Spiritual Pain, Repentance, and the Forgiveness of Sins
Sin and Salvation
English "behovely" would be that sin is "opportune," "suitable," or "advantageous."
These would echo the sentiment of the following verse from the Exultet, that is, "Oh happy fault," O felix culpa, that earned for humanity such a great redeemer. In other words, although human sin is a fault and a failure it nevertheless paradoxically offers an opportunity that would not otherwise be there. Sin is therefore to be understood as a means to an end. And the "end" or purpose of the human capacity to sin is that God is able to show us love as the meaning of everything in even greater depth and force than if sin had never existed.
In addition, Julian notes once again that she did not see sin. It can only be recognized by the pain it causes both to the one who sins and to those who are sinned against. Sin has "no maner of substance, ne no part of being." In other words, sin has no ontological reality. It is an absence or a lack of something, especially of love and light. This is followed by the promise that "alle shalle be wele."
But I did not see sin, for I believe that it has no kind of substance, no share of being, nor can it be recognized except by the pain caused by it…. And because of the tender love which our good
Lord has for all who will be saved, he comforts readily and sweetly, meaning this: It is true that sin is the cause of all this pain, but all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well.
Sometimes the Middle English "shalle" is straight‐forwardly translated as "will" in modern English. All will be well. That is, everything is going to be well in some undefined future. However, the word "shalle" can be distinguished from the word "will" and has more force than "will" because it implies necessity. That is, "shalle" suggests that it will necessarily be the case that God makes everything well. Julian expresses these sentiments once again in chapter 34.
When I saw that God does everything which is done, I did not see sin, and then I saw that all is well. But when God did show me about sin, then he said: All will be well.
Spiritual Pain, Repentance, and the Forgiveness of Sins Occasionally, throughout her text Julian expresses a more subjective experience of the impact of sinful fragility in her life. She first touches upon the experience of "woe" in chapter 1. This is linked to "the heaviness and weariness of our mortal life." However, she is clear that "the experience of woe comes as a temptation." Julian refers to this in relation