Grace & necessity

“Our Lord has pity and compassion on us because some creatures make themselves so busy about His secrets; and I am certain if we were aware of how much we would please Him and ease ourselves by abandoning that, we would.” (Ch. 30)

Julian is giving sound counsel here into the matter of trust, not incidentally counsel drawn from her own experience of “sorrowing and mourning undiscerningly” about questions to which God does not give answers that satisfy her intellect. Her reflections on the Showings she has been given witness to the necessary work of the intellect, but she understands that this work is of little value apart from faith.

After chapters of superb theology Julian concludes her writing with a summation as simple as it is profound: Love—the unfathomable love that is God—is God’s meaning, and however much we search and speculate, dismiss and deconstruct, we will find no other answer or meaning but this.