In the fourteenth century Europe went through some terrible things: the first wave of the plague called Black Death killed half of the population. Then 20 years later the second wave came which killed 20% of remaining population. Famine was spreading because there were not enough people to work on the land to produce food. During that time God raised a saint, a woman whom we know today as Julian of Norwich though it is not her name. Her name has been lost. The name we use for her is the name of the Church of St Julian where she lived in the town of Norwich. That woman, who witnessed so much misery and despair in her contemporary world, also experienced, at the age of 30, a severe illness which paralysed her for some time. However when her body was fighting the disease she was given some visions in which God revealed to her some great mysteries. She wrote them down and later she spent the rest of her life meditating on them in the solitude of a little room attached to the church of St Julian. Do you want to know some great mysteries which God revealed to her? Let me give you this one: ‘But all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well.’ Although Julian chose to live separated from other people her little room became like the heart of the neighbourhood. People didn’t leave her alone. People were coming to her because surrounded by the misery of their times they wanted to hear Julian who with firm conviction was telling them all the time: ‘All will be well.’
Sisters and Brothers! If the lamp of faith which you are carrying in your soul is getting empty of the divine oil which comes from God himself, if you feel that the flame of your faith is fading I invite you to make your way to Mother Julian of Norwich. You don’t need to travel to England. In this church of ours you can turn to her, our saint, in your prayer and recalling all the situations which can make it hard for you to believe and trust God repeat what God revealed to her: ‘All will be well.’ Keep repeating it and God will give you his divine oil to make your faith burn so strongly and brightly that you will be able to look to the horizon of eternity. Like St Paul did as we could hear in our reading today from the First Letter to the Thessalonians: ‘At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven, those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall stay with the Lord forever. With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another.’ What did St Paul tell the Thessalonians two thousand years ago? What is he telling us today? ‘All will be well.’ Out the mess of this world, which has been caused by sin God will eventually bring good. ‘All will be well.’
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Sisters and Brothers! If the lamp of faith which you are carrying in your soul is getting empty of the divine oil which comes from God himself, if you feel that the flame of your faith is fading I invite you to make your way to Mother Julian of Norwich. You don’t need to travel to England. In this church of ours you can turn to her, our saint, in your prayer and recalling all the situations which can make it hard for you to believe and trust God repeat what God revealed to her: ‘All will be well.’ Keep repeating it and God will give you his divine oil to make your faith burn so strongly and brightly that you will be able to look to the horizon of eternity. Like St Paul did as we could hear in our reading today from the First Letter to the Thessalonians: ‘At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven, those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall stay with the Lord forever. With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another.’ What did St Paul tell the Thessalonians two thousand years ago? What is he telling us today? ‘All will be well.’ Out the mess of this world, which has been caused by sin God will eventually bring good. ‘All will be well.’
064&a
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