A Wreath of Mercy

**This is a crown of sonnets, which I composed as a final project for a Medieval Church history class. It is a meditation on mercy as the early church understood it and an invitation for today’s church to enter into the practice of mercy. Because the piece was originally an academic project, there are many references to the writings of early church leaders sprinkled throughout the text. Please refer to the endnotes for references as well as photo credits.

Some lilies well-considered, glorious[1]
Transcendent Love concretely understood
Through flowers’ speech, hushed, meritorious
Though voiceless, speaking of a greater good
What do the lilies say but, “Bloom we must?”
The living splendor of our Lord’s command
These are the ever-growing way we trust
Resisting harsh anxiety’s demand
For fear of scarcity would rule us all
Had not the lilies shown us simple faith
Now we can give according to our call
“A portion to seven, even to eight.”[2]
In sharing, joy; in sacrifice small grief
These always are the frame of mercy’s wreath

These always are the frame of mercy’s wreath
But could support come from this frail flower?
Suffice to say trust’s stronger than we think[3]
The well-considered lilies’ great power
For lilies speak Christ’s truth and comfort bring
They speak to us of life beyond unease
Just like the song that the sweet sparrow sings[4]
Just like the still, small voice of wind in trees
The lilies also signify our death
The beauty as well as the strength thereof
When laying down our lives leaves us bereft
Of all, but sweet and sacrificial love
Death-heralding lilies, notorious
Their growth is facile, not laborious

Their growth is facile, not laborious
Although, of course, we must some effort make
In our ability, victorious
Reliant, still, on Christ’s work for our sake
The sun needs not lamplights ten-thousand,[5] but
The works we do our hearts illuminate
To emulate the One who brought us up
To love the path of life and narrow gate[6]
For we are merely soil on the earth
In mercy daily given sun and rain
Through cultivation, we avoid the curse
Of thorns and thistles, with a crop to gain[7]
Responsibility, also relief
As Heaven’s waters flood the field beneath

Since Heaven’s waters flood the field beneath
We need not worry for our sustenance
Nor harbor goods, post-mortem to bequeath[8]
Nor from our neighbors turn our countenance
But there are other streams we live beside[9]
Dry waters that will never quench our thirst
Unless we share with those who are denied
Relief for them, for us love uncoerced
For love through mercy satisfies parched lips
The life that many search for in their greed
Is only found, in truth, outside its grips
Surrendering the love of money, freed
When we begin, this process really smarts
I’ll weave in foxglove for the breaking hearts

I’ll weave in foxglove for the breaking hearts[10]
Because it is the heartsore ones who’ll serve[11]
We find in shedding tears our action starts
Since sorrow can the proudest soul unnerve
We must be ready when we see a need
To give, when even they’re ashamed to ask[12]
In hope, this is the sowing of the seed
Until we bring in sheaves, this is our task[13]
But hearts can break in many diff’rent ways
For sorrow and heart-soreness are but one
In lack of empathy our heart betrays
Not sweet heart-soreness but heart-sores that run[14]
Quite like the dormant trees, bare to the roots
That long for crocuses, past-winter’s shoots

Some crocuses, the first past-winter shoots[15]
These rarely noticed, for their reticence
Top-heavy, among other attributes
Unfolding into brilliant renascence
These little sprouts, tender and green, predict
The day when our sad dormancy will end
And we will love our neighbors, not afflict
Their souls, neglecting––shame––to apprehend
The very image of our God in them
This is, in Christ, an image better kept[16]
Than ours, which feigning ignorance condemns[17]
Reluctant, we this fault of ours accept
For mercy seeking, will we learn this art?[18]
Carnations teach us motherhood’s first part

Carnations for all motherhood’s first part[19]
Our one experience universal
To every living being does impart
Original mercy, a rehearsal
A gift of steadfast love within the womb
Without this pity none would be alive
All were together knit as with a loom[20]
From twofold mercy should our own derive
Since we to mercy our existence owe
The quickening of mercy in our soul
Develops our compassion so we’ll flow
With mercy as our God is merciful[21]
That mercy breeds the same, none can dispute
Won’t cherry blossoms promise us good fruit?

