Earle: Julian
“Then, with a glad face, our Lord looked into his side, and gazed rejoicing; and with his dear gaze he led his creatures’ understanding through the same wound into his side. And then he revealed a beautiful and delightful place which was large enough for all humankind who shall be saved to rest there in peace and love.” Mary Earle, “Long Text 24,” Julian of Norwich, Selections from Revelations of Divine Love, annotated and explained (SkyLight Paths 2013), p. 69.
Episcopal priest and well-known writer, Mary Earle, has been the keynote speaker at the Community of Hope International meeting at Camp Allen. Her topic was “Julian of Norwich and the Oneing Love of God.” Julian was a 14th-century English mystic perhaps best known for her sayings, “All shall be well. All shall be well,” and her Revelations of Divine Love, her reflections on a series of visions or showings she received when she was near death. The writings are in two parts, Short Text written soon after the visions and Long Text written much later, thought to be the earliest book written by a woman in Middle English.
We know so little of her life and even her name, except that in later life, she became an anchoress to St. Julian Church in Norwich, living in a walled-off cell connected to the church. Julian lived in a difficult time before the Reformation during the 100 Years War between England and France, as well as during three outbreaks of the deadly Black Plague caused by a bacteria living in the fleas of rats, which decreased the population of Europe by one-half. There also was a lack of leadership in the church with the Great Western Schism when there were two and sometimes three popes.
All this is to say that most people must have felt like the world was coming to an end! But amidst this comes Julian’s message from her mystical experience, not with an angry God who must have retribution, but with the God of love. This God of love comes to her through her relationship and visions of the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Earle believes wherever Julian mentions Jesus, she means the Trinity, God in three parts. First, Julian saw and felt God’s love for all humanity through God’s suffering. Second, Julian believed we could enter into a mystical relationship with God through suffering. Like the disciple Thomas, we might enter into a wound in Jesus’ side and find a place large enough for all humanity to rest in peace and love. Third, we could be like Nicodemus, born again through pain and suffering.
Earle suggests that instead of arguing about how Jesus was born of Mary, our energy should be concerned about whether Jesus and God’s deep love are being born in us.
This is our ministry as spiritual friends to help others see not a vengeful, hall monitor God, but the God of love calling and caring for us even in the darkest times, as we, with the loving God of Julian’s understanding, stand beside our friends in their pain and suffering so well-known by our God.
