cjshayward/ magnumopus/ Fine Art Prints ▼

CJS Hayward has had many careers and many kinds of creativity. Here you can purchase his magnum opus as a producer of fine arts.

If you know of CJS Hayward, at least by reputation, you have probably heard of his writing, with favorite written works beginning in moments as an undergraduate. Those early works include The grinch who stole Christmas, for instance, or Religion within the bounds of amusement.

What some friends of his do not know is that creativity did not start as an adult. He was creative as a child, and continued to exercise that burgeoning collection now stored at CJSHayward.com and also now represented on Amazon. Up until college age, he worked on mastering one new artistic medium per year, and his favorite class in high school was the jewelry and metalworking class; he made a silver ring for his grandmother and designed it to hold a drop of water as a gemstone.

Here is perhaps the best of his collection, arising from a vision Wednesday of Holy Week decades back.

"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthane?":
"My God, My God, attend to Me: why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

The quote is the New Testament's longest quotation of anyone in the language Christ grew up with. Some of those present mock with a crude mocking pun, implying that His "Eloi", "My God", was pitifully "calling for Elijah", and as if that were not spiteful enough an insult dissuade the simple mercy of whoever who would give Him a little sip of water in a sponge on a stick.

But Christ was not "calling for Elijah", and the people who made the sarcastic joke knew as well as anyone else that the Psalm of the Cross was a shorthand quotation of the entirety of Psalm 21 (22 in the Western numbering), here cited from the Classic Orthodox Bible:

For the End, concerning the morning aid, a Psalm of David.

O God, My God, attend to Me: why hast Thou forsaken Me?
The account of My transgressions is far from My salvation.
O my God, I will cry to Thee by day, but Thou wilt not hear:
And by night, and it shall not be accounted for folly to Me.
But Thou, the praise of Israel, dwellest in a sanctuary.
Our fathers hoped in Thee;
They hoped, and Thou didst deliver them.
They cried to Thee, and were saved:
They hoped in Thee, and were not ashamed.
But I am a Worm, and not a Man;
A Reproach of men, and Scorn of the people.
All that saw Me mocked Me: they spoke with their lips,
They shook the head, saying,
“He hoped in the Lord: let Him deliver Him,
Let Him save Him, because He takes pleasure in Him.”
For Thou art He that drew Me out of the womb;
My hope from My mother’s breasts.
I was cast on Thee from the womb:
Thou art My God from My mother’s belly.
Stand not aloof from Me; for affliction is near;
For there is no helper.
Many bullocks have compassed Me:
Fat bulls have beset Me round.
They have opened their mouth against Me,
As a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are loosened:
My heart in the midst of My belly is become like melting wax.
My strength is dried up, like a potsherd;
And My tongue is glued to My throat;
And Thou hast brought Me down to the dust of death.
For many dogs have compassed Me:
The assembly of the wicked doers hath beset Me round:
They pierced My hands and My feet.
They counted all My bones;
And they observed and looked upon Me.
They parted My garments among themselves,
And cast lots upon My raiment.
But Thou, O Lord, remove not My help afar off:
Be ready for Mine aid.
Deliver My soul from