Julian of Norwich: On Suffering

Introduction

In Julian of Norwich’s book Revelations of Divine Love, she discusses her various visions and experiences of God’s love. For Julian, we are meant to metaphorically live life on the cross because when we meditate on Christ’s suffering or fellow-suffer, we begin to uncover God’s unfathomable love and experience a glimpse of unending joy this side of heaven. I will argue this point by discussing Julian’s view of heaven as a place of ultimate fulfillment, life as a place where we hone our love for God, and suffering as a means by which joy and divine love is revealed this side of heaven.

Heaven

Julian considers heaven to be a place of complete bliss where one will continue to, “love God better and longer”[1] and reach “fulfillment”[2]. She believes that we can only have spiritual rest and full happiness when there is nothing between God and us. Heaven is the place where we can truly close that gap. She writes, “…until I become one substance with Him, I can never have complete rest or true happiness; that is to say, until I am so bound to him that there is no created thing between my God and me.”[3] There is happiness and rest in life, but total rest and total happiness does not occur until one is completely with God in heaven for nothing that the Creator created has any priority or authority other than the Creator Himself. It is not heaven that is the goal but rather becoming one substance with God. Then, we inherently acquire true joy, bliss, and rest because oneness with God is our ultimate fulfillment.

Life

Unlike heaven, life falls short of fulfillment. Julian believed that life was a place of suffering and a place where one learned, “to love God better and longer”[4]. Life is a place of preparation for becoming one substance with God in heaven. Happiness and divine love is accessible in life but pure happiness and complete immersion in divine love only occurs when we are, “one substance” with God. Julian writes, “…we can never stop wishing or longing until we fully and joyfully possess Him, and then we shall wish for nothing more, for He wants us to be absorbed in knowing and loving Him until the time when we reach fulfillment in heaven.”[5] In life, we must spend our time asking for Him as He wishes to have us. Consequently, we must be absorbed in the pursuit of the knowledge and love of God until, “we reach fulfillment in heaven”[6].

Julian argues that life is preparation for heaven. She writes,  “…I … did not believe that I would live until morning…I wanted to live so as to love God better and for longer, and therefore know and love Him better in the bliss of heaven. For it seemed to me … nothing compared with that heavenly bliss.”[7] For Julian, loving God better and longer in life prepares her to love Him better in heaven. Life is nothing compared to the bliss heaven offers but life can prepare us to love God more deeply in heaven.        

Julian states that we should leave life and enter heaven only if it is the will of God. She writes, “… I wished … that I should die more quickly, for I longed to be soon with my God … ‘Lord, you know what I would have, if it is Your will that I should have it; and if it is not your will, good Lord, do not be displeased, for I only want what you want.”[8]. Julian wished to die so that she could be in complete fulfillment with God. However, she tempers this request with a stipulation: she only requests death if He, too, wills it. She is completely devoted to His authority over her life. She does not advocate for suicide but rather is eager to leave life in pursuit of complete fulfillment with God in heaven.

How do we seek God while we are alive and better prepare ourselves for heaven? Julian suggests we contemplate God’s love. She writes, “…our soul is so specially loved by Him that is highest that it surpasses the knowledge of all beings … there is no being made that can know how much and how sweetly and how tenderly our Maker loves us.”[9] Here, Julian first points out that God is the highest being. He loves us so dearly that no being below God could fully fathom how great His love for us is – both in quantity and quality. As beings lower than God, this is an infinite contemplation that we can consider forever and never fully grasp.

Suffering

Julian argues that suffering, both embodied and as a subject of meditation, also better prepares us for heaven and ultimate fulfillment with God.

For Julian, suffering is a good and noble thing if it is, “fellow-suffering”[10]. She writes,  “… I never asked for a bodily sight or showing of God, but for fellow-suffering, such as a naturally kind soul might feel for our Lord Jesus; He was willing to become a mortal man for love, so I wanted to suffer with Him”[11]. Julian didn’t ask to see God with her eyes, but asked to be entirely empathetic with her Savior – to be fellow-suffering. This is a response from the kindness in her heart - a response of gratitude for His sacrifice for her. To suffer along with Christ, Julian argues, is the only valid reason one should ask for suffering because it is compelled out of ones love for Christ.

