The Poppet Doll (Part Three of Three)

PART III

 

(The Blessing of St. Paul)

 

And now, I am

A beast no more

And now, I see a soul

 

That gathers

What is disparate

Into a sacred whole

 

I see it on the roads I walk,

The places where I stay -

 

It hallows like the goodly light

In which the angels pray

 

For penitence

Inspires the flight

Of that supernal grace

 

That elevates

The common man

Above his time and place!

 

It flutters like a temple dove

That in the sunlight

 

Gleams

 

Upon the brow

Of him who kneels

And, in his beauty, beams!

 

These days were meant

To claim a soul beneath

 

An olive tree,

 

And I discovered

 

That the Christ

 

Was surely claiming me

 

Oh, I was chastened in a flame,

A flame that made it seem

 

As if I were a child of God

 

And not a poppet’s dream.[1]

 

-U-

 

Herein Lay My Sin,

 

That I Sought Pleasures, Honors, and Truths,

 Not in Him, but in His Creatures �" And I Fell

Thereby into Sorrows, Troubles, and Errors.

 

-St. Augustine of Hippo[2]

 

Thoughts of Camille Du Monde: Entry Eleven

 

(Those Who Seek Forgiveness Must Repent)

 

For many years, our Church regarded the passion of the flagellant to be a reasonable display of penance, for though the whipping might be a vain conceit too madly done, a lesson was, in fact, laid out and learned by many.[3]  Now, times have changed. But Ami describes a thing more inward and quite private, too much like our Lord’s anguish on the night of his betrayal, which to me is a kind of sacrilege that mimics God. But who can say? Yet this I know or trust to be the truth:

 

All confessions made and penance done

Are acts performed in garish masquerade.

 

No man can be complete in what he knows about himself,

Nor can the truth find light in anything he says.

 

He is like a troubadour who sings

His empty platitudes to a sleepy king

Who excuses him in a drone of snores.^[4]

 

Yet those who seek forgiveness must repent.

 

For even as God yawns at our imperfect prayers,

His grace provides a consummate absolution �"

Never rendered grudgingly or in half-spirit,

But in full measure and often in reward.

 

Did Jean Ami receive that special blessing?

It seems he did, and I am happy for him,

For in witnessing grace, I am as blessed

As him for whom it was intended.

 

God’s love is like an arrow that finds its mark �"

 

It sticks where it is intended,

 

But so great is its force

That it is felt in every place nearby

And perhaps far beyond what can be seen.

 

What soldier shows not a better sign of courage,

When he beholds that virtue shining in another?

 

Or more generally, what good man can witness grace

And not feel compelled to do some good himself?^[5]

 

---

[1] Paris thought that “The Poppet Doll” accurately reflects the process of sin, regret, confession, penitence, and forgiveness in a way compatible with the voice of his character, Jean Ami. However, he recognized that his work generally, and all the poems contained in his Seventh Decoration, rely on the language and rhythms of a bygone age in poetry. For that, he had no apology, as he believed that traditional poetic structures demand the necessary skill and discipline to achieve a poem’s highest and most effective level of expression.

 

[2] From Augustine �" In His Own Words, a book recommended to the poet by a pastor who used one of Paris’s poems in a sermon about the Holy Spirit.

 

[3] According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Paris may have wandered beyond the bounds of poetic license here. Although it is possible that some manifestation of flagellantism occurred during the time of the events he describes, its first recorded incident took place in Perugia in 1259, with its practice reaching its height during the days of the Black Death in 1349. Moreover, it is probably accurate to say that the Church tolerated this extremist movement more than it regarded it as a legitimate vehicle for the expression of penance. Indeed, the Church eventually identified the movement as heresy, and Pope Clement VI instructed Church leaders to suppress it. Several flagellants were burned alive to demonstrate the Holy See’s resolve on the issue.

 

[4] Paris recognized the value of ritualistic prayers, and he seldom spoke to God as if the Deity were his erstwhile buddy. He thought that God would find that presumptuous and ultimately annoying. After all, He is God the Father, not a colleague, and we cannot impress him, manipulate his favor, or tweak His attitude toward us.

 

 

[5] To Paris, this aspect of social interaction was easy to understand. When a person is in the company of good people, he is more likely to have good thoughts and behave in positive ways. When he is in the company of those who are not good, he is unlikely to have good thoughts and must struggle to avoid bad behavior.  Of course, the “birds of a feather” saw is not always true, but it is almost every time true for everyone. The tricky part is that those who are good are often not Christians, and those who are Christians are often not good.

 

Here, it is worth reiterating that Paris’s religious faith was highly personalized. Unlike traditional Christian thinkers, Paris did not believe that people of other faiths are doomed to hell. To him, that fate is reserved only for those who reject the absolute good in favor of their existential primacy, do much evil, and have no regrets about their behavior.

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[carl]

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