The Shewings of Julian of Norwich: Part V (Conclusion)

A Summary of the Last Revelation

As part of my Theology and Literature class, I completed 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, the second, the third, and the fourth. I have italicized the sections where the shewings proper are described.

In ch. 66, Julian reminds us that the whole time that she was given the first fifteen revelations, her pain and bodily sickness had been taken away. But as they came to a close, all the pain and sickness came rushing back. As she was lying there someone asked how she was doing, and she mentioned that she had “raved” or had delirious hallucinations. She no longer believed her visions were real, the moment the pain and sickness came back. Julian sees this failure of belief as a great sin, but she also chalks it up to weakness and forgetfulness. It had been her purpose in her will to remain strong in her belief no matter what happened. But this failing showed her how she, left to herself, is nothing.

In ch. 67, Julian while sleeping sees a horrible vision of the devil trying to strangle her, and when she wakes she sees smoke and a bad smell as if the place is on fire. But this time she trusts in her visions and the faith of the Church and makes it through the temptation.

In ch. 68, Julian has a spiritual vision of her soul as a city in which Jesus Christ dwells and sits as the God-man. The Trinity fashioned the human soul as perfect as possible, and it is God’s “homeliest home.” For this reason, we can’t be happy with any lower creature, or even with gazing at ourselves, but only beholding God, the ground of our soul. He himself is the light of the city. Julian is told on behalf of all her fellow Christians that she will not be overcome.

In ch. 69, the devil tempts Julian again with his heat and stench, and she also hears two people busily whispering like they were holding a meeting. This is supposed to make her despair of prayers like the rosary. 

In ch. 70, Julian busies herself with staying firm in her faith, looking at the cross and rehearsing to herself the faith of the Church. She makes it through the temptations and scorns the devil’s pointless attempts. She says that after her doubting of her visions, God showed them all to her again even more fully and encouraged her to make them the ground of her faith from then on.

In ch. 71, Julian recommends keeping this faith in the struggle against our blindness and our enemies inside and outside of ourselves. Without struggling against enemies, we would not grow and receive our reward. Julian recalls the three countenances of Christ. There is the face he showed in his passion, which comforts us in pain and woe. There is the face he shows in pity and mercy when we sin. And there is the face of joy and reward he will show us in heaven, which we receive glimpses of in this life.

In ch. 72, she describes how she sees “mortal sin” in those she knows are destined for deathless life. She writes that our sin can blind us to God’s presence in us, so that we are from our perspective dead to him. But we are not dead or in mortal sin from God’s perspective. Christ has enclosed us in him, but we need to weep and burn with desire until we see him fully. Therefore we have reason to rejoice and reason to weep. We should know God, and our self, and that our true self is against our sin.

In ch. 73, Julian writes of the two sins that we are most tempted by, in our spiritual blindness and bodily heaviness. They are impatience/laziness and despair. Against both, Julian recommends contemplating God’s love and the patience he showed on the cross. We often hate ourselves and despair due to seeing our everyday sins, and we think this is humility. But this scrupulosity is actually blindness and wickedness. God forgets our sins and he wants us to forget them to prevent us from despairing or becoming dejected.

In ch. 74, Julian writes of four types of dread. The first two, dread of sudden attack and dread of pain can be spiritually beneficial when we endure them, are purged, and flee to God. The third dread, doubtful dread, is never good, for God never wants us to despair or doubt his goodness. The fourth is reverent dread, and only this dread is good for its own sake. Anyone who really loves Godhas it, whether they feel it strongly or not. The test of dreads is whether they lead you to flee to God as a child to its mother.

In ch. 75, the thirst of God is revealed to be to have the general man (humanity as a totality) in him, receiving the members that fill out the body of Christ. What God longs for, and what causes all God does and suffers, is our bliss and fulfillment. It is wonder at this that causes us to dread and causes the pillars of heaven to tremble and quake. It is a quaking out of joy.

In ch. 76, Julian says she doesn’t want to say much about this reverent dread, but everyone who is saved has it. We should hate sin’s horribleness more than we fear any punishment of hell. This is wisdom: to fasten ourselves to our everlasting Friend. This is folly: to be dragged down by fear and not gaze upon the homely and courteous face of our divine Friend.

In ch. 77, Julian reflects again on the devil’s unmight. His defeat by our rising merits laughter. She speaks of how we should trust in the goodness of God’s punishments, and view this life as already a prison and penance (our purgatory) and also, through Christ’s presence, our heaven. God, who is homeliness in person, wants us to be homely without leaving courtesy behind.

In ch. 78, Julian writes of how God doesn’t fully show us the horribleness of our sin because we can’t bear it without the sight of his mercy. She reflects again on what we should know: 1) God as our ground, 2) God as our keeper when in sin, 3) God’s courteousness in point out our sin, and 4) God’s changeless face towards us the whole time.

In ch. 79, Julian states that her revelation that she would sin is intended for the general man, of which she is a member. Again, the test of whether something is from God or the devil is whether it leads us into God’s comforting embrace. God does not want us to “abide” in accusing ourselves, because he “abides” us constantly.

In ch. 80, Julian emphasizes how human reason, the teaching of the Church, and the inward working of the Holy Spirit all stem from one and the same God. These are an alphabet, so to speak, that we learn anticipating the fullness we will one day have. God will dwell alone with every soul that shall be saved until they reach bliss. God does everything alone, rather than angels or intermediaries, and when we fail Christ is there alone in us preserving and maintaining us. But he wants us not to leave him alone.

In ch. 81, Julian notes that although God is with his creatures in all kinds of ways, the only place he finds to dwell is man’s soul, in the Incarnation and through it also in our sense-soul. He descends into his city never to leave. We should rejoice in this love rather than focus on our failings. God views our whole life as penance or purgation, and too should set our hearts on the passing over from pain to bliss.

In ch. 82 Julian reflects on the idea that we are not kept from all sin, and God’s lovers are not expected to make it through this life without venial sin. She connects this back to the parable of the Lord and the Servant, in which God does not blame us. In God’s beholding we do not fall, and in our beholding we do not stand. Both are true, but God’s is the higher truth. We should keep both in mind until we reach bliss, but focus far more on God’s perspective.

In ch. 83, Julian focuses on three key properties of God, life, light, and love. She sees them in her reason, which is united to God and our highest gift. God measures to us in this life the light which is himself, so that the night does not overcome us. We do not see it fully until the time of bliss, when our eyes will be opened to Himself, our endless day.

In ch. 84, Julian identifies this light with charity, and discusses uncreated, created, and given charity, all of which are involved in our salvation.

In ch. 85, Julian writes that God beholds us and everything in the light of what he has ordained eternally and without beginning. We should believe in this love which is the work he is doing in us. In the end, we will not say how we wish things might have been, but we will see that all is well and everything has been done according to God’s eternal will.

In ch. 86, Julian says that this book is begun but not yet performed, because we all must pray together for the charity it speaks of and come to know more and more what was revealed in it. Julian asked to know what God meant by all this, and she was told that love was his meaning. It came from love, is meant to produce love, and speaks of the one who is love. We don’t know everything, but we know that however deep we go we will not run into something - or better Someone - other than that Love which gave us our beginning in time but is Himself, just as our destiny, without beginning.

In the postscript, the scribe hopes that this text will come to people who are able to dwell in it, remaining faithful to the church and following the guidance of wise spiritual guides. Don’t just take from it the parts you like, for that is the signature of the heretic. The revelations are grounded in Scripture, and Jesus, our Lover, will reveal and verify their content to everyone who comes to him.