Brian’s Reflection: Monday, March 31, 2008


Sonnet: Death be not proud

Death be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe / For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow, / Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee. / From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee, / Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow, / And soonest our best men with thee doe goe, / Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie. / Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, / And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell, / And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well, / And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then? / One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally, / And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

- John Donne, poet, priest, whose feast day is today, d.1631


One must choose by what principles of Faith, or Philosophy, or Ethic, or Hope, one lives. In my mind, that is what the path of Faith is about. Faith is not uncritical acceptance of things imposed by a religion of whatever else. Faith is choice. Faith is being responsible for the way one lives. I choose to believe that God is Good, and that God is Unconditional Love. I choose to believe that human beings are essentially made in the image of divine goodness. I choose to believe in many things by which my Life is guided.

Yes, of course, those have been determined in great part by the Gospel and the Christianity in which I was raised. And which I after chose. And they have been determined by how I have understood and interpreted those principles. Some I have accepted, and some I have rejected. And for that, I am responsible.

I choose the principle that Donne expresses. “Death, thou shalt die.” I choose not to permit Death to rule my life. Of course I shall die to this earthly life. That is a given of mortality. But I also choose to live by the belief that Death does not hold ultimate power to rule how I shall live my life. This is the message of Christ’s Resurrection.

I will not fear Death. I will live as if it has no power to enslave me. I will live so that when Death comes, I will have no regrets.

Brian+