God as a Passive Influence in Julian and Margery Kempe
Passive, But Not Aggressive:
When Christians ponder the extent of God’s influence over humanity, it is usually assumed that God speaks and acts through his creation. While it is widely assumed in Catholicism that God focuses more on the “bigger picture” of humanity rather than the mundane problems inflicted upon the individual. However, this hasn’t stopped medieval authors from drawing connections between their human experience and the divinity of Christ. In a fair amount of these cases, God takes an active role in deliberately influencing the plot, usually as a main or supporting character fitted with his own needs and desires. But usually, God takes a more “passive” or indirect role in medieval texts, retaining influence through the belief of others rather than through his direct action, such as in works like Everyman and Paradise Lost. This means that the stronger the Christian faith possessed by the characters, the greater role God plays in shaping their lives as well as their own personal etiquette.
For instance, take in the personal accounts of Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich: both of these women find their understanding about themselves in the world through their worship of Christ, specifically through the stories of Jesus Christ. What makes Christ such a beloved figure in medieval texts is how medieval Christians appealed to his suffering via persecution and crucifixion. Physical suffering and mortality is one of the greatest aspects of humanity that separates us from divinity, which is why seeing a divine figure such as Jesus suffering at the hands of other mortal men is so striking. From this image, people can relate the passion of Christ to their own human suffering, and therefore grow closer to God and His divinity. While God may not directly act upon the lives of Margery and Julian in effort to convert their interest to be more faith-based, the widespread popularity of Christianity makes it impossible to escape His influence at the time and in the story.
Jesus According to Margery Kempe:
While the accounts of Margery and Julian are similar in how their personal creed is realized through Christ, the two woman are extremely distinguished in their approaches. In the Book of Margery Kempe, Margery recounts her experiences in the third-person, often referring to herself as “this creature.” The purpose of this is to separate her past self from her present self, emphasizing the change in her person on behalf of her faith. As a result, this causes some detachment from the experience of the main character, almost as if we are God observing the life and behavior of this woman. Her relationship with Christ is founded mostly out of past trauma, being that she had a miscarriage followed by a mental breakdown after a confession. Her prose is based more in the recounting of her visions amidst her tragedy, placing extra emphasis on the Passion of Christ.
In her vision of the Passion sequence, Margery finds her spiritual connection through the experience of Mary. Watching her weep over the eminent death of her son, Margery sympathizes with her suffering as she has also experienced the death of her child. When she tells Jesus that she cannot imagine living in a world without him—meaning both Jesus and her own child—he gives her a similar response to what he gave to his mother: “Be still, daughter, and rest with my mother here, and comfort you in her, for she who is my own mother must suffer this sorrow. But I shall come again, daughter, to my mother and comfort her and you both and turn all your sorrow into joy” (p. 455). By identifying with Mary and hearing Jesus’ statement of reassurance, Margery finds personal reconciliation in her tragedy and her interrelation with Christ. By discovering the value in her sadness and how it aligns her with Virgin Mary, she finds a new life in her spirituality and her femininity knowing that they are both respected by Jesus, if not by the others that look down upon her and her lifestyle.
Jesus According to Julian of Norwich:
Julian’s account also contains a Passion dream sequence, though it conveys a much different tone. While her prose is calm and introspective like Margery’s, it is much more light-hearted and less influenced by suffering. This may be because her visions were influenced by religious studies rather than dealing with grief, which as a result makes her account less defined by “interactions” with both divine and mortal beings and more so relying on interpretations of images and scenes. When she views Christ, she is taken aback by his holiness despite being in his ruined state.
Like Margery, she observes Mary while she dwells in his presence, also becoming in awe of her acquired divinity, saying, “In this sight I did understand verily that she is more than all that God made beneath her in worthiness and in fullhead; for above her is nothing that is made but the blessed manhood of Christ, as to my sight (p. 434).” Rather than choosing to relate to Mary’s love and suffering as a mother, she connects with her image as a woman of God. Instead of her femininity being an impediment to enhancing her faith (being that men would tend to use biblical characters like Eve and Delilah to showcase the evils brought on by women), Julian realizes that Mary’s holiness as close to God as a human could possibly get, making it all the more meaningful that this position was and can be achieved by a woman.
In The End…
By aligning their own experiences with Mary as way to become closer with Christ, Margery and Julian discover a new found confidence in themselves as women. It is important to note how God does not act upon these women with the intent to deepen their faith, like if he was a character with motivations. Instead these women interact with God; and through His essence, they find themselves. When we would expect God to operate on a mighty and cosmic level, here God’s power is much more intimate and personal. By presenting a situation where God places value on the suffering of women, something which has historically been seen as trivial and unimportant, Margery and Julian offer a new way to respect God: He is someone who has infinite power over the universe and all of its complexity, yet cares deeply about the small intricacies that make up the human soul.
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Sources Cited:
- Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. The Norton English Anthology: The Middle Ages. Tenth Ed. New York: Norton & Co., 2018. Print.
- Julian of Norwich. A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich. The Norton English Anthology: The Middle Ages. Tenth Ed. New York: Norton & Co., 2018. Print.