Some cherry blossoms promising good fruit[22]
Because in us a good work has begun[23]
Cooperation is now our pursuit
Completion, thriving life for everyone
This is our greatest hope: to see, at length
Ourselves transformed and others, too;[24] likewise
Producing, each, according to our strength
Three, six, or ten, times ten; then we arise[25]
The dream stuffs of this life, confronted with[26]
Reality; that earthly wealth is vain
Security in social status, myth
But virtue frees us from ungodly chains[27]
A virtue that can grow from paucity
Lush laurel branches, generosity

Lush laurel branches, generosity[28]
So of God’s goodness we’ll be ministers[29]
From poverty or sumptuosity
In this world in which we’re all visitors[30]
To others our possessions do belong
When we, though having little, still have more
Invoking our Lord’s pity, we are strong
To give the last loaf from our meager store[31]
How generosity proliferates!
It’s truly one of life’s great mysteries
Like a pruned laurel branch regenerates
With leaves upon green leaves, great victories
Beneficence can overwhelm the sense
Like the night-blooming jasmine flow’r’s fragrance

Night-blooming jasmine flowers for fragrance[32]
A pure and modest gift to mark rebirth
In choosing Christ once and ev’ry day since
Becoming his aroma on this earth[33]
Our works bear witness and make plain our deeds[34]
Though said of Judgment Day, this now applies
Our works will to observers speak; they’ll see
The very heart of God with their own eyes
The lives of virtuous people of God
Inspire those around them to pursue
Improvement of themselves where they are flawed
As well as deep’ning love of strangers, too[35]
But lest we foster grandiosity,
Two yellow roses, reciprocity

Two yellow roses, reciprocity[36]
For mercy benefits the giver, too
Since giving heals the heart’s leprosity
From excess; Chrysostom said this was true[37]
Thus, mercy does enjoin us to depend
On one another for our own good health
And all of us from heights of pride descend
Discovering a different kind of wealth
The kind that lasts beyond our earthly life
After our masks of status are removed,[38]
And for the poor, a gold refined in strife
Since in affliction is their virtue proved[39]
These truths should move us far from complacence
Weave them in with gratitude and patience

These woven with gratitude and patience
It’s spiritual music made with our hands[40]
Together we make a lovely cadence
When we give thanks in every circumstance[41]
But gratitude does not stay easily
It must become quite precious in our sight
And we, by guarding it incessantly,
Receive our double portion of delight[42]
And patience, too, requires endurance
We persevere in righteous toil now[43]
But in this life, we have the assurance
That in the next we will receive our crown[44]
Our meditation when push comes to shove
This wreath that we’ll need a reminder of

Our wreath of mercy and reminder of
All that our Lord has taught us to enact
As servants and wise serpents, gentle doves[45]
To love all those with whom we have contact
This crown of our regalia of good deeds
Inseparable, this converted wealth
Outlasts the joys of all our former greeds[46]
And above all, promoting our good health
This wreath of mercy, crown to be our prize[47]
Resolving false religion to forsake
Acknowledging God with no compromise[48]
As God is merciful, we undertake[49]
This blest vocation given from above
This gift our solemn duty in true love

This gift, our solemn duty in true love
To act with justice and humility[50]
Eternal Love poured into us, enough
We spread the benefits that we’ve received
And further, God’s image we must respect
And not enslave those God created free
All other patterns, save one, we reject
We choose not to defy divine decree[51]
But mercy, some have said, is less than fair
They think that justice through pity devolves
The question is how all will get their share
And how does this their just desert involve?[52]
Fret not, when people are censorious
Consider well the lilies, glorious

Some lilies well-considered, glorious
These always are the frame of mercy’s wreath
Their growth is facile, not laborious
Since Heaven’s waters flood the field beneath
I’ll weave in foxglove for the breaking hearts
Some crocuses, the first past-winter shoots
Carnations for all motherhood’s first part
Some cherry blossoms promising good fruit
Lush laurel branches, generosity
Night-blooming jasmine flowers for fragrance
Two yellow roses, reciprocity
These woven with gratitude and patience
Our wreath of mercy and reminder of
This gift, our solemn duty in true love

