Wednesday, March 5, 2014

You are dust and unto dust you shall return -- Stardust that is!


As we are signed today with the ashes that call us to repentance and hear the words "you are dust and unto dust you shall return", let us remember our connectedness to all of creation.   The New Science tells us that our bodies are made of the same stuff as the stars.  The atoms of which we are made are the same as those in the stars.  They were actually created within the stars more than 13 billion years ago and those same particles/energy waves have been recycled over and over for 13 billion years.  Our bodies may contain some of the same energy particles as our ancestors, Jesus, Francis of Assisi, flowers, birds, and much more.  These ponderings bring us to a truth that is hard for us to take in.  We are all one --all of creation, all that now lives, all that have ever lived-- created by a loving God who calls us into the future inviting us to co-create in love.  You and I are an integral part of it all.  We are connected.  We often become so complacent that we forget the reality of our connectedness and focus only on our little world.  Pope Francis reminds us:  "Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard; the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades." (Eangeli Gaudium, p. 4)  Perhaps we need Lent to reconnect our awareness of our interconnectedness.   Our invitation is to recognize our unity and recognize the responsibility that this unity calls us to.

Pope Francis reminds us often of the poor and the material poverty that persists in our world and the
responsibility it should call forth in our lives.  In his encyclical Evangelii Gaudium" (The Joy of the Gospel) Pope Francis tells us "Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering, flesh of others (p. 133)," and he challenges us to avoid the ever present modern temptation "to be that kind of Christian who keeps the Lord's wounds at arm’s length (p. 133)."  Pope Francis tells us whenever we take a step toward Jesus we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. And so he invites us to pray:

“Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace.” (Evangeli Gaudium , p.4).

So, welcome to Lent, You are dust, stardust, and to stardust you will return.  The energy that connects us flows from an all loving God in whose image we are made, a God who never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.  This very same God prepared for 13 Billion Years for this one moment when you and I choose Life for our world and our Universe.  Jesus is our model, "God in flesh”; Jesus invites us into His dying and rising.  Teresa of Avila tells us "Christ has no body now but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world.  This Lent will we be willing to enflesh the mystery of the Incarnation in the concrete reality of our daily lives?  Our observance of the Lent can support us in this effort.  May we do the inner work of Lent so that we can make a difference for all.