Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return. (Gen 3:19)
Many of us heard these words on Wednesday as our foreheads were smudged with ashes. It is meant to remind us that we humans are made from humus, dirt. It points to our mortality as well as the mortality of every living thing. It also points toward our interconnection with all matter. The atoms that make up my body will someday be part of the soil, clouds, plants, and animals. It is a fitting way to focus our attention at the outset of this time we dedicate to moving closer to God through prayer, fasting and almsgiving: remember our fragile humanity. It is no coincidence that humus is also the root word of humility.
And yet, although formed from the dust of the earth, we are also made in the image and likeness of God. What if we said, “Remember you are stardust and to stardust you shall return”? For me it changes everything. We are humus, dirt, but inspirited dirt – stardust. We are the result of God pouring God’s self into the cosmos. We came from God’s outpouring of love and will go back into God’s great love. Maybe, rather than remembering how sinful we are, we are called to remember our true nature – made in the image and likeness of God. Perhaps the sinfulness we are called to remember is that we don’t recognize our image and likeness, how beloved we are. We focus on our sinfulness, the ways we have failed. “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” The question we might ask is: Does this bring us closer to God? I don’t think so. Perhaps the invitation is to savor that, though I am a sinner, I am beloved just as I am. Maybe I need to recall that I am made of dust and stardust.
-Suanne Reed