“For as the body is clad in the cloth, and the flesh in the skin, and the bones in the flesh, and the heart in the whole, so are we, soul and body, clad in the Goodness of God, and enclosed.”
St. Julian of Norwich
The Middle Ages were not a gentle, unblemished time, and yet so much of what we now believe about God came from that era. And among the most influential theological writers of that age, we find Julian of Norwich.
It’s possible that “Julian” was not her real name, and very little about her personal life is known. But we know that she was a well-respected anchoress living a life of solitude for much of her adulthood, and she wrote her book, Revelations of Divine Love, after having a series of visions during a near-fatal illness.
In the Revelations, Julian wrote extensively about God as a deeply loving presence, a mothering presence. Something intimate, something that grows alongside us and never leaves us. According to Julian, God is the Love from which all good things spring. We are enclosed and secure in His goodness, and He reminds us that though life may be dark and grief-stricken, we can be sure that “all shall be well.”
It’s likely that Julian’s fervent passion for this subject was unusual for the time; it’s certainly unusual even now in Christian thought.
In honor of Julian, I believe it is especially important for us to consider what we mean when we say “God is love”, something modern Christians repeat so often that it becomes rote.
Think about it. Is there any more misunderstood word than love? To act with love is to act with sacrifice, large or small. When we choose a loving act—generosity, self-sacrifice, openness, gentleness, compassion—do we see God moving in it? Do we feel His presence? And do we understand that every act of love, no matter how tiny, has its roots in Him?
Julian believed that God was the Source. That without God, any love is impossible. And even further: that the very existence of love is the proof of God’s reality, nature, personality, and utter goodness.
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I love your tender writing! I love Julian of Norwich too. I have two thoughts: one is that Jesus compared himself to a mother hen - I learned after I had left the church and what is now deemed orthodox Christianity (although I think the church was hijacked by Patriarchy before the bible was official and all that - ) but I learned later, when I aligned to Christ consciousness and Yeshua more than the Jesus of evangelicals or progressives in buildings with steeples or cement or even the ones that meet in coffee shops with bibles...that Mother hens will try to scare off predators, but if they cannot, they will spread their wings over their chicks and sacrifice their lives to protect them. On the other hand, sacrifice is often elevated as unconditional love in its highest for and there is another kind love that I think is about to arrive: the unconditional love that dares to thrive - to model not martyrdom, but the forgiveness that robustly chooses to thrive beyond the expectations or situations of the external world and to boldly model this radical act of self AND other love...that a joyful, prosperous, abundant, golden life is possible and contagious and that we all are worthy to receive our own love, as beings made in none other than the image of Source, Creator, Love, God, Sophia - as creations the WE ARE THE WORD that was spoken and declared GOOD! <3 <3 <3