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In a world of discord, violence, and strife, amidst crises in our families and in our personal lives, we yearn for God to “speak” to us – to bring justice and mercy, to heal and forgive. Julian of Norwich felt the same way. She longed for meaning to the suffering and persecution in her own world. She ached for clarity in a sea of doubt and questions. That is why her Revelations of Divine Love “speak” to us at such a profound and reassuring level. Julian sought “sekernesse” – security, safety, certainty. So do we. She longed for a love that would never fail. So do we. She learned to trust the Christ who told her “alle shalle be wele”—in spite of how bad things looked all around her. So must we.
What gave Julian the foundation of her faith and hope and love? She was steeped in sacred Scripture. She did not own a Bible; only a few wealthy aristocrats did in her time. And anyway, the Bible was in Latin which, by her own account, she could not read. The Lollard Bible translations into English were considered heretical in her lifetime and forbidden by the church. Anyone who read or discussed them was subject to trial and severe punishment. Then how did Julian imbibe the Scriptures? By hearing. By listening to sermons, by being drawn in to the Corpus Christi mystery and passion plays of her time, and by praying the psalms (there was a Lay Folk’s prayer book that included translations of the psalms for daily practice). Throughout her sixteen Revelations, Julian makes numerous references to sacred Scripture. She may misquote the exact texts, but she knows the true meaning “by heart.” She also references St. Paul in many of her teachings. And in writing of God as our life, love, and life, she echoes John the evangelist. The Great Deed Precisely because she was steeped in stories of the Old and New Testament, especially the Gospels, she trusted that God had a plan of salvation and vindication that would be fulfilled—no matter how many evil deeds seemed to thwart it. She was given a revelation about a “Great Deed” that gave her immense comfort: For this is the great deed that our lord God shall do, in which deed he shall save his word in alle thing and he shall make wele all that is not wele. But what the deed shall be, and how it shall be done, there is no creature beneath Christ who knows it, nor shall know it, till it is done, according to the understanding that I took of our lord’s meaning at this time. Julian also took comfort in remembering all the great deeds that Christ has done in the past. She believed it is God’s will “that we have great regard for all the deeds that he [Christ] has done” already and in such profusion, because then we will more readily “know, trust, and believe all that he shall do.” Yet she warned that we must not try to conjure up what the Great Deed will be. Instead, we must become more like the saints in heaven who want nothing but what God wills. Then shall we only rejoice in God and be well apaid [satisfied] both with hiding and showing. For I saw truly in our lord’s meaning, the more we busy ourselves to know his privities in that or in any other thing, the further shall we be from the knowing. A Second Deed Julian also understood that there will be a “second deed’ that will be known sooner (that is, when we die and enter heaven), while the Great Deed will not be revealed to anyone in heaven or on earth until it is accomplished at the end of the world. Let us also steep ourselves in the vibrant revelations of sacred Scripture, since we are blessed with the ability to read and meditate on it in our own language. Let us draw strength from the promises made to Abraham and Moses, to Mary and Joseph, and to countless other characters in the divine-human drama of sacred Scripture. Let us see in the stories of Scripture parallels to the story of our own lives. Then, like Julian, we will be fortified in hope and in secure trust that God’s will cannot and will not fail. PLEASE NOTE: Excerpts above are from Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life & Revelations of Julian of Norwich (Orbis Books), Copyright © 2013 by Veronica Mary Rolf. All rights reserved. This article may not be copied or reprinted without the express permission of the author.
