Revelations of Divine Love

The discussion of prayer continues. Julian outlines three essential things that, according to God's will, must belong to our prayers: to know that God is the foundation from which our prayers arise; to pray in such a manner that our will is transformed into God's will; and to know God as the fruit and end of our prayers, being united to him in every way.

Our prayers must be accompanied by trust in God, otherwise they do not honor God and harm ourselves. If we feel that we have prayed for a long time and have not received what we desire, we should not become discouraged, but “wait for a better time”(102) or a better gift. God wants us to understand three things that we have before we even begin to pray: creation, redemption, and all the things we possess for our use. Seeing that God has already established these things, we should pray to him with confidence and trust. 

Prayer unites the soul to God; through prayer, the soul is aligned with God's will. God moves us to pray for what he has in mind to do; he is delighted when we entreat him to do his will. The most exalted prayer is to pray not for any particular thing but for God himself. In heaven, when we attain this highest good, we shall perceive God with all of our senses, endlessly contemplating him. 

The soul is created to see, contemplate, and love God. Julian outlines a scheme that mirrors the Holy Trinity: Truth sees God, wisdom contemplates God, and from these two issues a holy and wonderful delight in God. In doing all these things, the soul realizes the greatness of God and the littleness of the soul. 

Julian discusses how God's way of judging things differs from man's. God judges us according to the essence of our nature, and his judgment comes from his everlasting love and righteousness. His judgment can be harsh and painful, but Jesus corrects this harshness by his mercy and grace “through the power of [his] dear Passion” (106). Man, by contrast, judges in terms of his changeable sensory being, which makes his judgment wavering and unstable.

It is the natural desire of all of us to see and understand the two judgments, and consequently to recognize our failings and long for God's grace and the joy of heaven. Julian craves assurance that the two judgments are in harmony—that the teachings of the Church are true in the sight of God—and to see how both judgments apply to her life. She will illustrate this later with the parable of the lord and the servant. 

Man cannot completely know God and himself in this life. God reveals his mysteries only partially; therefore, we must live by faith and grace, submitting to the teachings of the Church as a simple child would do.

One of the things we must know about ourselves is that we are sinners. Yet God is incapable of anger, for he is pure goodness and through his goodness our soul is completely united to him. Thus, nothing can come between our soul and God. 

Julian discusses two duties of the soul: to wonder reverently, and to suffer meekly while always rejoicing in God. Our suffering comes from our own sin as well as from the fact that we are unable to see God clearly in this life. Lacking the immediate vision of God, we are “thrown back into ourselves” and are “tossed and troubled” (110) with the experiences of sin and suffering. 

Julian discusses the properties of mercy and grace and the rewards of bearing sorrow patiently. Julian describes mercy in feminine, and grace in masculine terms. To mercy belong the properties of motherhood and “tender love” (111), to grace the properties of honor and lordship. In heaven, we will experience such great comfort and bliss that we will rejoice in having suffered grief, since without it we might never have known God's love to the same degree. 

God is peace and love and is incapable of anger. Indeed, he “wears away and extinguishes our anger” (112) through the working of mercy and grace, and so makes us fit for heaven. God takes all our tribulations in this life and transforms them in heaven, so that when we arrive there, we will find them sweet and delectable. When the soul experiences inner peace, it is united to God. 

Despite the fact that sin weighs heavily upon us, God does not blame us for sin and never regards any soul as lost or dead. Julian marvels at this, but she is troubled by the seeming contradiction and desires assurance about how God truly sees us in our sin. She prays intensely for an answer, believing it a necessary thing for her to know in order to live rightly.

The answer comes in the form of a parable, which Julian describes and explains in this long chapter. God shows her the vision of a lord and his servant. The lord is sitting restful and dignified; the servant is standing reverently at the feet of the lord, waiting to do his will. Upon receiving his commission, the servant leaps up and runs in haste to carry it out. In doing so he falls into a slough and is badly hurt. He writhes and moans in pain and utter helplessness. The lord looks at the servant with compassion and tenderness, declaring that he will compensate him for his good will and suffering, giving him more glory than if he had never been injured.

Julian explains that the lord represents God, the servant represents Adam or humanity in general, and the servant's fall represents sin or the Fall of Man. Further, the servant also represents Jesus Christ, assuming human flesh for the salvation of mankind and thus carrying out his Father's (God's) will. Julian explains the significance of many other details of the parable, such as the dress of the characters and their color and condition. 

Julian describes the human condition as a “mixed state” of glory and woe. Because of the Fall we are darkened and blinded by sin. Yet we have the risen Jesus within us. Man's pitiable fall is balanced by Christ's glorious atonement. What God and Jesus are for us can be expressed in five joys: God is our father and mother and spouse; Jesus is our brother and savior.

Julian reasserts that even though they sin, those who will be saved do not truly consent to sin, due to the power of Jesus protecting them. The Lord is with us in three ways: in heaven, on earth, and in our souls. Because of our “mixed state,” we ought neither despair nor live heedlessly, but instead believe in God.

