It is difficult to maintain that this is some sort of chemical analysis of the composition of humans.
I wonder, though, whether we who embrace the perspective of evolutionary creation might see other layers of meaning in this reminder of who we are. As part of the ritual, a priest or minister looks each congregant in the eyes and says these depressing words: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return.”Īsh Wednesday is not a feel-good day on the church calendar for most people. One of those expressions occurs today-Ash Wednesday-as millions of Christians all over the world are marked on their foreheads in the shape of a cross with the ashes of last year’s Palm Sunday branches. It wasn’t until well into my adult life that I came to understand and appreciate such practices and the “high church” expression of faith. I had a couple of Catholic friends as a kid, and I felt sorry for them when they had to spend the 40 days (plus Sundays) leading up to Easter abstaining from ice cream, comic books, and other childhood necessities-and from meat on Fridays. We certainly didn’t participate in rituals we thought were attempts to earn the favor of God-though, to be fair, others thought we attempted to earn God’s favor by the things we didn’t do.
I grew up in what is sometimes called a “low church” tradition that didn’t observe much of the church calendar.
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