“All shall be well…”

…has such a nice comforting ring, and is so often used as a shorthand for “don’t worry about this matter, it will be OK!” or, just as often, an expression of relief when a worrisome matter turns out better than one hoped.

Yet these words of Jesus (not Julian, who spent several chapters protesting against them and trying to make sense of them) are not about minor things being OK in the short term. They are words for the hardest problem we face in the longest possible term we know—that as regards sin and the effects of sin, all will be well. The last word that Julian received about this was a counsel to trust, which the message itself leaves implicit: “it seemed impossible to me that all manner of things should be well, as our Lord revealed at this time. And to this I received no other answer by way of revelation from our Lord God except this: ‘What is impossible to you is not impossible to me. I shall keep my word in all things, and I shall make all things well.’” (Ch 32)

Trust—not as a sop to stop asking questions, but as an affirmation that this is the way we render ourselves open to God, this is the way of creation, redemption, holiness, and not only that but of “real-world” growth and thriving. It was a courteous reminder to Julian (and us) that God does not have any of our limitations, that we are the limited ones, not God; and, as hard as it may be to stomach, we neither can nor need to figure out precisely why. What is asked of each of us instead is to care for each other with Christ’s compassion. Whether we commit to this or not may well amount to a personal trust—or denial—that God will, at the last, make all things well.

Perhaps because we tend not to use negative constructions in expressions of comfort, “All shall be well!” tends to get used for the short term, when another word of Christ applies much better: “I keep you full safely…you will not be overcome.”