Endnotes

[1] Matthew 6:28
[2] Gregory Nazianzen uses this phrase to allude to investing in this life (seven) as well as in the afterlife (eight).
Gregory Nazianzen, “Oration 14,” in Martha Vinson, trans., St. Gregory of Nazianzus: Select Orations, (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 55.
[3]Shenoute of Atripe, an excerpt from Discourses 8.1, “I Have Been Reading the Holy Gospels,” translated by Mary K. Farag in eadem, “Coptic,” in James E. Walters, ed., Eastern Christianity: A Reader. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, forthcoming), 2.
[4] Luke 12:4-7
[5] Shenoute writes that the sun does not need the light of ten thousand lamps, just like God does not need our good works.
Shenoute, “I Have Been Reading the Holy Gospels,” 1.
[6] Shenoute, “I Have Been Reading the Holy Gospels,” 2.
[7] Origen, “On First Principles 3.1.1-3.1.24,” in John Behr, ed. and trans., Origen: On First Principles, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 313-315.
[8] Basil of Caesarea, St. Basil the Great: On Social Justice, PPS 38, translated by C. Paul Schroeder. Crestwood, (NY: SVS, 2009), 8. Kindle.
[9] Chrysostom compares desire for material things to living beside a stream while always drinking and always thirsting.
John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, originally Four Discourses by Chrysostom Chiefly on the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, translated by F. Allen, (London: Longmans, 1869; Louisville: GLH Publishing, 2018), 38. Kindle.
[10] Foxglove is a flower with medicinal properties. It is used to treat heart attacks, so it literally treats breaking hearts.
[11] Augustine, “Sermon 358A On the Value of Being Merciful,” in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Sermons III/10 (341-400) on Various Subjects, translated by Edmund Hill, and edited by John E. Rotelle. (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press), 197, 1995.
[12] Ambrose of Milan, “On the Duties of Ministers, Book 2,” in Ambrose: De officiis, vol. 1, edited and translated by Igor J. Davidson, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 305.
[13] Augustine, “Sermon 358A On the Value of Being Merciful,” 198.
[14] John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 33.
[15] In many places, crocuses are among the first flowers to begin sprouting as winter comes to an end. They signal the coming Spring before bolder flowers like tulips are in bloom.
[16] Gregory Nazianzen, “Oration 14,” 39.
[17] Basil, On Social Justice, 45.
[18] Chrysostom likens the Christian’s tool for good works and the practice of virtues, which is Scripture, to the tools of an artist. As the tools of an artist must be well-attended to so that the artist can better do his/her work, so the Christian must attend to Scripture so that he/she can better practice virtue. Here, I have taken the concept of the practice of virtue as an art that must be learned and stated that the starting place is in our understanding of motherhood.
Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 57-58.
[19] Carnations are a flower given on Mother’s Day, especially pink or red ones.
[20] Psalm 139:13-14
[21] Luke 6:36
[22] On fruit trees, the presence of flowers means that fruit is on the way.
[23] Philippians 1:6
[24] In the stories about the Man of God, we see that mercy can change the life of the person who practices it, but it also changes other people for the better, too. This bearing of good fruit in others could be seen in the the stories about the Man of God in the way that the people who observed his virtue also became more virtuous. This sonnet alludes to the story of the Man of God to say that when we, in the church, practice mercy, other people will also be transformed for the better.
Robert Doran, Stewards of the Poor: The Man of God, Rabbula, and Hiba in Fifth-Century Edessa, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2006), 22-25.
[25] Shenoute, “I Have Been Reading the Holy Gospels,” 3.
[26] Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 32.
[27] Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 96.
[28] Laurel bushes can grow very quickly, perhaps especially after being pruned.
[29] Basil, On Social Justice, 42.
[30] Basil, Chrysostom, and many others encourage Christians to take an eschatological view of generosity. This life is only temporary.
[31] This line and the three previous are based on Basil, On Social Justice, 56-57. It is a call to be generous, even if you don’t have that much because there’s always someone who has less. We are emboldened by the power of God to be generous.
[32] Night-blooming jasmine has a pleasant and very strong fragrance. It is sometimes noticeable from far away.
[33] 2 Corinthians 2:15-17
[34] Basil, On Social Justice, 35. He actually argues that we ought to good works in this life because we will be held accountable at the end before God’s judgment seat. I agree with this, but am also trying to expand the understanding of who all is watching and benefiting from our acts of mercy.
[35] This and the three preceding lines allude to the stories of the Life of the Man of God, particularly drawing on the Syriac version (Doran, Stewards of the Poor, 22 and 24). In this story, the virtuous life of the Man of God leads the people around him, namely the custodian and the bishop, to become more virtuous themselves, especially with respect to love of stranger.
[36] Yellow roses often signify friendship or reciprocity.
[37] Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 97, 33.
[38] Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 45-46.
[39] Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 33.
[40] Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty,6.
[41] 1 Thessalonians 5:18
[42] Basil, On Social Justice, 56.
[43] Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 46.
[44] Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 83.
[45] Matthew 10:16
[46] This line and the preceding allude to Basil’s view that good done in this life is wealth that will last eternally. Basil, On Social Justice, 38.
[47] Revelation 3:11 gives encouragement for endurance and a crown for the one who endures. Chrysostom draws on the imagery of a victorious athlete receiving a crown to describe the reward of a faithful and virtuous person.
Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, 42, 69, 84.
[48] This line and the one preceding it are a paraphrase of Hosea 6:6, shown here in the NIV, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”
[49] This is an allusion to Christ’s command in Luke 6:36, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (NIV).
[50] Ambrose, “On the Duties of Ministers, Book 2,” 335-337.
[51] This line and the three preceding allude to Gregory of Nyssa’s polemic against slavery. The center of his argument is that humans are created free in the image of God and that it is wrong for humans to try to rule over each other.
Gregory of Nyssa, “Homily 4 on Ecclesiastes,” in Stuart George Hall, ed., Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes, (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993), 73-75.
[52] This line and the three preceding address a common concern about mercy being in opposition to justice. Seneca tries very hard to carve out a space for “clemency,” which he argues is not like pity or mercy (two attributes of which he does not have an entirely positive view).
Seneca, “On Clemency,” in Susanna Braund, ed. and trans., Seneca: De Clementia, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 143-151.

