Revelations of Divine Love

Those who choose God for love will be loved eternally by God in return. Our attitude in this life should be one of holy, respectful fear of God combined with humility, treating all our sufferings lightly and lovingly trusting in God. God alone is to be feared, not the Enemy, since the Enemy is in God's control. My bond with God must be as personal as if he did everything for me alone. 

The sixteenth showing occurs on the following night and is the culmination and summation of all the showings. As long as the previous showings lasted, Julian felt relief from her physical pain. But now her sickness returns, and she feels bereft of spiritual comfort. When a religious brother asks her how she is feeling, she says that she feels “delirious.” She reproaches herself for saying this since while the showings were happening, she had believed they were real.

During the night, Julian has a frightening vision of the devil (“the Fiend”) at her throat. Throughout the vision she continues to trust in God, and upon awakening she experiences great rest and peace. 

Julian resumes her discussion of the human soul. She speaks of the soul as a city or an “endless world” in which God dwells as its “most brightly shining light” (153). The human soul pleases God more than all his other works. Julian sees in a vision that our soul can never be at rest in things which are “beneath”(154) it, as the soul must contemplate first itself, then God who dwells within it. 

Jesus gives Julian his assurance that all the showings came from him and were not the result of delirium. He ends by assuring her that “you shall not be overcome” (155). 

The devil returns and torments Julian a second time; but she is granted the grace to trust in God, fixing her eyes on the cross and calling to mind Christ's Passion. The devil leaves her at sunrise, with Julian convinced that it was the power of Christ's Passion that vanquished him. 

Even though the showings eventually end, through faith Julian is able to remember and keep them. This is why Jesus gave her his assurance that the showings were real, just at the moment when she was beginning to think they were the result of delirium. 

Julian speaks of the three faces of Jesus which he shows us in this life. They are “the suffering face,” the “compassionate” face, and the “blessed face” (which he has in heaven). In every case, the face with which Jesus looks at us is cheerful, sweet, and loving, and he desires us to look at him gladly in return. 

We need to have three kinds of knowledge: to know God, to know ourselves, and to know our sinfulness and weakness. For those who will be saved, sin is transient. So long as we have any sin in us, we will be unable to see the Lord's face. Because of sin we often feel as if we are dying and in hell; but in the sight of God, we are never dead. Because of sin, we have both joy and sorrow in this life. 

Julian reiterates that the showings were given in three ways: by bodily sight, by words, and by spiritual sight. We suffer from two kinds of sickness: sloth and despair. We can overcome them by meditating on Christ's Passion, particularly the patience with which he bore it and the joy and delight he derived from performing it for us. We should therefore bear our sufferings gladly and lightly, believing in the all-loving nature of God as well as in his power and wisdom. 

Julian discusses four types of fear: fear of attack; fear of punishment; doubtful fear; and reverent fear. Reverent fear is the only kind of fear which thoroughly pleases God, although the first two are also useful to us. Love and fear go together, rooted in us by God through both nature and grace. Without reverent fear and meek love, we cannot please God. 

Julian speaks of the longing which we have for God, and he for us. Julian is showed three kinds of longing in God: longing to teach us to know and love him; longing to have us with him in heaven; and longing to fill us with bliss.

On Judgment Day, the “bliss” of the blessed will be increased with wonder and amazement by seeing the cause of all God has done. It befits us to long for this to happen, because it keeps us on the right path. God is both good and great, and accordingly he should be both loved and feared.

The soul that truly loves God will hate sin more than the torments of hell. We must avoid thinking about other people's sins (except in order to have compassion on them and ask God to help them) because doing so harms our soul.

Julian sees the wisest and most foolish thing we can do in this life: the wisest is to follow the advice of Jesus, our supreme friend; the most foolish is to not and despair at our own sinfulness, for this is a provocation of the devil. 

The devil wants us to stumble and fall, but the mercy of God makes us “rise to greater joy”(167) through love and humility. The devil loses more from our rising than he gains by our falling, and his defeat is cause for laughter.

We should acknowledge our sinfulness and patiently bear the penance that God imposes on us, finding joy in it and not being overly sorrowful over it: “[our] whole life is a profitable penance” (168). God is both friendly and courteous; we should not take his friendliness too lightly.

God wants us to have knowledge of four things: he is the ground of our being; he protects us in our sin; he lets us know when we are going wrong; and he waits patiently for us to return to him.

We must have an awareness of our weakness and sin, for in this way we will be able to break all attachments and unite ourselves to God. We are indebted to God for showing us our sinful wretchedness now because the Enemy does not want us to know it until the last day. 

We must look at our own sins and not those of our neighbors, unless it be to help them. Knowing about the love of God should not make us careless about guarding our souls. When we fall, we must quickly turn our thoughts to God, who is waiting fervently for us to return to him. Anything contrary to these teachings comes from the devil and is meant to deceive us. 

We rely on three things to help us worship God and obtain salvation: the natural light of reason, the teaching of the Church, and the grace of the Holy Spirit. All three were instituted by God, and all three are God. They are akin to the ABC's, and we shall know all things fully and completely in heaven.

Jesus waits for us, sorrowing and lamenting; in falling into sin, we leave him to sorrow and lament alone. Even so, Jesus never allows us to be alone, but is always with us, excusing us and shielding us from blame. 

Through all the showings, the only place Julian saw God resting was in man's soul, which Julian compares to a throne and a city: “[God] wants us to respond readily to his gracious touch, rejoicing more in his love than we sorrow over our frequent failing”(174) through sin, and bearing our sufferings patiently as a penance.

God looks upon sinners with pity and not blame; we, by contrast, often blame and despise ourselves for our sins. Both views are true in their own way. The former is the “higher view” of God, which he wants us also to hold; the latter inspires a healthy fear and helps us mend our ways. 

In the showings, Julian experiences three properties of God: life, love, and light. Reason is our greatest gift from God, one that is in harmony with him and grounded in nature. Faith is a light coming from God that leads us in the night of earthly life to heaven, where we shall see the Trinity in all clarity and brightness. 

The light is charity, which allotted to us by God in just the proportion we need it in this life while toiling toward the full light of heaven. Julian sees three kinds of charity: uncreated, created, and given:“Charity uncreated is God; charity created is our soul in God; charity given is virtue” (177). 

God has loved his chosen since before time began, and when we reach heaven, we shall fully understand all mysteries and bless God for how well he has ordained all things.

After the original showings, Julian longed to understand what they meant. Fifteen years later, she received an answer in her inner understanding—love was the entire substance and meaning of the showings: “Do you want to know what your Lord meant? Know well that love was what he meant. Who showed you this? Love. What did he show? Love. Why did he show it to you? For love” (179). Julian ends her book with an exhortation to accept the revelations in their entirety without picking and choosing, in purity and sincerity of heart, and to adhere to the faith of the Church.