Julian of Norwich

Psalm 27:1-9

“One thing have I asked of the Lord; one thing I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the fair beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” (Ps 27:5-6)

The psalmist’s words take on special resonance today, the feast of the English anchoress, mystic, and theologian Julian of Norwich. I am thinking particularly of the way the psalmist’s expression of desire finds fulfillment, in an unexpected way, in Julian’s own experience.

In her sixteenth and final revelation, or “shewing,” Julian writes that the Lord opened her spiritual eye, and she saw her “soul as wide as if it were a kingdom . . . it seemed to me as if it were a fine city.”[1] In the midst of the city, Julian sees Jesus sitting, “handsome and tall, honorable, the greatest lord.” She beholds the Lord’s fair beauty.

In this encounter, Julian finds Christ himself dwelling within her: “The place which Jesus takes in our soul he will nevermore vacate, for in us is his home of homes, and it is the greatest delight for him to dwell there.” In “seeking him in his temple,” Julian finds that temple, the home of the Lord, to be her soul, her very inmost self, her vast inner kingdom.

Julian’s own age was marked by chaos and daily struggle distinct from what we ourselves experience, but for all that she speaks to the certainty, the never-failing promise of hope and love and joy of Jesus dwelling with us, in us, in the very midst of whatever chaos and struggle we encounter. Julian’s experience of divine love, of this certain presence, invites us to go inward, to explore our own vast inner landscape, to seek Jesus who dwells there, and to hear him say to us, as he said to Julian: I am here. I take delight in being here. And whatever you encounter, whatever trials you come to, whatever winds of chance and change blow in your life, “you will not be overcome.”

Amen.

[1] This and the following quotations are from Julian of Norwich, Showings, chap. 22 (short text); trans. E. College and J. Walsh (New York, 1978), 163-65.