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In the Thirteenth Revelation, Julian contemplated not only how “alle shalle be wele” but also, why there is so much evil in the world. She wrote:
There are many evil deeds done in our sight and such great harms suffered that it seems to us that it were unpossible [impossible] that ever it should come to a good end. Julian simply could not see how the problem of evil could be “made wele”: And upon this [evil] we look, sorrowing and mourning therefore, so that we can not rest ourselves in the blissful beholding of God as we should do. And the cause is this: that the use of our reason is now so blind, so low, and so simple, that we can not know the high, the marvelous wisdom, the might, and the goodness of the blissful trinity. The Effects of Evil Deeds Julian could not forget the brutalities that had torn apart the very fabric of her life. She had not been a cloistered nun or a distant observer of the sufferings of her age. She had seen peasants bound by ropes and dragged through the streets, hanging from the back of horse-drawn carts. She had watched severed heads be raised atop pikes on the walls of Norwich. She had witnessed the hands of thieves cut off as punishment. She knew about the evils perpetrated by immoral clergy and nobility alike. She had heard the stories of rape, murder, and pillage from the war. She had held her disconsolate evencristens, crying aloud in her arms. She had spent years “sorrowing and mourning” and been unable to rest “in the blissful beholding of God.” More than once, she must have asked the question that has no human answer: how could such evil deeds ever come to a good end? Julian was painfully aware that the presence of evil impacts all who look on it, listen to it, smell it, touch it. The effects of evil deeds wreak havoc in our emotional lives and test our faith in the goodness of God. The seeming triumph of evil that, for a time at least, goes unpunished, raises severe questions about God’s lack of intervention. The terrible sufferings produced by evil wear down our hope in ever being set free from its clutches. Evil disillusions and embitters our hearts, making us unable to love or trust God as we should. Evil arouses annoyance, fuels anger, feeds the desire for revenge. And in all this, we become unable to pray, to praise, and to give glory to God as we ought to do. We cannot rest in contemplating the pure goodness of God. We are worn out with weeping. Don't Despair Julian is admitting here that she knows this debilitating process only too well. She has looked on evil and been shaken to the core by her contact with it. Yet she refuses to blame God for evil. She insists that the cause of our despair over the all-pervasiveness of evil is that our reasoning minds are “so blind, so low, and so simple.” What she means is that we simply cannot comprehend the transcendence of the Trinity in its glorious wisdom, might, and goodness. We may find it easier to believe that God may not, can not, will not, and shall not save all humankind, and that we shall never see him make “alle manner of thing wele.” This is due to our inability to comprehend who God is and what God is capable of accomplishing. It is also symptomatic of our lack of faith. It takes a long time for us to allow God’s promise to filter through our fears and find a home deep in our injured psyches. And thus, this is what he means where he says: “Thou shalt see thyself that alle manner of thing shalle be wele,” as if he had said: “Take heed now, faithfully and trustingly, and at the last end thou shalt see truly in fullness of joy.” Take Heed! Julian insists we must take sharp notice of what Christ is saying. We must have faith and trust in his promises, most especially because we cannot see how this or that particular evil could ever “come to a good end.” We must hang on Christ’s words, counting on him to make all things well at the end of time, even though we have no idea how he will ever do it. We must believe that he can and wants to do it. Such belief does not arise easily. It is an acquired habit. It takes continual and determined practice. But if we do practice such belief, then “at the last end,” we will be able to “see truly in the fullness of joy” how Christ has done it. In these cruel times of persecution for so many millions of God’s beloved children, let us encourage one another to hang onto hope that Christ IS at work, caring and comforting, healing and reassuring, even though we know not how. Eventually, Justice will be done. Mercy will abound. As Mary sang in her Magnfcat: God will "bring down rulers from their thrones and lift up the humble." God "will fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty." And in our own times of trial, let us trust "mightily" that, as Julian understood, “Thou shalt see thyself that alle manner of thing shalle be wele.” PLEASE NOTE: Excerpts above are from Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life & Revelations of Julian of Norwich (Orbis Books), Copyright © 2013 by Veronica Mary Rolf. All rights reserved. This article may not be copied or reprinted without the express permission of the author. In her last Revelation, Julian understood that “our soul may never have rest in any thing that is beneath itself.” Furthermore, she realized that when the soul rises above all creatures in a state of contemplative prayer, it cannot even rest in beholding itself. It must set its concentration on the vastness of God’s presence within the soul. “For in man’s soul is God’s true dwelling,” and “the highest light and the brightest shining of the city” within that soul is God’s glorious love.