Julian believes that when we meditate on Christ’s suffering it begins to reveal the unfathomable love and unending joy. She writes:

 “…the love that made Him suffer is as much greater than His pain as heaven is above the earth; for the Passion was a noble, glorious deed … through the action of love … which has always existed and will never end … And here I saw complete joy in Christ; for if God could have ordered it any better, His joy could not have been complete.”[12]

The love that compelled Jesus to suffer is far greater than the suffering itself. The Passion was a moment but His love is never-ending. His joy in the passion was complete because our perfect God ordered it and so it was perfect. So, by considering Christ’s suffering we see how much greater His love is for us.

Julian continues to consider the Passion as a joy for Christ by presenting the metaphor of the joyful giver. She writes, “… his whole desire and intention is to please and comfort the one to who he gives it … the generous giver thinks nothing of all his hardship and the price he had to pay, because of the joy and delight that he feels at having pleased and comforted the one he loves.”[13]. Jesus is the archetype of the “glad giver”. Jesus took on suffering to please and comfort His beloved – the Church. We are to value our salvation and His sacrifice highly and take it gratefully. Christ thinks next to nothing of the suffering but is completely joyful having comforted and delighted the object of His affection. Again, by considering Christ’s suffering His great love for us is revealed.

Julian believes Christ would have eagerly suffered more if He could suffer more out of His love for us. His humanity, and the final death of His flesh, kept Him from suffering more. She writes, “… as long as He was capable of suffering, He felt pain and sorrow for us; and now that He has ascended into heaven and is beyond human pain … His love for our souls is so strong that He chose the pain willingly and eagerly, and suffered it meekly and was well-pleased to do so…”[14] As long as Christ’s flesh was able to suffer, He suffered. Once He ascended to heaven, He no longer to suffered because He no longer had human pain. Heaven is, by nature, void of pain. He so loves us so that He willingly took on suffering. It gave Jesus great pleasure[15] to do so. Further, in her vision Christ further confirms His pleasure in suffering. He states, “’If you are pleased, I am pleased. It is a joy, a delight and an endless happiness to me that I ever endured suffering for you, and if I could suffer more, I would suffer more.’”[16] Here, Julian argues that Christ’s love compels Him to please us. He is endlessly happy that he endured suffering for us. The limits of His flesh limited His suffering but, in her visions, He says if he was able to continue suffering He would have [17].

Julian believes if we contemplate Christ’s suffering, we will see that his countenance turned to joy near death and ours will, too, after we die. She writes:

“…I saw, while looking at the same cross, that His blessed expression changed. The changing of His blessed expression changed mine ... Then our Lord made me think happily, ‘Where is there not one jot of your pain or your sorrow?’ And I was very happy. I understood that we are now, as our Lord intends it, dying with Him on His cross in our pain and our passion; and if we willingly remain on the same cross with His help and His grace until the final moment, the countenance He turns on us will suddenly change, and we shall be with Him in heaven … and everything will be turned to joy…”[18]

Christ’s expression changes because He suffers out of love for us. The love of Christ far surpasses any suffering or pain imaginable. We are intended to symbolically die with Christ on the cross – enduring pain and restraint. His grace enables empowers our will to remain on that cross. Then, we will, at the end of our lives, find ourselves in heaven. There we will be full of joy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, life, for Julian, is to be lived on the cross. We are to live in constant consideration of His love that is available when we consider His suffering or fellow-suffer. This consideration of suffering gives us glimpses into the love that compelled Christ to suffer and therefore gives us glimpses of our ultimate fulfillment as we join God in love, unrestrained by the desire of any worldly creations, in heaven. 

[1] Julian, Elizabeth Spearing. Revelations of Divine Love: Short Text and Long Text. (London: Penguin Books, 1998). 44.

[2] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 50.

[3] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 47.

[4] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 44.

[5] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 50.

[6] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 50.

[7] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 44.

[8] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 43.

[9] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 49.

[10] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 45.

[11] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 45.

[12] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 74.

[13] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 75.

[14] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 71.

[15] I, personally, might retort that the garden of Gethsemane shows a Jesus who succumbed to the Father’s will regarding His suffering, rather than being “pleased” to engage in the pain He endured. However, as the intent is to read sympathetically, I will leave this conversation for another time.

[16] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 72.

[17] In my opinion, how, then, does one interpret Jesus’ declaration in John 19:30 when He said, “’It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit”? It says He, “gave up” His spirit. It does not say His flesh hit its corporeal limit and forced his spirit out as the body had reached its limit of suffering. Julian’s interpretation does not make Biblical sense. It is my understanding that she interprets her visions as extra-biblical and just as real as the Bible itself. This is where the validity of her visions break down for me. But, I digress…

[18] Spearing, Julian of Norwich, 74.