November Reflection

No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

As well as if a promontory were:

As well as if a manor of thy friend’s

Or if thine own were

Any man’s death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.

It tolls for thee.

Perhaps you’ve heard this poem by John Donne, an early seventeenth century English poet, scholar and Anglican priest and lawyer. This poem, albeit in a shorter form, had a profound impact on me when I first read it back in the mid 80s. It caused me to ponder that my life is not entirely my own. That my actions, good or bad, can affect others in unseen, unimagined, ways.

Of late, I’ve ben reflecting on this poem and its relationship to the Mystical Body of Christ, or as we say in the Creed, the Communion of Saints. You’ve no doubt heard people say, maybe said it yourself on occasion, “It’s my life. I can do what I want with it.” Or, “My body, my choice.”     Is it?

If I choose to use drugs, how many lives will be negatively affected? How many lives that I could have had a positive impact on will or will not make choices that affect still more lives. There is that proverbial ripple effect.

I remember hearing a story about Adolph Hitler that went something like this. As a young boy he was preparing to serve at Mass and dropped something. The priest was greatly irritated and cruelly berated the young boy. Think about how he might have chosen a different path had the priest been more charitable.You may have heard of other instances where a kind word or a positive affirmation turned around the life of a student who otherwise may have gone down a destructive path.

Back to the Communion of Saints. Because God exists outside of time, and those members of the Communion of Saints who have passed from this life also now exist outside of time, our prayers and sacrifices are not bound by time. The prayer we say this moment can have a consequence beyond our ability to conceive.

To quote Dr. Richard Clements in an essay A Mysterious Alchemy Within the Communion of Saints, “We human beings are far mor interconnected with each other than we tend to realize. Our actions right here, right now can impact any other human being who has ever existed or ever will exist anywhere in the world. Or to state it more succinctly: our actions right here and now can impact anyone, anywhere, anywhen. And we ourselves may have been the beneficiaries of the actions of someone we’ve never met, living anywhere in the world, now, in the past, or in the future. How? Through the mysterious phenomenon known as the Communion of Saints.”

Let us ponder how we live our lives now. As Knights, we have abundant opportunities to make decisions that for someone my be truly life changing, someone we may never know or see, someone who existed in the past or will exist in the future. 

When we say the Morning offering –

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in thanksgiving for your favors, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all my relatives and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen

We give God permission to use our prayers, works, joys and sacrifices in any way and anywhen He chooses.

How wonderful is our God!