Julian and the Jihad

Sept. 23. 2001

 

 

 

A wealthy man and his young son loved to collect great works of art. They would often sit together and admire them. As the years passed, and the boy matured into a young man, the father taught his son much about the wonder and beauty that is art.

When a war broke out, the son went off to the conflict. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his slain son.

A month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said,"Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in his heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, your relationship, and the love of art you shared.

The young man held out his wrapped package. "I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this."

The father opened it, his hands trembling. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son. The father was so drawn to the eyes in the portrait that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.

"Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift."

The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

The man died a few months later. At the auction for his collection of art, many influential people gathered, anticipating seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. The platform featured the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel and said, "We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?" There was silence. A voice in the back of the room shouted. "We want to see the noteworthy paintings. Forget this one."

But the auctioneer persisted. "Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?" Another voice shouted, "We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Goghs, the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bids!" But still the auctioneer continued. "The son! Who'll take the son?"

Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the gardener of the man and his son who had served them for many years. "I'll give $10 for the painting."

Being a poor man, it was all he could afford. "We have $10, who will bid $20?" "Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters." "$10 is the bid, won't someone bid $20?" The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!"

A man sitting on the second row shouted. "Now let's get on with the collection!" The auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I'm sorry, the auction is over." "What about the paintings?" "I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time.

Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who bought the picture of the son gets all the paintings!"

Julian of Norwich

In 1370, after nearly dying at about age 30, Julian received a number of revelations in which the crucified Christ appeared to her. She spent much of the rest of her life reflecting on and trying to make sense of these revelations.

It is difficult, even given our experiences of the last two weeks, to imagine how disconcerting the times were in which she lived. The Black Death had destroyed about a third of the population in Europe. The promising prince of England was taken by the plague and his father, Edward III, lived out his last years in grief and senility.

The Black Death had its horrific political counterparts. People east of Europe believed that Italian traders had brought the plague to them intentionally. They invaded Italy and placed corpses killed in the plague on catapults and launched them into Italian cities as a kind of primitive biological warfare.

England was also involved during Julian's lifetime in what we call the 100 years war. England's opponent was France. The 100 years war drained England of its relative affluence and made people fearful of what the future would bring.

Plague and demoralizing political turmoil haunted the land. Sound familiar?

It was in this distressing mix that Julian sought God. Julian had a profound sense of sin--indeed she wrote the disturbing line, "sin is necessary." Yet she believed that the occasion of sin meant that God could raise us all the higher. Her famous line is "All will be well and every kind of thing will be well.

She claimed that we are made for God (nothing new here) but also that God is made for us. God suffers when we are absent just as we suffer when God seems to be absent from us. How do we know God in times of peril and pestilence? By knowing our souls because our souls are of God and the habitation of God. By cultivating our souls, we come to know the singular reassurance of God:

For I saw very surely that our substance is in God, and I also saw that God is in our sensuality, for in the same instant and place in which our soul is made sensual, in that same instant and place exists the city of God, ordained from him without beginning. He comes into this city and will never depart from it, for God is never out of the soul, in which he will dwell blessedly without end.

But a serpent lies in the midst of all this promise. We desire to become known to God and God to us, we are "thirsty for God."

Our experience suggests that we only have fleeting encounters with the divine presence. Faith leads to wish for more, for more, for an unambiguous encounter with God (as the buildings fall, as the preparations for war are made). While she grants that God wishes to be known, she also makes it clear that it is the nature of God to elude our sincerest attempts to know God fully. God is never fully disclosed, even in the burning bush or the Eucharist.

"The soul's constant search pleases God greatly. For the soul cannot do more than seek, suffer and trust," she writes

The great paradox of Christian belief -- the coexistence of a just and loving God with a world that contains great suffering -- for Julian must be understood in light of the great paradox of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

A Crucified Messiah?

It was a great scandal to Jews that early Christians would claim that a Messiah could be crucified. Yet there can be no resurrection without a crucifixion. Like Jesus in the Garden, we keep wanting a life of resurrection without crucifixion, but that cannot be. "Sin is necessary, but all will be well."

But why must we endure all this sin? Why not simply blot it out in one great divine act of restorative justice? Because is in the midst of sin, degradation, and hurt that we learn to mature and become creatures worthy of divine companionship.

Think back to the heady 90s. Stocks were flying, some people were making more money from their investments than their jobs. We built larger and larger homes (homes built in the 90s were 3 times the size of homes built in the 60s). As Jesus pointed out, it would be more difficult for a rich man to get into the kingdom than a camel to go through an eye of a needle. Wealth and power kill the human soul.

The 90s Dodge pickup grille seemed to capture the spirit of the times. One auto magazine wrote, "With its 'get out of my way attitude' grille, the new model tripled Dodge's sales." When things go too well, we become creatures to be pitied: arrogant, self-indulgent, supposing that we are in control of our destinies.

Immersed in a world such as this, however, it is much more difficult be arrogant. Our hearts hurt, our souls become very thirsty, and we become once again fit companions for the fount of all grace and wisdom to approach. Then and only then can God lift us up so that all will be truly well.

Christian wisdom is that in the turmoil of the times, God is waiting to restore our souls.