remember that you are

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"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Those are the words I will repeat, as I smear a crude cross on the forehead of each person who comes forward to make a sacred and solemn beginning of the lenten season on February 10. The practice of observing Ash Wednesday helps us to confront our mortality, to recognize our dependence upon the immortal God we worship, and urges us to consider how we might fully live the life God has given to us.

It is a season of reflection, preparation, and return. It is ultimately the pre-season to Easter, during which people traditionally prepared for baptism; offered penance as they returned to a life of faith in the church; and it is for all of us an opportunity to deepen our spiritual lives. 

It is a paradox that one way to live a full life is to first confront the reality of our own death. There are many ways that our world encourages us avoid thinking about our death that is certainly coming for all of us. Instead of avoiding the reality of my own death, my tradition invites me to look death in the eye, and sing (in the words of our hymn attributed to St. Francis.) "And even you, most gentle death, waiting to hush our final breath, O praise him, Alleluia! You lead back home the child of God, for Christ our Lord that way has trod: O praise him..." We are invited not to see death as an enemy, but as our sister who comes to us when it is time to transition to the other side of the grave, and not to fear her, for Christ has gone there before us.

Having looked our own death in the eye, and embraced that reality (rather than fighting with it) we might relish this very moment we have been given. We might turn from death toward life, and give thanks to God for each day we rise up from our beds. I recently planned my own funeral, which was a sobering, humbling, and spiritual experience. I hope to live a long, long time, and enjoy this beautiful earth, my family and friends, and to continue to meet strangers who bring me new perspectives. I can do that more intentionally with an the awareness I come back to year after year: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." I remember. And this miracle of dust-brought-to-life is going to live as completely as I can until I one day return to dust. 

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