6 On this point, also, in reference to what has been said above, I think we may get a still better understanding of the words, “A little while, and you shall no more see me: and again a little while, and you shall see me.” For the whole of that space over which the present dispensation extends, is but a little while; and hence this same evangelist says in his epistle, “It is the last hour.” For in this sense also He added, “Because I go to the Father,” which is to be referred to the preceding clause, where He says, “A little while, and you shall no more see me;” and not to the subsequent, where He says, “And again a little while, and you shall see me.”
For by His going to the Father, He was to bring it about that they should not see Him. And on this account, therefore, His words did not mean that He was about to die, and to be withdrawn from their view till His resurrection; but that He was about to go to the Father, which He did after His resurrec tion, and when, after holding intercourse with them for forty days, He ascended into heaven. He therefore addressed the words, “A little while, and you shall no more see me,” to those who saw Him at the time in bodily form; because He was about to go to the Father, and never thereafter to be seen in that mortal state wherein they now beheld Him when so addressing them.
But the words that He added, “And again a little while, and you shall see me,” He gave as a promise to the Church universal: just as to it, also, He gave the other promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” The Lord is not slack concerning His promise: a little while, and we shall see Him, where we shall have no more any requests to make, any questions to put; for nothing shall remain to be desired, nothing lie hidden to be inquired about. This little while appears long to us, because it is still in continuance; when it is over, we shall then feel what a little while it was.
Let not, then, our joy be like that of the world, whereof it is said, “But the world shall rejoice;” and yet let not our sorrow in travailing in birth with such a desire be unmingled with joy; but, as the apostle says, be “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation;” for even the woman in travail, to whom we are compared, has herself more joy over the offspring that is soon to be, than sorrow over her present pains. But let us here close our present discourse, for the words that follow contain a very trying question, and must not be unduly curtailed, so that they may, if the Lord will, obtain a more befitting explanation.
Source: Tractates on the Gospel of John (New Advent)