NDE’s are a funny phenomena that I do not claim to understand (because I haven’t had one). Like Lizabeth I’m cautious of visionary experience for personal reasons. I’ve said in previous posts lost somewhere on threads here that I suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy and was in a semi visionary state quite often in my adolescence before it was diagnosed and was given medication for it. Also like Lizabeth I’ve had problems with a form of bi-polar disorder for most of my life since the epilepsy was controlled (and possibly as a result of it being controlled) – although I have only had one serious episode of mania – and that was ten years ago, and it turned my life completely inside out.
However – I’d speak up for NDE’s in at least one instance; namely the NDE’s experienced by Julian of Norwich, the
medieval English mystic whose writing shave given so much comfort over the centuries to people afflicted by the terrors of hard ECT. I’ve been thinking about her because she was recently mentioned on another thread and I did a post about her there.
Yes Julian had some NDE’s as a young woman when on the point of death. In these she contemplated Christ’s passion and the mystery of sin and suffering and she seemed to have some special visionary revelations/shewings from Jesus. However – she didn’t go around claiming special authority for her visions. If you read the extended version of her ‘Shewings’ the visions are simply the visual backdrop of a lifetime spent recollecting and meditating on their purpose – the authority she gives them is that they have helped her to understand her experience of sin and suffering in the world and to keep faith during her own spiritual struggles. As an anchoress attached to Norwich cathedral she was also very much in touch with the suffering of others – because she was on call through her open window as a spiritual director and comforter to her fellow ordinary Christians who sought out her grounded wisdom at a time of terrible affliction – the black death, civil war, famine etc. In the Shewings she recounts her visions with great humility – always careful to state what she was curious about but was never shown clear answers to, always careful not to go beyond the teaching of ‘Holy Church’, and careful to indicate her own reflections with ‘it seemed to me’. So she was not carried away by her NDE’s.
In end the visions taught her to ground her faith in universal hope – but it was not only the visions that did this; this understanding was the fruit of a life lived lovingly and in good faith and service.
‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well’ was Julian of Norwich’s key insight which chimes with Hebrew’s 11 v1 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of that not yet seen” And as Jesus said “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I make all things new. My word is trustworthy and true.”
Here’s a very short article about Julian that I want t paste in – in case they are of comfort to someone
Over the last few weeks, as I faced up to personal difficulties, and continue to wrestle with them, my mind keeps returning to those reassuring words from Dame Julian of Norwich:
“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”
When she wrote those words, Dame Julian of Norwich was expressing her attitude toward life and her spirituality. Julian’s spirituality is filled with hope and confidence in the God “who loves us and delights in us,” the God who “will make all things well,” the God who created us to live fully the life we have been given.
Julian of Norwich (1342-1416) is one of the greatest English mystics. When she was 30, she suffered a severe illness and, believing she was on her deathbed, had a series of intense visions that ended on 13 May 1373. She recorded these visions and then reflected on them in theological depth 20 years later in Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love – the first book written in English by a woman.
Julian’s positive outlook does not come from ignoring suffering or being blind to it, but arises from the clarity she attained as she struggled with her own questions. This struggle gave her the ability to see beyond the pain and suffering and to look into the compassionate face of God. Only this gazing could reassure her that – despite pain, and sorrow – in God’s own time, “all shall be well.”
Julian had a heartfelt belief in a God who loves and graces us with an abundance that only God can give. And God’s love and grace placed Julian’s words before me again this morning.
According to Julian, the unfathomable mystery of love is the supreme sign of the reality of God, and sin is necessary so that we can become, as Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, “instruments of love in the hands of God.”
T.S. Eliot adapted these ideas in Little Gidding (the fourth of his Four Quartets), when he wrote:
Sin is Behovely, but
All shall be well, and
All manner of thing shall be well …
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
Mother Julian wrote: “What, do you wish to know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who reveals it to you? Love. What did he reveal to you? Love. Why does he reveal it to you? For love. Remain in this, and you will know more of the same. But you will never, know different, without end.” (342)
Her optimistic theology speaks of God’s love in terms of joy and compassion as opposed to law and duty. Suffering is not a punishment inflicted by God, but God loves and saves everyone. Her great saying, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well,” reflects this theology. It is one of the most individually famous lines in all theological writing, and is one of the most well-known phrases of the literature of her era.
Julian asked: “Ah, good Lord, how could all things be well, because of the great harm which has come through sin to your creatures?” (227).
This was God’s response to her: “And so our good Lord answered all the questions and doubts which I could raise, saying most comfortingly: I make all things well, and I can make all things well, and I shall make all things well, and I will make all things well; and you will see for yourself that every kind of thing will be well. … And in these words God wishes us to be enclosed in rest and peace.” (229)
Despite these present problems, I am sure God wishes me to be enclosed in love and rest and peace, and that I will see for myself that every kind of thing will be well. And I thank God for the friendship and love I have in life.
Canon Patrick Comerford is Director of Spiritual Formation, the Church of Ireland Theological College