To Make All Things Well

I Have the Power to Make All Things Well

There was not a single question or doubt I raised for which our good Lord did not have a reassuring response. “I have the power to make all things well,” he said, “I know how to make all things well, and I wish to make all things well.” Then he said, “I shall make all things well. You will see for yourself: every kind of thing shall be well.”

By saying, “I have the power,” he is referring to his authority as the Father. “I know how” coincides with the wisdom of the Son. Saying ”I wish” points to the volition of the Holy Spirit. The entire blessed Trinity is unified when he says, “I shall.” And where he says, “You will see for yourself,” I believe his is including the whole of humanity.

Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, a fresco in Saint George Church, Antwerp, Belgium, Detail.

With these five phrases, God wishes us to be enfolded in peace and rest. In this way, Christ’s spiritual thirst will be alleviated at last. His thirst is our thirst, and our thirst is our love-longing, which will endure until the day of judgment, when we will be together at last. Those of us who will be one-ed with Christ, bringing him endless joy and bliss, are still here in this world, and more of us are being born every day. This is his thirst. This is his love-longing. He yearns to gather us all into himself, bringing us endless joy and bliss. We are not wholly inside him now, but we will be.

Human and Divine

Our faith teaches us (and these revelations confirm) that Christ is both God and human. Regarding the Godhead, he is our supreme bliss, and has been since the beginning of time and shall be until the end. This boundless joy, by its very nature, cannot be increased or decreased. This was beautifully revealed when he said, “It is I who am most exalted.”

Regarding Christ’s humanity, our faith teaches us (and these revelations confirm) that, with the power of the Godhead and for the sake of love, he endured unspeakable suffering – his passion and his dying – to bring us into his bliss. These are the offerings of Christ’s humanity, and he rejoices in them.  He assured us of this when he said, “It is a source of endless joy, bliss, and delight to me that I suffered my passion for you.” This is the sublime beauty of Christ’s actions. This is what he meant when he said, “You are my bliss; my reward, my honor, and my crown.”

As long as we are in need, Christ will continue to experience the very essence of spiritual thirst, and the energy of his longing draws us to himself.

And Christ is our crown, also. He is our head! In his glorified forms, he transcends all suffering. In his humanity, into which all human beings are woven, he is not yet fully glorified and is not beyond suffering. He still feels that burning thirst he felt on the cross. As I see it, Christ’s thirst – his desire and his longing – has been with him always, and always will be, until the last soul is liberated and is lifted into his bliss.

Longing

As truly as God embodies the quality of compassion and mercy so does he embody the quality of thirst and longing. The power of this longing in Christ awakens the longing in us. Indeed, we cannot come to paradise without this holy yearning. The quality of thirst and longing, just as much as the quality of mercy, is rooted in the boundless goodness of God. These are two different things. As long as we are in need, Christ will continue to experience the very essence of spiritual thirst, and the energy of his longing draws us to himself. And so he has mercy on us, and he yearns for us, but his wisdom and his love do not allow him to put an end to this longing until the perfect time.

Excerpted from the book Julian of Norwich: The Showings, trans. Mirabai Starr (Hampton Roads, 2013), 74–76). Copyright © 2022 by Mirabai Starr, used with permission from Hampton Roads Publishing c/o Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC Newburyport, MA.