I feel like this reflection is a continuum of last week’s reflection on being at peace. Once again my readings have brought me to another saintly person, a woman of the Middles Ages, who in 1373, after a near-death illness, began to be visited by God as she recuperated. Julian of Norwich became a great mystic, a laywoman bound by solemn vows to remain “anchored” in a tiny cell to pray. Soon her fame spread and she was sought by many people, rich and poor, for spiritual direction and counsel for life’s challenges. The Black Death plague struck when she was an adult and, although she escaped death, thousands of people died during those years. Maybe the Spirit led me to her because of this COVID time, although I have been an admirer of hers since my sabbatical in 2006.
Julian writes: “God wishes us to know that he keeps us safe all the time, in joy and in sorrow, and that he loves us as much in sorrow as in joy…God gives joy freely as it pleases him, and sometimes he allows us to be in sorrow, and both come from his love. For it is God’s will that we do all in our power to preserve our consolation, for bliss lasts forevermore, and pain is passing and will be reduced to nothing.”
-Job and Julian of Norwich, trusting that all will be well, Carol Luebering, p. 27
I have not only been blessed with many opportunities to learn from the great ancient women and men who suffered in life yet deepened their relationship with God, but I also have seen this reality in my life’s ministry. The Brazilian women with a 4th grade education would say these famous words of Julian, “All shall be well”, albeit in their language, at every difficult moment in their lives: at the death of their child or husband, when there was not enough food for the table, when the most corrupt of candidates for mayor was elected, when flooding ruined their crops. I was amazed at their faith which put me to shame.
In my ministry now among the black community of Sacred Heart Church, we have begun praying in the homes and the constant lament of our situation in the US with gun violence often is the object of our prayers. Innocent young children being killed…when will it end? There is a neighborhood community in Chicago who is calling for and organizing a “One Day” without violence scheduled for August. And yet these people are all strong in their faith and able to look ahead with hope. The source of this hope is God who is with us in our joy, but allows sorrow because they both come from his love. It sounds so contradictory!
How can that be? “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son…” Jesus’s suffering and death was a consequence of his fidelity to the mission that the Father gave him. He was anointed to liberate those who are imprisoned, to break the shackles of the oppressed and to make all peoples free. Those who know God, in the deepest Biblical sense, will always be people of hope and joy despite the sorrow, because they have the certainty that God is near and will always take care of them, come what may. Together with Julian of Norwich and all those humble mystics who may not even know what a mystic is, we say, “All Shall be Well!”
Now we invite your thoughts. Please share in the comments section below. And while you’re here, continue on a virtual mission by reading more of our stories and reflections as we discover together how “We are Mission”.
We are Mission! 