“Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart.”
Joel 2: 12-18
“Remember that you are dust… Dust turned to hope.”
In his novel The Gates of the Forest, Holocaust survivor and humanitarian Elie Wiesel wrote: “What is man? Hope turned to dust? No. What is man? Dust turned to hope.”
Today’s liturgy doesn’t sugar-coat the reality: Like all of creation, one day we will return to the earth from which we were created: Remember that you are dust, and into dust you will return.
But that raises a much bigger, and more important question: What makes us more than dust? If our destiny is only a return to “dust,” what’s the point of our lives? What is it that makes us “human”?
While Ash Wednesday confronts us with the “dust” of our make-up, the Easter mystery, Jesus, centers on the image of God in which we are all created. From a depth of love, we cannot fathom, God creates us from the “dust” that forms every element of this incredible universe. God gives us these bodies made of “dust” as vehicles for our journey to God, a journey that ends as it begins: in the love and life of God.
What makes us human is the Spirit that God “breathes” into the dust of our bodies to give us life. We are so much more than “dust”: we are the compassion we extend to those in need; we are the forgiveness we extend to our prodigal sons and daughters; we are the healing and care we provide to the “lepers” at our gates; we are the mercy we offer to help those struggling to bear their crosses.
Gratitude, humility, generosity, justice, mercy — the image of God that makes us more than a walking pile of “dust.”
This first day of Lent calls us to reconnect with the Spirit of God within us that gives the “dust” of which we are made not only a sense of humanity, but the light of the divine.
We are more than “dust” — we are created in spirit and grace (the very “stuff” of God); we mirror the compassion and peace of the God who created us. Remember that you are dust — dust turned to hope! Be that hope for others… That’s what following Jesus is all about!