And what could make the soul happier than to know that God “delights in us, the highest of all his works”? For I saw in the same showing that if the blessed trinity might have made the human soul any better, any fairer, any nobler than it was, God should not have been fully pleased with the making of the soul. But because the trinity made the human soul as beautiful, as good, as precious a creature as it might make it, therefore the blessed trinity is fully pleased without end in the making of our soul. And God wills that our hearts be mightily raised above the deepnesse of the earth and all vain sorrows, and rejoice in him. Beholding Julian takes great comfort in this final Revelation that God dwells in her soul. And she is certain that God wants us all to take the same comfort through the practice of “beholding.” This was a delectable sight and a restful showing that is without end. And the beholding of this while we are here, it is very pleasant to God, and a very great benefit to us. And the soul that thus beholds, makes itself like to him that it is beheld, and oneth it in rest and in peace by his grace. And this was a singular joy and bliss to me that I saw him sit, for the security of sitting showed endless dwelling. This type of contemplative prayer (waiting on God, in stillness, without asking for anything) gives God great pleasure and the soul great profit. Such silent prayer forms the soul into a truer image and likeness of the very One who is being contemplated. Julian is especially delighted that she saw the Lord seated in her soul (rather than standing or moving), because sitting symbolizes the familiar rest one takes at home, in complete contentment, peace, and love. God is not going anywhere. It is we who rush about, too busy with our lives and too distracted by our sufferings to take time to experience his inward presence. He thirsts for us to “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Ps 46:10). And if we come to him with our labors and our heavy burdens, he promises to give us true rest (Mt 11:28). In spite of all the anger, hatred, and violence in the world, we, too, can find rest in contemplating the goodness of God and the salvation of Jesus Christ that is transforming all suffering into eternal honors. Julian’s fourteenth century was also a violent, tumultuous era. Nevertheless, Julian could rejoice on a daily basis that God’s true dwelling is forever in the human soul. As Christ said to his disciples: “the kingdom of God is within you” (Lk 17:21). Let us learn from Julian how to behold that divine reality and unconditional love within our souls. Then we ourselves may become sources of light, healing, and peace for the whole world. PLEASE NOTE: Excerpts above are from Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life & Revelations of Julian of Norwich (Orbis Books), Copyright © 2013 by Veronica Mary Rolf. All rights reserved. This article may not be copied or reprinted without the express permission of the author. In the Third Revelation, Julian of Norwich heard an outpouring of words from Christ within her soul: And all this he showed full blissfully, meaning thus: “See, I am God. See, I am in all thing. See, I do all thing. See, I never take my hands from my works, nor never shall without end. See, I lead all things to the end that I ordained it to, from without beginning, by the same might, wisdom, and love with which I made it. How should any thing be amiss?”
