Dust to dust

Back in the olden days, people put ashes on their heads and wore sack cloth to show their shame and sorrow over choices they had made.  It was a showing of extreme penance, an unmistakable outward sign of some inner conversion.  I wore black dress pants, but I still put on the ashes for the same reason.  I don't own any sackcloth garments, but it's not a bad Lenten idea.  Maybe next year.  The ashes are really the important thing here.

"Ash Wednesday" ashes are made of the palm fronds that have dried up from the previous year's Palm Sunday when we remember the Triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem.  Catholics attend Mass and receive ashes on their foreheads to remind us of so many important things we may have forgotten.  

Today I got the honor of distributing ashes on the foreheads of the folks in "our side" of the church.  What a profound experience.  As each parishioner comes forward, I put my thumb into a bowl of ashes, draw a cross on their foreheads and say, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return."  They then take their turn thinking over this truth as they head back to their seat, and the next person comes forward.

Mind you, I got "dusted" before my turn to ash the others, so I am grossly aware that I originated as dust, and will thence return.  This thought both saddens and excite me.  On the one hand, it makes me feel unimportant (which is good, really, humility is vital).  On the other hand, it makes me excited for the day I will be one with everything that God looked at and declared "it is good!"

So, I'm in my spot, waiting for my people, and Harriett (my daughter) is the first one up.  I cross her head, look her in the eye, and give her my reminder, "remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return."  My heart is about to burst.  Harriett, dearly loved child, YOU will become dust again, so make it count!  Then slowly, all my people are coming forward.  Isaac, my son, You WILL return to dust, so what will you do while you are still animated?  Lydia, you will become dust again, so what's up with that?  Luke, my beloved husband, how do I look you in the eye and tell you, and accept that one day, you will return to dust, and I hope and PRAY that I go to the dust first, because my heart couldn't take it! My friends, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, god kids, all of them!  Dust!

I felt a little insight as to what it might have felt like to be an Old Testament prophet.  Let's just say, I'm thankful to not be an Old Testament prophet.  I feel like I am giving them a message from God, and I don't know if they get it, or if they're just nodding, or being blessed, or what. I hope they are being blessed with the conviction that if they have something sinful in their hearts that they will confess it, repair it if they can, and stop building walls between themselves and the greatest love in existence.  The message is as clear as the cross on your forehead:

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel.