by Damion Boyd
Hodge Podge
By
Damion Boyd
ISBN: 9781370560400
All rights reserved
A Homeless Pigeon Meets Social Services
Dirty, loose pigeons
often avoid the free breadcrumb parks
like so many noisy, soup kitchens
Instead, they choose to scatter among the cars
oblivious to the official pattern of big-named avenues
Where perched atop waxed taxis
or dodging polished, high-heeled shoes
they linger outside the rules of a crosswalk world
to sidestep rolling tires and look up, wide-eyed,
profoundly suspicious of little girls with outstretched fingers.
A Mother’s Day Vignette
I looked at my speed—18 mph. I looked up. In the rearview mirror light swept violently across the sleepy houses sitting quietly in the night. “He’s made the turn. He’s following me” I thought. Then, suddenly, he was there, roaring around the bend, skidding to a stop inches from my back bumper. You could sense the anger as he hit the blue/red flashers on and pulled me over to the side of the road. A huge, black police officer came to my window and scowled. “You know how fast you were going?” pausing less than a moment to add “You were going 80!”
The truth was I was coming home from a long shift at work and had made the final turn onto my neighborhood street at less than 40 mph—maybe 15 mph over the posted speed limit. However, as I made the turn I saw a police cruiser cresting the oncoming hill—about a 1/4 a mile away. Thus, I had comically reduced my speed by the time he was behind me.
“Eighty?!” I replied, somewhat dazed, considering the huge fine he had arbitrarily dumped in my lap. Taking my ticket, the only thing I could think to say was “I’ll see you in court”—wrong answer. The officer shoved the door hard into my leg and body, causing me to groan as I plopped backwards into the driver’s seat once more. “Sit down! We’re not finished yet” he erupted. His eyes straining wide and jaw locked tight, his fingers prying at the holster release of his service revolver. He almost looked frightened. “Why you getting out of the car?!” he snorted. “Because I live here” I said, pointing across the road. Then, somewhat embarrassed, he began our 3 a.m. lecture on children playing in the street.
Of course, when the court day arrived, I was completely unprepared—just a teenage driver facing the Criminal Justice System with only my annoyed version of events. And, what is worse, I couldn’t afford the fine. If only I could get someone to believe what actually happened—but, how?
Now, my mom was one of the wisest people I have ever known. Many young people, some total strangers, would come from the surrounding area just to pour out their trouble and hear her words. This surprised me a bit because on the surface she looked like a beat-down, wrinkled, blind woman with ten children who had trusted God through some very serious trials over the years--and it showed in ugly lines about her face. Yet, they came to her. Young girls and housewives and guys out of prison all seemingly attracted to her gentle, positive glow. After she came to accept her blindness, she smiled a lot—sometimes at the oddest times.
I remember how strange it felt when kids my age would blurt out: “Your mom is really cool!” So, I mentioned the whole ticket injustice to her; he says he clocked me going 80 mph in a 25 mph zone over a ¼ of a mile. She listened patiently to my entire rant, especially about my leg getting crushed—which I thought was very important evidence. Then, she quietly smiled and gave me a winning defense.
But, as luck would have it, traffic court was overflowing with cases. So I was told to go upstairs to a Superior Court Judge. He asked me if I had a lawyer while an Assistant DA looked rather amused at my scraggly clothes and long, dirty-blond hair. All I had was my mom’s defense written out in a short statement on a scrap of paper, so the trial went by with haste. Did I have witnesses? Did I want to present evidence? Did I want to cross-examine the officer’s testimony…? (The officer had lied under oath saying he was parked on the street.) No, I just have something to read. They kept telling me you can read that at the end. Then, finally, they all looked at me and said “Now you can make a closing statement”.
I took out my mom’s paper and pointed out how clocking a car going 80 mph and then pulling them over within a ¼ of a mile required a police cruiser to go over 200 mph. The courtroom fell silent. The DA’s table was taken aback. The busy stenographer looked over with a bit of amazement creeping across her face. And the judge, with a pained expression, apologized to the police officer as he let me leave. He told him aloud “I’m sorry but I’m going to have to let him go.”
Lord God, on this Mother’s Day I thank you for the wisdom you gave—not only my mom but-- our Mother Mary. Doesn’t she also listen patiently to our rants, to children coming from every direction, and give wise and gentle advice?
The Weight of the World
“Cynicism is knowledge without wisdom”
By cell phone
Tripoli turns bloody,
teenage sex-slaves in Guam,
terror blast kills 7 some-bodies
just another day’s cacophony erupts
within your palm…
yet Mother still
picks up that dying son alone
in this Calcutta
where the weight of the world
is but 91 lbs of skin and bone
An Inquiry into the Beatific Vision and Virtues of Jesus
Dear Father,
You mentioned in your sermon that Jesus always enjoyed the beatific vision throughout His lifetime. When I questioned this, you pointed to Thomas Aquinas. No doubt, you and St Thomas and Holy Mother Church are far more educated than I. Yet, it seems quite clear to me on many levels that Jesus Christ did NOT allow Himself such a powerful aid—with, perhaps, the exception of the Transfiguration. Here are a few objections that St Thomas did not raise in his self examination of the issue.
1)Direct contrary evidence in Scripture
Luke 22:43---Greek
ὤφθη δὲ αὐτῷ ἄγγελος ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ ἐνισχύων αὐτὸν. καὶ γενόμενος ἐν ἀγωνίᾳ ἐκτενέστερον προσηύχετο. ἐγένετο δὲ ὁ ἱδρὼς αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ θρόμβοι αἵματος καταβαίνοντες ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν.