In an instant, Julian experiences not only that God IS, but that God is the underlying Reality of all things, whether or not she is able to “see” how this could be so . . . that God does all that is done, but that he “does no evil” . . . that God never removes his “hand” from that which he creates, nor ever has, nor ever shall . . . that God leads every single person and every single thing to the ultimate end for which it was created in the beginning . . . that God does all this with the same trinitarian “might, wisdom and love” with which he creates all that is. And finally, since such God-ness eternally IS, “How should any thing be amiss?” Julian is hearing the Spirit within her mind describe the world as it is forever being created by perfect Wisdom, not as it is falsified and corrupted by the ignorance and sinfulness of humankind. In this ecstatic experience of Divine Reality, everything is immaculate, blissful, perfectly ordered to its appropriate end. All is accomplished through God’s infinite power, wisdom, and love. Every tree is a divine image, every creature reflects its Creator, every human being walks in the garden of God’s love. There is no evil, no sin, no disorder. All is as it was created to be. Such is the kingdom of God. Yet . . . as sublime an insight as this was, Julian admits that her soul was greatly tested by this vision. “Thus mightily, wisely, and lovingly was the soul tested in this vision.” How could she call such a glorious Revelation “a test”? Perhaps because the two world views, one of the heavenly kingdom, and the other of the earthly existence Julian knew only too well, could not be reconciled in her mind. The teaching that all that is done on earth is done by God for the best possible “end” was still incomprehensible to her; it was not her normal way of viewing evil in the world. Given her life experience, she could not readily discount the violence and grave injustices she had seen, the sufferings she had undergone, the terrible toll of the plagues on her family and friends, the maimings and deaths of war, the pains of childbirth, the scandals of the papal schism, the Lollard heresies rampant in the church, the violence of the peasants’ revolt, the adultery, brutality, cheating, lying, and corruption of her evencristens in Norwich; the quarrels and jealousies within her own family; her own deep sense of wretchedness. There seemed to be no end to the many faces of cosmic evil and personal sin. One senses that, in spite of Julian's absolute certitude concerning the truth of this Revelation of “God in all things,” she simply could not fathom how God might be working in and through the evils of sin, suffering, and death to lead all things to a perfect ending, according to his divine purpose. She must have heard the rhetorical question in her mind: “How could any thing be amiss?” with a burst of joy one minute, and, in the next, been hit hard by the realization that obviously so much all around her was sorely amiss. (We may certainly identify with her in our own age of anxiety.) And we must remember that all during this revelation, Julian was still facing Christ on the cross, suffering for the sins of humankind. How could such agony have been part of God’s plan from all eternity? Julian implies here that she felt deeply mired in the human condition while God was showing her a divine dimension, a transcendent perspective beyond anything she could have imagined. And in this blessed moment she felt she was being tested, in the sense of being challenged to break open her mind to an entirely different plane of reality. Throughout her Revelations, Julian’s daring spirit will fly directly into the burning sun of divine revelation, only to fall back to earth like a blinded bird. True illumination never happens without a struggle, an intense contest between two versions of reality, human and divine. Julian’s agon was no different. She could not yet grasp the full implications of what God was revealing about the righteousness of all his works. Even so, Julian knew well that it behooved her to assent to the import of the vision “with great reverence,” whether or not she understood it, because she believed it to be true. “Then I saw truly that it behooved me to assent with great reverence, enjoying God.” The letter to the Hebrews spoke of faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1, italics added). Julian does not see or comprehend. Thus her faith is being tested. She feels called simply to rest for a while, and enjoy God. “Be still, and know that I am God!” sings the psalmist (Ps 46:10). “See! I am God,” cries the Holy Spirit within Julian. If, in the midst of our own sufferings, doubts, and debilitating fears, we also take time every day to rest a while in childlike trust, letting go and dropping into the arms of our loving Lord, then we, too, could find peace within the divine dimension, “enjoying God.” And then, we, too, might be privileged to experience how (in the divine dimension) everything is already being made well. May Julian be our inspiration to do so! PLEASE NOTE: Excerpts above are from Julian's Gospel: Illuminating the Life & Revelations of Julian of Norwich (Orbis Books), Copyright © 2013 by Veronica Mary Rolf. All rights reserved. This article may not be copied or reprinted without the express permission of the author. In the Tenth Revelation, while Julian of Norwich is immersed in contemplating Christ on the cross, she sees him gaze into the wound on his right side with a joyous expression. Through this shift in the focus of Christ’s eyes, Julian understands that he is inviting her to enter mystically, through the open wound, into the depths of his Sacred Heart. It is such a magnanimous gesture, like the resurrected Christ showing his five wounds to Thomas and inviting him to touch and “do not doubt but believe” (Jn 20:27).
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All text copyrighted © 2013-2018 by Veronica Mary Rolf. All rights reserved. No copying or reprints allowed without the express permission of the Author.  
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