Today is Ash Wednesday, during the worship today a sign of the Cross is made on the head with ashes and the words "Remember that you are dust; and to dust you will return"
I always find these words deeply confronting, they are meant to speak about our fragility and our mortality.
Many years ago, on the day when the Ash Wednesday bushfires were happening in South Australia, S & I were driving back up Eyre Peninsula and the dust was incredible. The locals used to say that a lot of land changed hands that day but none of it was paid for..
The typically Australian red bull-dust was so thick that visibility was less than a metre, and the air we were breathing (pre-air conditioners) was dust-laden that you could taste it. Every Ash Wednesday I am inevitably drawn back to that trip.
In Adelaide and other parts a fire had begun to rage which would take life and property, the largest theological library in the State went up in smoke when St Michael's House, the home of The Society of the Sacred Mission, was destroyed. The ashes that day were hot and aflame and all too real. The effects of those fires went on for years. In a way they revolutionised the local understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder and put local experts in that field at the top of the tree of knowledge in that field.
We arrogantly think we rule the world. If you do nothing else today, whether religious or not, remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
1 comment:
Amen
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