Dorothy Day and Julian of Norwich: God's friends and neighbors

Spiritual Life, Winter 2002 by Callaghan, Michael J

AT FIRST GLANCE THE TEXTS AND THE WOMEN of the texts have little in common. But when love is the final answer, these women of diverse experiences are drawn into the same person "whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."1 Dorothy Day's autobiography, The Long Loneliness, and The Book of Showings by Julian of Norwich only show differences on the surface. These women lived lives of varied, mutually exclusive experiences, with seemingly little to connect them, yet somehow love crossed the boundaries. The differences between two centuries, two continents, two cultures, two religious experiences, and two women comprise a beautiful fabric, divinely woven. This is the fabric of the experience of God's love. God's labor and God the laborer give birth to the true disciple.

Fifteen years after her mystical experience of Christ's passionate love for creation and for each creature in particular (13 May 1373), Julian records what she heard from God. She writes this down in chapter 86 of the long text of Showings: "What, wouldst thou know thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well. Love was his meaning."2 Dorothy Day-of twentieth century America, of a family of newspaper people from Brooklyn, lover of Forster, mother of Tamar Teresa-concludes her discourse on the long loneliness, the profound and terrible experience of our search for God and God's search for us with these words: "We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community."3 How can a valid connection begin to be made between Julian's and Dorothy Day's experiences of God? Where is the common ground? The question is an invitation to explore three experiences and relate them to a fourth. The topics under discussion include: Julian's experience of the passion of Christ, the hazelnut episode of chapter 5 of the long text of Showings, the parable of the lord and the servant in chapter 51 of Julian's text, and the meaning of the term "long loneliness" as used by Dorothy Day. Julian longed for the God who surprised her by leading her to her neighbor; Dorothy longed for the neighbor who surprised her by being God.

Julian: Initiator and Lover

Julian of Norwich was a medieval woman who was an initiator. She took the initiative in asking God for an experience of Christ's passion, for bodily sickness, and for three wounds. She recorded these experiences in two accounts, one called "short," the other "long." Julian's initiative also led her to seek residence in a dwelling attached to a church in the town of Norwich in East Anglia during England's high Middle Ages. We know that Julian was still alive in 1416. She would spend the latter part of her life as an anchoress attached to this church and would spend most days in prayer and give some spiritual direction. This initiative-taking, medieval woman knew and spoke Latin, lived in an atmosphere heavily influenced by Dominican and Augustinian theology, and set the jewel of women's contributions to the life of the medieval Church and its theology in a not-to-be ignored slant of light.4

Julian's motivation for requesting the sight and experience of Christ's passion is the motivation of the lover:

I would I had been, that time, with Magdalene and with the others that were Christ's lovers, that I might have seen, bodily, the passion that Our Lord suffered for me-that I might have suffered with him as did those others that loved him"

Julian's focus is on the wounds of Christ, and it is, indeed, the wounds from the crown of thorns on Christ's head that is the subject of Julian's first revelation, described in the fourth chapter of the long text of Showings. This revelation is Trinitarian, Marian, and takes on the aroma of medieval courtesy. Julian sees the passion of Christ in the blood flowing from Christ's head as meant for herself and for all believers; there is solidarity. Julian experiences Christ as connected to the Father and the Spirit; there is "keeping," "loving," "joy," and "bliss."16 Julian is consoled in her experience by Mary, mother of the Lord; Julian finds acceptance. God's courtesy is seen in his being lowered to humanity through Mary, for the sake of other creatures. God is good enough to share with Julian the "wisdom and truth" of Mary's soul. Though the first of all believers, Mary "marvelled, with great reverence, that he willed to be born of her that was a simple creature of his making."7

The portrayal of God in terms of medieval "courtesie" follows an old code of knighthood prominent in English literature since 1066. The French courtesie means more than romantic love or amor cortois. Courtesie means placing oneself between the evils of the world and the suffering individual. Hence, the Christ who reaches out to Julian is not just a lover-he suffers for her and for the world-Christ bleeds. Julian, receiving her revelation of love, uses the language of "courtesy" to explain her experience of God's agape, God's selfless love.