Tonight, we will be concluding our study of Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love. We will be discussing Revelations Fourteen through Sixteen and her concluding remarks. pp.26-36; Short Text §§19-25; Long Text §§41-84. Please take the time to allow these texts to draw you into a deeper understanding and relationship with Jesus.
Revelation Sixteen: Blessed Assurances: (pp.31-32, §22 short text, §§67-68 long text)
The first fifteen revelations all happened in immediate succession while Julian had passed out as a result of her illness. At the end of the Fifteenth Revelation, Julian awakens at about three in the afternoon. She is in pain and spiritually dry, and she doubts whether her revelations were true.
Later that night, while she was still awake, Jesus opened her spiritual eyes and came to her one last time. In this Sixteenth and Final Revelation, he showed Julian her soul. She saw her soul as a glorious city, in the middle of which sat Jesus, and her soul was at peace and at rest. Jesus assured Julian that he would always be with her and she with him. Julian’s vision should remind us of John’s vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21.
In this Final Revelation, Jesus also assured her that “it was he who had revealed everything to me before.” Jesus specifically tells her “‘Be well aware that what you saw today was no delirium, but accept it and believe it, and hold to it, and you shall not be overcome.”
Julian emphasizes Jesus’s assurance that “she shall not be overcome.” She tells us that Jesus “did not say ‘You shall not be perturbed, you shall not be troubled, you shall not be distressed, but that ‘You shall not be overcome.” She wants us to know that (i) God loves us, (ii) God is pleased with us, (iii) God wants us to love, please, and trust him, and (iv) all shall be well regardless of what trouble may come our way. With this understanding, her visions ended.
Concluding Remarks (pp.32-36, §§23-25 short text, §§69-86 long text)
Julian ends her work by wanting to say more about the spiritual visions that she was given. (If you remember, she said that her revelations were by bodily sight, words formed in her understanding, and spiritual visions that she had difficulty placing into words.) In these concluding remarks, she writes about two kinds of sicknesses and four kinds of fear.
We suffer from two sicknesses: Impatience and Despair. Both arise because we doubt the Love of God. Too often, we want to push things forward to their conclusion. Then, when our schedule is not met, we fall into depression or anxiety. Impatience is a failure to trust God, God’s timing (kairos), and God’s Love.
The second sickness is Despair. Julian says that most of us believe that God can do everything, God knows how to do everything, and God is willing to do everything. Yet, we refuse to believe and we doubt that God forgives us. Most (all?) of us continually dwell on our past sins. But Julian reminds us that “God forgets our sin from the time we repent, so he wishes us to forget our sin, and all our depression, and all our doubting fears.” We must trust in God’s forgiveness and forget our past sins as he has.
Julian concludes her work by writing about four kinds of fear: fear of attack, fear of punishment, doubting fear, and reverent fear. The first two fears have some usefulness in turning us towards God. The third fear is hateful to God. The final fear, however, arises from being in the presence of God’s holiness and power. This fear, unlike the other three, is sweet and gentle and lacks terror. It is the only truly good fear. This fear can never trouble us or cause us turmoil. Rather it is this fear that shows us that we are secure within God’s Love and leads us towards peace and rest. Any fear that does not lead us towards that peace that passes all understanding is not from God and should be resisted.
SCHEDULE:
- My sermon on Trinity Sunday (including the video) is HERE.
- Next week we start Paul’s letter to the Philippians. All you will need is a Bible.
- On Wednesday, June 5 Cindy Craig begins a Beth Moore Bible Study on the Book of James. Her study meets from 10 am to noon at Messiah.
Dinner is at 6. The menu is pork roast. Discussion at 6:45. Hope to see you here.
And you to whom this book may come, thank our Saviour, Christ Jesus, intently and with all your heart that he vouchsafed these showings and revelations of his endless love, mercy, and goodness for you and to you, so as to be your and our safe guide and safe-conduct to everlasting bliss – which may Jesus grant us! Amen. §86, Long Text