"The body of Christ" I said, as I placed the quarter wafer in her upturned hands, just as I had done countless times before. But I paused for the briefest moment allowing my hand to remain in contact with hers. Words didn't need to be said because there weren't any.
We all live in the shadow of our mortality, its just that most of us for most of the time can get on without even thinking about it...until, that is, something intrudes into our complacency and an unspoken terror rears its head into our imaginations and we know that something is coming to an end. And then what do you do - cry in self-pity or rage at the injustice of it all? Those would just be words and there aren't any.
The dust of Ash Wednesday is a liberating and life enhancing act of honesty.
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
But this is no existentialist oblivion on offer. Instead it is the gateway to life and life in all its fulness...
Turn away from your sin and be faithful to Christ.
Comments