John 16:22

Ye now therefore have sorrow.

It was because the hour had come. The "therefore" shows that there was something in their position analogous to that of. suffering mother, something more than the mere change from sorrow to joy. The figure is that of suffering endured and comforted by the thought that it is the needful pathway to joy. The time of that transition state, of travail with their Master, was now come. This, therefore, was the hour of sorrow, but when new life for humanity was born into the world as Christ burst the bonds of death, then rejoicing would come.

I will see you again.

The Lord refers here to his own appearance to them after his sufferings, which would turn their sorrow into joy. That joy would be stable, permanent. Their enemies might assail them, but "no man could take it" away. This began to be realized as soon as they knew their Lord was not holden of the pangs of death, but was fully consummated only when they were "endued with power from on high" on the day of Pentecost.