The Shewings of Julian of Norwich: Part II
A Summary of Revelations 8-13
As part of my Theology and Literature class, I am working on a summary of Julian’s Shewings. I thought I would post them here in case someone might find them helpful. Here is the first installment. I have italicized the sections where the shewings proper are described
Eighth Revelation, Continued: God Suffers With Us, We Suffer With God
In ch. 18, Julian saw the compassion Lady Saint Mary had for Christ in feeling with him the sufferings of his passion. Julian reflects that true lovers care for their beloved more than for themselves, and so feel intense sorrow when they are suffering. In Mary, God preserved the substance of natural love (the deepest desire of our true self) from being tainted by sin. All creatures felt something of his passion, for the nature within them recognized its maker.
In ch. 19, Julian, offered the chance to look up to heaven rather than to the cross on her deathbed, chooses Jesus to be her heaven. She wants no heaven but him, even this is currently experienced as woe and suffering. She realizes that she has always, in her inner self or natural will, chosen this. If she has occasionally wished otherwise on the level of her outer self, her inner self has always willed to be united with Jesus and will eventually get her outward self to follow.
In ch. 20, Julian marvels at Jesus’ suffering in his passion, which was more than any human being has suffered or could suffer. Christ’s divinity gave his humanity the power to endure this suffering. The highest (God himself) suffered the lowest possible condemnation. He suffered with us then and suffers with us now even after being exalted, in some mysterious way.
In ch. 21, Julian suddenly sees - right as he seemed about to die - Jesus’ face turned to joy and hears him saying “where is your pain now?” No pain here below needs to trouble us, she thinks, because we will have an intimate knowing of God eternally which we would not have had except through it.
Ninth Revelation: God’s Liking is Our “Liking”
In ch. 22, Julian hears Jesus asking her if she is pleased by his suffering on her behalf. She says yes, and sees three heavens. Humanity that shall be saved is Jesus’ reward or crown for his suffering, with which he is pleased. Jesus reveals he would suffer more if he could, and his work for our salvation could not have been better done than it was.
In ch. 23, Julian identifies the three heavens with the pleasure of the Father (joy), the worship of the Son (bliss), and the delight of the Holy Ghost (endless liking). Having previously seen four visions of Christ’s suffering in the passion, she now sees the joy. God is a “glad giver” who forgets the anguish so long as the recipient is pleased.
Tenth Revelation: Jesus’ Wounds Make Room for Us in God
In ch. 24, Julian sees Jesus looking into the wound in his side, and directing her to look there as well. It is his broken heart. Inside is room enough for all mankind that shall be saved. Then he says to her “see how I love you.”
Eleventh Revelation: The Point of Lady Mary is Us
In ch. 25, Julian is asked by God, “do you want to see Mary?” She realizes Mary is the highest and most delightful of God’s creatures to see, other than Christ’s humanity. But she is denied a bodily vision of Mary in favor of a spiritual vision of her virtues. And God says he exalted Mary out of love of Julian and all her fellow Christians and for their benefit.
Twelfth Revelation: The Meaning and Longing of All Things? “I It Am.”
In ch. 26, Julian sees the Lord Jesus more glorious than she has ever seen him before, beyond all telling. She realizes he is the only one in whom the soul can have rest. He says to her: “I it am”: the one you desire, the one you intend in every action, the one who is all things, and yet the very same one the ordinary church doctrine teaches you about.
Thirteenth Revelation: Be Comforted: Sin is Behovely and All Shall Be Well
In ch. 27, Julian wonders why God permitted sin, which seems to be what is holding us back in our longing for him. If it hadn’t existed, she thinks, all would be well. The Lord Jesus says to her that sin is behovely and all shall be well. By sin is included here everything which is not good, pains, and suffering (especially Christ’s passion) which purge and purify us. But she doesn’t actually see sin because it has no being or substance. Christ comforts her and doesn’t blame her for questioning him. She realizes that God will let us know in heaven the secret of why he allowed sin.
In ch. 28, Julian realizes that our sin, rather than causing God to blame us, is something for which Christ has compassion. Christ allows everyone he loves to go through humiliating things which, although despised by the world, are no lack in his perspective. We suffer nothing alone, he has compassion and any time we have compassion on others, it is Christ in us. He is the ground of everything we go through and sees us ultimately as innocent.
In ch. 29, Julian keeps pressing further. Seeing how much harm Adam’s sin has caused, how can all be well? Christ confirms that Adam’s sin caused the most harm of anything, but Christ’s repayment of that debt far outweighs it. And if good comes out of the worst harm caused, how much more all lesser harms and evils?
In ch. 30, Julian realizes that everything which is relevant to our salvation is openly revealed to all, but that like any Lord, Jesus has a secret counsel about things which don’t directly bear on our salvation which we don’t need to know now.
In ch. 31, the Lord Jesus tells her that he may, can, and will make all things well, and she will see it herself. She interprets this in terms of the Father (may), the Son (can), and the Holy Ghost (will), and our being welcomed into the Trinity (you will see it yourself). She refers back to Christ’s thirst, which will not be ended until we are welcomed into the Trinity. Christ as head cannot suffer, but he suffers in his members until his thirst for our salvation is quenched. Thirst and longing for us is a property of God.
In ch. 32, Julian says “all things” being well suggests no thing, no matter how small, shall be forgotten. There will be a “great deed” done by God at the end which shall make all things well, but we don’t know what it is or how it will make all things well without contradicting other things God has said. She knows, for instance, the Church’s teaching about damnation, but despite this Christ insists that all shall be well.
In ch. 33, Julian notes that she did not see in her vision hell and purgatory, even though she asked, and definitely did not see the Jews being damned for killing Jesus. But she insists that her visions did not lead her away from her faith as taught by the Church.
In ch. 34, she distinguishes between the secrets of God that he wants us to know but are hidden from us due to our blindness, and those he will show us when the time is right.