Julian expresses her conviction that the soul is united to God in an unbreakable bond. This is because the soul is made of uncreated substance (unlike the body, which is made of the slime of the earth) and so is like God. The soul is “a living creature, which, through his goodness and grace, will last in heaven forever, loving him, thanking him, praising him” (129). Thus, nothing can come between the soul and God.

This means that in those who will be saved, there is a higher nature which cannot consent to sin and which cannot be separated from God. God does not assign blame to those of his elect who fall into sin; he does not take any “human sin” more harshly than he took the “first sin”(128) of Adam. 

Julian continues to discuss the intimate union between God and the human soul. Our essential being is in God, and God in us: “God is God, and our essential being is a creation within God” (130). The Holy Spirit infuses faith into our soul, helping us to acquire other virtues. It is the working of grace within us that makes us God's children and helps us lead virtuous lives. 

Julian discusses what might be termed theological anthropology. Man has a double nature—a lower, sensory part and a higher, spiritual part. Yet the sensory part is grounded in nature, mercy, and grace, and thus acts as a ground from which we can receive gifts which lead to eternal life. In the Incarnation, the second person of the Trinity took on our sensory being. Both the sensory and spiritual parts suffered with Christ in his Passion; his spiritual part conquered and was glorified in heaven. Dwelling within our soul, Jesus helps us mature spiritually by giving us spiritual gifts, until such time as we achieve full stature and are fit for eternal life.

Julian describes the soul as a “created trinity” mirroring the uncreated Holy Trinity, known and loved from before time began. Because of this union, mankind shall be redeemed from “double death” (132). 

Our soul is so deeply grounded in God that it is easier to attain knowledge of God than to know our own soul. In order to know our soul—to know ourselves—we must first seek to know God. Yet paradoxically, we will never attain full knowledge of God until we first know our own soul; this will happen when our “sensory being is raised to our essential being”(134) through God's mercy and grace. Nature, mercy, and grace, working together, raise us up to heavenly joy and fulfillment. 

Julian continues her inquiry into the soul, mercy and grace, and faith and the virtues. This leads to a discussion of the Virgin Mary as our spiritual mother. She is so by virtue of being the mother of Christ, “for she who is mother of our Savior is mother of all who will be saved in our Savior” (136). But Julian goes one step further and describes Jesus also as our “true mother,” in whom we are spiritually born. 

In making us, God bound and united us indissolubly to himself. God esteemed human nature so highly that he assigned it to his own Son, the second Person of the Trinity. Julian outlines the properties of the Holy Trinity as she sees them: Father—fatherhood—power; Son—motherhood—wisdom; Holy Spirit—lordship—love.

Julian also describes the three parts of life: we exist—nature; we grow—mercy; we are completed—grace. Julian further relates all of this to the parts of man. Our essential being is God the Father; in Christ, our Mother-Savior, we have mercy and restoration, through our sensory being; and by the grace of the Holy Spirit we are made complete. 

It is the nature of God to do good for evil, and to turn our wickedness into blessedness through mercy and grace through Jesus, who is our mother, from whom we have our being. God is also our mother as well as our father and he is so in three respects: he is the ground of natural creation; he took on our nature (the motherhood of grace); and he enlarges us by his works.

Nature, mercy, and grace, working through the Trinity, produce moral virtues in us; the highest moral perfection of the soul consists in being humble, meek, and gentle. 

In this chapter, Julian develops her ideas about Jesus Christ as mother. God is mother as far as he is the creator, and he prepared Mary to be the mother of Christ and the spiritual mother of all the faithful. Jesus is also mother in that he “gives birth” to us spiritually through suffering in his Passion, just as a mother suffers pains in childbirth. But while our biological mothers bring us into the world to suffer and die, Jesus bears us into joy and eternal life. Jesus is also mother in that he feeds us with himself in the Eucharist. Jesus shows the motherly qualities of tender love, wisdom, and knowledge. As a mother raises her child to adulthood, so Jesus raises us spiritually, sometimes allowing us to be “beaten” to destroy our vices so that we may grow in virtue. 

Jesus gives us spiritual birth, like a mother, through his Passion. Like a parent, Jesus sometimes allows us to be broken in order to destroy our sin. But he is always there waiting for us with tender love and mercy: “If we fall, he quickly raises us by calling us tenderly and touching us with grace” (143). He wants us to develop the nature of a child, always trusting in the love of his mother “in weal and woe” (144). Jesus’s words to Julian—“I hold you quite safely”—suggest to Julian that he performs the function of a nurse, concerned with nothing but saving and healing us. The must cling for support and comfort to the Church, which also is our mother, continuing Jesus’s work on earth. 

Julian sees a vision of life's woe, followed by a vision of God's power, wisdom, and love. God in his very essence is goodness itself and turns everything to glory and joy, never allowing us to lose our time. God has endowed us with every kind of nature, both those found in the animal and natural world and higher ones too. It is in the Church, our mother, that we find the fulfillment of our complete nature. 

Grace and nature are in fundamental harmony; God works through both and indeed both are God. Sin is contrary to nature and as such it is worse than hell, but Jesus saves us from sin and continues to save us until all his spiritual children will be delivered in heaven. In a sense, those who are children of Christ never grow beyond childhood; when they pass into heaven, the motherhood of Christ will begin again.