(Image: Ahna Ziegler/Unsplash.com)
Each Lent is a microcosm of our whole lives. “Remember that you are dust” Lent begins on Ash Wednesday with a reminder of our very humble origin in the dust of the earth. “And to dust you shall return” Lent reminds us that it’s not only our beginning that’s humble. Every earthly destiny converges in the inescapable truth of our bodily death and decomposition.
So to begin Lent we are marked with dust, symbolizing our earthly origin and destiny. And by stages we make our way to Easter, to heaven, to the Resurrection. We are so used to the idea that we’re bound for heaven that we can subconsciously start taking it for granted. But Ash Wednesday reminds us of who and what we really are: “dusty” sinners. It reminds us of the complete otherness of God’s grace. And it reminds us of the fundamental and transformative difference God makes in our lives. There is no power native to the human race by which we could make the journey from ea