4 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 9 3 The Problem of Sin Julian was taught that it is firstly a human person who is responsible for the uneasy sinful condition. Sin, especially in folk guises of the catholic faith, has been understood as “disobedience to God”. There is also the burdening doctrine of original sin. InRevelations we follow Julian’s constant plea for better understanding of these problematic issues. As the mystical lover of God, she daringly bothers Divine Wisdom with questions about sin, guilt, suffering, judgement or punishment – patiently awaiting direct answers or insights. She cannot reconcile profound discrepancies she experiences in the world and in herself. The greatest discrepancy she finds between God she mystically experiences and the image of God (and the correlated image of man) she hears about from authorities. How could He, she asks, ever allow the damnation of non-believers? How could Mother Christ [2] bear the eternal suffering of any beloved creature in hell? As the mystic she experientially knows the divine presence as the unconditioned goodness, sheer positivity. The mystical teaching, she has obtained through intimate mystical communion, speaks the same loving language. God, she knows, never blames nor angers [3], and remarkably, never responds to her plea to show her something of hell or purgatory (Julian of Norwich 2011, 75–76; Frykholm 2010, 57). She sees “no wrath in God” (Julian of Norwich 2011, 115) but sheer life of goodness, which constantly creates, nourishes and permeates all the known and unknown being. For Julian’s God it seems impossible to judge or damn a human creature so intimately bound with His own divinity. We are “the dwelling city of God” (Julian of Norwich 2011, 180), we are incarnations of His Son (Julian of Norwich 2011, 129). There is one important mystical lesson, which Julian cherishes the most among all others – the showing of the Parable of a good lord and a good servant (Julian of Norwich 2011, 120–122). This image speaks metaphorically of a situation of sin and mirrors the existential experience of humans in the world. I saw two persons in bodily form, that is to say, a lord and a servant; and with this God gave me spiritual understanding. The Lord sits solemnly in repose and in peace; the servant stands near, before his lord reverently, ready to do his lord’s will. The lord looks upon his servant most lovingly and sweetly, and humbly he sends him to a certain place to do his will. The servant not only goes, but he suddenly leaps up and runs in great haste because of his love to do his lord’s will. And immediately he falls into a deep pit and receives very great injury. Then he groans and moans and wails and writhes, but he cannot rise up nor help himself in any way. In all this, the greatest misfortune that I saw him in was the lack of reassurance, for he could not turn his face to look back upon his loving lord (who was very near to him and in whom there is complete comfort), but like a man who was feeble and witless for the moment, he was intent on his suffering, and waited in woe. In this woe he endured seven great pains. The first was the painful bruising that he received in his falling, which was very painful to him. The second was sluggishness of his body. The third was the weakness resulting from these two. The fourth, that he was deluded in his reason and stunned in his mind to such an extent that he had almost forgotten his own love to do his lord’s will. The fifth was that he could not rise up. The sixth was a most amazing pain to me and that was that he lay alone – I looked all about and watched, and neither far nor near, high nor low, did I see any help for him. The seventh was that the place in which he lay was a huge, hard, and painful one. I wondered how this servant could humbly endure there all this woe. And I watched deliberately to see if I could discover any failure in him, or if the lord would allot him any blame, and truly there was none seen – for only his good will and his great desire were the cause of his falling, and he was as willing and as good inwardly as when he stood before his lord ready to do his will. And in the same way his loving lord constantly watched him most tenderly; and now with a twofold attitude: One outward, most humbly and gently with great compassion and pity (and this was from the first level of the showing); another inward, more spiritual, and this was shown with a guiding of my understanding to the lord, and by this guiding, I saw him greatly rejoice, because of the honorable repose and nobility that he wills and shall bring his servant to by his plenteous
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