Translation (RSV)
And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.
[Almost every translation I’ve found implies that the appearance of an angel caused the strengthening. If Jesus did access the full glory of God…why would the appearance of a mere angel give any kind of solace? ]
2)And Jesus went up the mountain to pray…..Why? Scripture shows us that Jesus separated Himself from human activity to achieve a closer communion with the Father. The full Beatific vision would require no special action to enhance.
3)Jesus repeatedly taught the disciples to rely on Faith…..when Peter began to sink beneath the water, Jesus asked him “Why did you doubt?” This greatly implies that Jesus Himself was relying on Faith. “If you had Faith as big as a tiny mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree “Be uprooted and planted in the sea and it would obey you”. Constant access to the Beatific vision would make Jesus NO EXAMPLE of Faith or Hope.
4)Scripture tells us that “all of us with unveiled faces will be transformed from glory unto glory” by th
e Beatific vision. In other words, the vision of God’s glory is an increasingly transformative rapture….yet we see the Suffering Servant pouring out everything……almost to the point of pouring out His humanity “I am a worm and no man”.
With respect and asking for your patience Father, may I please give one more kind of argument? This argument is based on kenosis:
The Bible often reminds us God is One—an interconnected Unity. Yet, it also reveals distinct Personalities within the Divinity. Similarly, all virtue is unified but differs greatly in type. For example, there are extroverted virtues like absolute Power, Justice and Authority. We also know of introverted or recessive virtues like Mercy, Humility, Trust and Compassion. Therefore, might a unified God be both extroverted and recessive? “He made them both male and female. In His own image He made them.” And, if so unified, might God have acted out all His virtues at once? “I only do what I see the Father do.” Thus, this Path of creation that we witness is only a tiny part of the perfect ACT of God’s every virtue being played out. Perhaps, the Divine expression went, from our perspective, in two directions at once.
Therefore, all of God’s extroverted virtues, like Justice and unrestrained Power, sought full expression “upward and outward”. Likewise, all His recessive virtues, like Humility, Trust and Patience sought complete expression “downward” toward the meek humanity of Jesus on the Cross. “There is no greater Love than this than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Apparently, this downward expression of God toward the physical Person of His Son—Jesus--brought everything “in-between” God and the physical into existence—which is a pretty broad spectrum. “Through Him all things came into being”.
The take home point is: the Wise path of creation is defined by the absolute mercy and humility of Jesus Who ends up in the lowest place by design. And, it is here that human beings stand at the end of a long funnel of spiritual creation as it blends into the non-spiritual and non-volitional. Yet, the Light of God came to us—the least spiritual, barely volitional animals. And, as a witness to His arrival at this least point of creation, Jesus describes Himself as the “Son of Man”. With a touch of Hebrew hyperbole, the suffering servant text further proclaims “I am a worm and no man”.
If I may point out just one more theological argument, wouldn’t you agree that God is the SOURCE of every virtue? So where did perfect Faith and Trust and Hope come from? May I submit that God is indeed the source every good. For example, we might use a crude dividing line when it comes to eternal virtues. We might say that the Father is the source of all EXPRESSIVE VIRTUES…i.e.…absolute physical power, Justice, etc…….while Jesus is the source of all RECESSIVE VIRTUES…i.e.….absolute Mercy, Patience, Humility…etc….yet the Holy Spirit is the source of all the consequent virtues= DIVINE RELATIONAL VIRTUES…..i.e.…Love, Obedience, Trust, Hope….etc.
Hence, God’s one, perfect Act expressed “upward” in the Father (Justice) and “downward” in the kenosis of the Son Jesus (Mercy) and is an ongoing expression through the Church via the Holy Spirit…where many sons are formed in the virtues….e.g....”to consider Wisdom is the perfection of prudence”. However, I would submit, we created beings ARE NOT THE SOURCE OF THE VIRTUES….but are rather clothed by Jesus’ Holy Spirit in these virtues by the gift of faith and “works”.
All of which begs the question, if Jesus perfected the virtues of Faith, Hope and Trust in this place, was God “perfect” before creation? I would submit that Jesus “played out” His eternally humble and perfect, virtuous Love here in the lowest place. Thus, creation itself is a vast part of God’s Perfect act or a “playing out” of every virtue or essence of God.
Now, I believe God is immutable and Triune from all eternity……However, if you posit that Jesus is not the expression of perfect Trust (because He always enjoyed the beatific vision of the Father while on Earth) then you have a serious theological quandary trying to explain where and how such virtues pre-existed created beings; and, of course, where are these Virtues perfectly expressed?.
Father, with honor and respect, these are just a few of my objections to the notion that the Suffering Servant always had “one eye” on the Beatific Vision--the source of all bliss.
The Great Battle
Yesterday
near a crowded mall
a sun-bronzed youngster
(a woman really)
and a seagull
plundered the open dumpster.
The bird
clumsily pecked at a blown paper ball,
as if it were a crumb from heaven.
The woman
smiled a toothless smile at a broken radio,
tuning the dead dials, remembering home.
And some gathered
to take a long, harsh but reasonable,
business-people-look
from across the parking lot.
Seeing them, the bird took wing
and she stood up to proclaim some loud, personal thing
to unravel the crowd.
Then she sat back down and laughed,
having won the great battle of 8 rattling cans and a broken radio.
And that was enough
but that was
yesterday