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Jesus never stopped loving
us. Even when He hung from
the cross suffering and dying, He never stopped loving us. Through His
pain and through those terrible hours He loved us.
He showed great love to His Mother when he said, “Woman here is
your son”, and then speaking to a disciple he said, “Here is your
Mother.” Hanging from the
cross He made sure His Mother would be well cared for. This kind of deep
abiding love is hard to imagine, a love reaching through suffering and
pain to the Mother He loved and to the disciple He loved. This love is
reaching right down to those of us gathered here tonight.
Julian of Norwich lived in the Middle Ages. Around her thirtieth year of
life Julian lay very sick, so sick those gathered around her thought she
would only leave her bed in death. In this extraordinary state between
life and death she had visions of our dear Lord on the cross. Julian had
fervently prayed to see and experience our Lord’s sufferings. Her
prayers were answered in this time out of time place between life and
death. She called these
visions “showings.” She wrote the showings down and tonight they
confirm the love Jesus had for us even from the cross.
The experience of Jesus’ death on the cross has been written about by
many brilliant and well known figures throughout the history of
Christianity. One of the ancient theories is based on law, which takes
the death of Jesus out of the realm of violent death and somehow cleans
it up and wraps it in theory. I’ve
been trying to figure out for a very long time why Jesus died for us.
I even took an intensive course called ‘Why did Jesus Die’. I
went away from that course just as muddled as I always had been. Then I
discovered the visions of Julian of Norwich and I felt I could
understand what she had written. I
understood for the first time why Jesus could not stop loving us, no
matter what. I understood that His love is the ray of hope whenever we
are experiencing our own dark nights of the soul.
I understood that His love is always there, and we can always
abide in it.
The term “vision” has somehow gotten a bad reputation.
Visions can be associated with New Age or “out there” kind of
reality. Yet the Old and New Testaments are full of beautiful visions
helping shape our sense of Christianity. One example is Peter’s vision
telling him it was all right for all of us to eat different kinds of
meat. Proverbs speaks of visions in this way, “Where there is no
vision the people perish.” Visions are heart songs, and if they stand
the test of time they offer us another way to experience Jesus.
Julian’s voice is speaking to us across centuries; her heart songs
have stood the test of time. Listen to her heart songs.
Let her words fill you with the love Christ sent to us even from
the cross.
I’m going to mention a few of Julian’s showings.
These are the ones reaching down from the cross and touching my
heart. In the first showing I’m sharing with you Julian saw the blood
from Jesus’ wounds flowing into all the waters of the earth. I think
the precious gift of His blood still flows in all the waters.
When you see the waters shinning with a light almost too bright
to look at, there is Jesus. When
you drink the waters flowing from streams and rivers, there is Jesus.
When you bathe and shower and swim and catch the bounty from the oceans
and streams, there is Jesus. Julian also wrote His blood overflows all
the earth, and it’s ready to wash the sins away from all creatures who
are, have been and will be of good will. When you step into your shower,
or stop and look at the beauty held in a river or a stream allow the
love of Christ to fill you with grace. There is no end to the
overflowing love of Jesus.
Julian feels the words of Jesus entering her very soul, and from this
place of deep knowing her showings continue. She writes that the blessed
passion and death of our Lord has made it possible for evil and darkness
to be turned into joy. But darkness can incline our hearts away from
joy. In the words of St.
Francis our inner turmoil can turn into discord, doubt, despair and
darkness. At times we all find ourselves separated from the love of
Jesus. At times it seems as if the feelings of darkness can come out of
nowhere and lead us to dark nights of the soul. Perhaps an image from
one of my dreams can help me and you stay out of what a Psalm so aptly
calls the deeps. In the dream I find myself looking down at the ground
surrounding the cross; what I see there amazes me.
All around the cross are precious stones, in every color that is
and ever will be. I kneel
down and let the beautiful gems run through my fingers. The precious
stones seem to represent what Jesus is offering us tonight and every
night, His great overflowing and wondrous love even from His dark night
of the soul. If we can remember to allow Jesus to love us, our darkest
times can turn into unity, faith, hope and Light.
We are children of Light through the passion and love of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
The last showing is to me the most profound and life giving. Julian
writes, “Then Jesus our good Lord said: If you are satisfied, I am
satisfied. It is a joy and a
bliss, an endless delight to me that ever I suffered my Passion for you;
and if I could suffer more, I should suffer more.”
Listen to those extraordinary words, if I could have suffered
more, I should have suffered more. Could
any of us suffer that much and still be filled with abundant love? The
showing concludes with Jesus saying He would have died over and over
again for us if He had needed to.
You’ve all heard, “All shall be well.” many times. And we
attribute the saying to Julian of Norwich. But according to Julian she
heard Christ speak these words and the entire quotation is, “I will
make all things well, I shall make all things well, I may make all
things well and I can make all things well; and you will see that
yourself, that all things will be well.”
And so my dears go and peace to love and serve the Lord, as He
loves and serves you, remembering in all times and in all places all
shall be well.
Amen
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