Julian of Norwich was an anchoress in the fourteenth century in the city of Norwich in England. An anchoress is a female hermit. Julian’s anchorage was a small room around 15’X 30′ attached to the church of St Julian in Norwich (and she took her name from the church where she was immured) Her cell did not have a door to the outside. She was enclosed permanently with one window looking into the church so she could participate in worship and one window to the outside world so she could entertain visitors and people coming for spiritual direction. Very little is known about Julian, but drawing conclusions from other anchoresses from the time she was probably a noblewoman who had been in a religious community before being given permission to pursue the solitary life. Certainly this would align with the Rule of St Benedict which stipulates that before a man or woman can be a hermit they must spend many years living in community first. That she was a noblewomen is surmised by the fact that she was literate. In fact her book Showings of Divine Love is one of the first, if not THE first book written by a woman in English.

I came across Julian of Norwich through reading T.S.Eliot. He quotes her in Little Gidding–the fourth of his Four Quartets. Julian is a mystic thus her “Revelations” of Divine Love. One of her most memorable observations is quoted by Eliot. She writes, “I saw that sin is behovely, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”  What is this quaint phrase “Sin is Behovely”? What does “behovely” mean?  Sin is lovely? No. Sin is becoming lovely? No.  It’s difficult to find a way to define the word. It means perhaps, “fitting” or “providential”. It is Julian’s way of affirming with St Paul that “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Julian is sharing the wisdom that in God’s plan even the sin works into his loving providence. We’ve all seen this in the small personal level: some sin, through repentance, has surged us closer to God. Some weakness and temptation has kept us mindful of our sinful condition. Some wound has helped us to learn how to forgive. This functions also on a cosmic and eternal level. All the sin and suffering will be gathered up into the final harvest. Of course, it should go without saying that this creative synthesis can only happen through the instrumentation of repentance, true contrition, confession and absolution. In fact, this creative force to make sin behovely is one of the effects of absolution.  C.S.Lewis put it this way (and I am paraphrasing from memory) “For the saved even their sin will be used for their redemption and purification but for the damned even the good they did will be used for their condemnation.”

So during this Lenten season repent of your sins, but remember Sin is Behovely and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”