say to you.
»Yet it is the truth that I am telling you–it is to your advantage that I go away. For unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.«
I am now no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to Thee. »Holy Father, keep them true to Thy name –the name which Thou hast given me to bear– that they may be one, even as we are.
»But now I am coming to Thee, and I speak these words while I am in the world, in order that they may have my gladness within them filling their hearts.«
He who has the bride is the bridegroom; and the bridegroom's friend who stands by his side and listens to him, rejoices heartily on account of the bridegroom's happiness. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.
Heaven must receive Him until those times of which God has spoken from the earliest ages through the lips of His holy Prophets–the times of the reconstitution of all things.
Do not refuse one another, unless perhaps it is just for a time and by mutual consent, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and may then associate again; lest the Adversary begin to tempt you because of your deficiency in self-control.
Then there came one of the seven angels who were carrying the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues. »Come with me,« he said, »and I will show you the Bride, the Lamb's wife.«