Pathetic Sacrifice: Christian Love in the Poetry of Mary Karr, as Found in Sinners Welcome

Abstract

Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies and God of all consolation, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ... If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. (2 Cor 1:3-6) THIS ARTICLE AIMS TO UNCOVER and assess theology of in Sinners Welcome (2006), most recent collection of poems by Mary Karr. (1) A reading that is specifically theological will help to articulate how Karr's poetry--in its unity of subject matter and style--is a dynamic reflection on mystery of Christian love. I will draw fundamental insights for this project from Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical on Christian love, Deus caritas est (2006). (2) I. Proem: Poetry and Theological Reflection Karr's work has been widely praised in contemporary literary scene. Her best selling Liars' Club (1995) is considered to have helped rejuvenate memoir genre. And her award-winning verse harks back to this country's tradition of confessional poetry. Widespread acclaim for Karr indicates that her work resonates with current sensibilities. She is also a Roman Catholic convert, which may help to account for significant parallels between Sinners Welcome and understanding of in part I of Deus caritas est. All things considered, poetry of Mary Karr merits critical attention from a Christian perspective. To be sure, Sinners Welcome is not theology in classical or academic sense and poetry is not wholly amenable to theological science. Indeed, it can even be argued that critical analysis per se tends to corrupt experience of art, subjugating one's perception of creative expression to reason. But significant motifs in Karr's poetry--self-knowledge, conversion, love, mother-child relationship, communion, suffering, and death--all summon reader's theological reflection, and perhaps designedly so. More objectively, five poems on mysteries of are, by their very titles, instances of what Karr calls descending theology. Each poem runs under that title followed by a subtitle: The Nativity, Christ Human, The Garden, The Crucifixion, and The Resurrection. A certain theological intellectus is at work in Karr's poetry, and one's appreciation of her artistic and spiritual sensus cannot but benefit from a theological reading. Karr, who tends toward bombastic and graphic, is apt to shock and offend some readers with her occasionally perverse and unlikely references. Nevertheless and more importantly, her work poignantly expresses what Benedict lucidly teaches--that the which God mysteriously and graciously offers to man forges an intrinsic link between that Love and reality of human love (n. 1). poet certainly believes that is fundamental desire of human person. Whether or not she intends them as such, images of eros and agape are prominent in Sinners Welcome. More specifically, Karr's poems confess both painful insufficiency of erotic and consummating succor of agapic love. However, Sinners Welcome seems to lack reference to self-sacrificial aspect of agape. Absolute eschewal of this matter would be theologically problematic: Self-sacrifice is crucially instrumental to nature of Christian love. Nevertheless, it will be found that there is no attenuation of love's Christian significance in Karr's poems. Because she uses her own experiences of sin and salvation for her aesthetic matter, her poetry as such bears graced valence of Christian self-sacrifice. In other words, confessional craft that is Sinners Welcome is itself a sacrificial offering of theological charity. II. Fundamental Desire for Love Perhaps most significant trope in Sinners Welcome is that of face. Facial glances abound--faces of a deceased mother, of past lovers, of Christ, and of poet's self. …