Ancient Anglican

This union between each of us and the Trinity, this at-one-ment, this final reconciliation is what salvation constitutes. Everything – the Incarnation, the Cross, the Resurrection – works towards this ultimate union between the divine and human when “all will be made well.”

The compassionate love of God in Christ that bridges the separation between the Divine and the Human, works through us and bridges the separation between all of us. Loving God and loving your neighbor all arise out of the compassion that Jesus has for us if we will but see it.   

In Revelation Eleven, Mary becomes the representative of all of humanity. Therefore, just as Christ glorifies Mary, so will he glorify all of us as well.

Christ suffered, not only for us but with us. In the Incarnation, he who knew no sin, nonetheless suffered with us in our sins so that we may be at one with him and overcome our sufferings. And in the overcoming of our sufferings, God in Trinity takes great pleasure and eternal delight.

Julian understands that ultimately it is Christ’s love for us that made him suffer. Although his suffering occurred but one time, she sees that his love “was without beginning and is and ever shall be without end.” The suffering exists for a moment, but the love of Christ endures.

God’s very real presence in our lives is unaffected by how we are feeling. She ends this Revelation with the insight that “bliss lasts forever, and pain passes and will come to nothing.”

Julian understands that the devil is still active in the world, but she sees that Christ’s victory means that whatever evil the devil does, God turns it into joy for us and sorrow for him.

Julian’s physical vision of the Crown of Thorns gives way to a spiritual vision of Jesus enwrapping us, enfolding us, embracing us, and wholly enclosing us within his love so that we can never be truly parted.

Julian gives us a living example of how the good dirt of the parable becomes receptive to the seeds. Julian never asked for her revelations or even for intellectual insight or eternal salvation. Rather, she only asked to know Jesus better.

It is within this time of war, plague, social rebellion, and religious division that Julian receives and transmits to us, her revelations of God’s tenderness and care and that “all will be well.”

Ultimately, the prophetic imagination does not simply herald the reversal of the socio-economic order, but the overcoming of Death, Hell, and the spiritual forces of darkness.

It is Jesus’s crucifixion that is his decisive criticism of the royal consciousness that must have order. Jesus was not killed by the rabble but by the religious and political authorities of the day.