Bibliography:

Ambrose of Milan, “On the Duties of Ministers, Book 2,” in Ambrose: De officiis, vol. 1, edited and translated by Igor J. Davidson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Augustine. “Sermon 358A On the Value of Being Merciful,” in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Sermons III/10 (341-400) on Various Subjects, translated by Edmund Hill, and edited by John E. Rotelle. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1995.

Basil of Caesarea, St. Basil the Great: On Social Justice, PPS 38, translated by C. Paul Schroeder. Crestwood, NY: SVS, 2009. Kindle.

Doran, Robert, Stewards of the Poor: The Man of God, Rabbula, and Hiba in

Fifth-Century Edessa. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2006.

Gregory Nazianzen, “Oration 14,” in Martha Vinson, trans., St. Gregory of

Nazianzus: Select Orations. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press,

2003.

Gregory of Nyssa, “Homily 4 on Ecclesiastes,” in Stuart George Hall, ed., Gregory

of Nyssa: Homilies on Ecclesiastes. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1993.

John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty, originally Four Discourses by Chrysostom Chiefly on the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, translated by F. Allen. London: Longmans, 1869; Louisville: GLH Publishing, 2018. Kindle.

Origen, “On First Principles 3.1.1-3.1.24,” in John Behr, ed. and trans., Origen: On

First Principles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

Seneca, “On Clemency,” in Susanna Braund, ed. and trans., Seneca: De Clementia,

New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Shenoute of Atripe, an excerpt from Discourses 8.1, “I Have Been Reading the

Holy Gospels,” translated by Mary K. Farag in eadem, “Coptic,” in James E. Walters, ed.,

Eastern Christianity: A Reader. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, forthcoming.

Williams, Miller. Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms. Baton Rouge, LSU Press: 1986.

Photo credits:

#1 Photo by Yoksel 🌿 Zok on Unsplash

#2 Photo by Lesley Davidson on Unsplash

#3 Photo by Erik Karits on Unsplash