Well the wave of work that up until this point had been safely out to sea has over the past two days come crashing down furiously upon all us fun loving beached students. I’ve been frantically reading articles in preparation for the History seminar I’m a part of tomorrow, while at the same time searching through dusty pages of 15th century ballads of Robin Hood, trying to ascertain whether anyone cares that he’s a criminal… no. It’s a lot of fun, but its looking like my time to write the blog will be shortened from now one. Sorry. Now I see what Doc Kyle (my history professor and mentor back at Tabor) had been working so hard to prepare me for.
The past couple of days have just been full of studying and reading. Not much to report although I’m still floored every time I walk past a security check-point that is turning away visitors, but letting in students like me. We did go on a field trip today, but only through the streets of Oxford learning about the Oxford Martyrs. Three Protestant Bishops from the Church of England that were burned at the stake by Queen Mary (Bloody Mary) in 1555-6 here in Oxford. A Monument stands to their memory in the center of town. It probably helps their legacy that Mary didn’t reign long and Elizabeth quickly reestablished the Church of England, thus making them Martyrs instead of heretics.
We also learned about John Wyclif, whom Wycliffe Hall (where I’m attending these early classes) is named after. I had prior knowledge of him due to my History of the Reformation, and History of Christianity classes, thanks Doc. But I was reminded that I really would have gotten along with this guy. He disagreed with the church about transubstantiation, aural confessions, priestly power, papal authority, Only using Latin, and church wealth and property all on the basis of scripture… what a guy! He also did all this in the 1360s, a 100 or so years before Luther.
I don’t think many people know this but my family is going through a very difficult time back in the colonies. My Grandfather Denys is quite ill and slowly slipping away. This is really hard for me being so far from everyone and its especially painful for my grandmother, mom and her sisters. So I want to leave off with an incredible story that I'm hoping can be an encouragement to us. It goes like this:
Off in the late 1300s, 1364 to be exact, there was an old woman living a secluded life in an abbot in the shire of Norwich. She was known to those around her as Julian of Norwich and had suffered greatly losing her whole family in the Black Death that had struck England first in the 1340s and then had taken her second family in the second wave in the 1360s.
Julian of Norwich had dedicated her life to prayer and reflection on God and as she was coming to the end of her life she began to see visions of Jesus being crucified and the torment and anguish he experienced. In her visions (which she relates to a scribe beside her bed) she explains what Jesus says to her.
"Then our good Lord Jesus Christ said, 'Are you well satisfied with my suffering for you?' 'Yes, thank you, good Lord,' I replied. 'Yes good Lord, bless you.; And the kind Lord Jesus said, "If you are satisfied, I am satisfied (paid= totally fulfilled) too. It gives me great happiness and joy and, indeed, eternal delight ever to have suffered for you. If I could possibly have suffered more, I would have done so."
I really like this reflection about Christ. Julian of Norwich is expressing an aspect of Christ's love for us that is starkly different than what was going on in the world at that time. With the plague and so much death, war, and famine around them, everyone saw God as a vengeful, wrathful, unmerciful deity that was done with mankind’s unholiness. The thought may have been that this was just a second flood, but Julian kept an eye on the love of God. Jesus' love will see us and especially Grandpa through this... and I don't think that needs to mean that we'll all live through it. We can make God's Kingdom reach new hearts through this and if we further the kingdom then we'll have accomplished something that can not be taken away or diminished.
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