Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas

And in the same shewing, sodeinly the trinity fulfilled my hert most with joy. And so I undertode it shall be in heaven without end, to all that shall come ther. For the trinity is God, God is the trinity. The trinity is our maker, the trinity is our keper, the trinity is our everlasting lover, the trinity is our endlesse joy and our blisse, by our lord Jesu Christ and in our lord Jesu Christ. And this was shewed in the first sight and in all. For wher Jhesu appireth the blessed trinity is understand, as to my sight. ₁

In a sermon preached on September 14, 1924, Father Sergius Bulgakov he teaches:

The bliss of divine love is the sacrificial bliss of the cross, and its power is a sacrificial power. ₂ If the world is created by love, it is created by no other power than the power of the cross. God who is love creates it by taking up the cross in order to reveal his love for the creature. The almighty Creator leaves room in the world for the creature’s freedom, thus as it were humbling himself, limiting his almightiness, emptying himself for the benefit of the creature. The world is created through the cross of God’s love for the creature. But in creating the world through the cross, God in his eternal counsel determines to save it, also through the cross, from itself, from perishing in its creatureliness … God seeks in the creature a friend, another self, with whom he can share the bliss of love, to whom he can impart the divine life, and in his boundless love for the creature he does not stop at sacrifice, but sacrifices himself for the sake of the creature. The boundlessness of the divine sacrifice for the sake of the world and its salvation passes all understanding. The Son humbles himself to become man, taking upon him the form of a servant and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross …. ₃ It is the sacrifice not of the Son alone, but of the consubstantial and indivisible Trinity as a whole. The Son alone was incarnate and suffered on the cross, but in him was manifested the sacrificial love of the Holy Trinity. ₄

Summarizing Father Bulgakov’s understanding of the distinct love of the Triune God, Paul Gavrilyuk writes:

Bulgakov emphasises that the Trinity partially reveals its inner life in creation and redemption. He maintains that since God’s love for the world is sacrificial, the love that is at the core of God’s being must also be sacrificial. God’s love may be different in direction and object – the persons of the Trinity in one case and the world in the other – but its content remains the same. ₅

Father Bulgakov’s reflections on the sacrificial love, and the sacrificial exchange, that characterize the inner life of the Trinity, adds insight into understanding Bernard of Clairvaux’s teaching regarding that charity “which somehow holds and brings together the Trinity in the bond of peace” and that that “[c]harity is the divine substance.” Bernard states that such charity “keeps nothing of its own for itself.” Indeed, “the unspotted law of the Lord is that love which does not seek what is useful to itself, but what is good for the many.” ₆ We discern the movement and the direction of such love in Father Bulgakov’s words: “humbling himself, limiting his almightiness, emptying himself for the benefit of the creature;” “[t]he world is created through the cross of God’s love for the creature;” and “he does not stop at sacrifice, but sacrifices himself for the sake of the creature.”     

Endnotes

1. Julian of Norwich, The Writings of Julian of Norwich, Eds, Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins. University Park, The Pennsylvania State University Press, Chapter 4, lines 1-4, page 135.
2. “You should not think that by caring about others you will gain some kind of worldly advantage … Śāntideva said that if you have food, clothing, or material things, you should give them to those who are poor and in need of help; bodhisattvas will even give their bodies to those in need …. You should think about what you can give to truly needy people, and you should restrict your own consumption. This is thinking in a self-sacrificial way, for the benefit of others. It is a way a most loving and kind mother would feel toward her only child, loving the child a hundred times more than she loves herself; this is a divine mental state.” (Geshe Lhundub Sopa, Peacock in the Poison Grove: Two Buddhist Texts on Training the Mind. Edited and cotranslated by Michael J. Sweet and Leonard Zwilling. Boston: Wisdon Publications, 2001, page 54.)
3. “A bodhisattva’s attitude is one of self-sacrifice. They are willing to fall into hell for a long time even to help just one sentient being. Even in that situation they will not lose their compassion. They will endure physical pain and suffering, but they feel joy if they see that it benefits others.” (Geshe Lhundub Sopa, Nagarjuna’s Advice to Buddhists: And Explanation of ‘Letter to a Friend.’ With Beth Newman. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2023, page 214.)
4. Sergius Bulgakov, “The Power of the Cross.” A Bulgakov Anthology. Edited by James Pain and Nicholas Zernov. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976, pages 170-171.
5. Paul Gavrilyuk, “The Kenotic Theology of Sergius Bulgakov,” Scottish Journal of Theology, 58 (2005), page 255
6. Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God: An Analytical Commentary by Emero Stiegman. Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1995, pages 36-37.