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Today, Ash Wednesday, in church services across the world, people will hear the words, ‘Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.’ The Latin word ‘humus’ means earth. Out of the humus came humanity. But back to the humus humanity will go.

This awareness of the fragility of life and the nearness of death must be in every breath of the Ukrainian people and indeed of Russian troops right now.
‘Dust you are.’ Everyone has a limited time on earth. Ash Wednesday’s an invitation to contemplate a direct question: ‘How might I wish my life to end?’ ‘To dust you shall return.’

But Ash Wednesday’s also a moment to reflect on how we live in the meantime. One funeral prayer begins, ‘Grant us the wisdom and grace to use aright the time that is left to us on earth.’ We can choose to exploit others. We can ignore those who struggle. We can concentrate our whole imagination on our own comfort and survival. Or, in the face of death, we can live differently. We can release the gifts of others. We can stand in solidarity against oppression, upholding institutions that foster flourishing life. We can model generosity, kindness and gratitude. It’s all in that little phrase ‘use aright.’

The Christian faith in the face of death is that, as God raised Jesus from the dust of the earth, so God will raise us. But resurrection isn’t a simple get-out-of-jail card from the dust of death. The person that God resurrects is the same person that died. While our body’s changed from decay to glory, our character will surely remain recognisably the same. That means every tiny gesture of our lives has genuinely eternal significance – because all those gestures establish a character we possess not just for this brief life of dust, but forever.

So Ash Wednesday is a challenge to all who receive on their foreheads the sign of the cross, made from the dust of the ground. The challenge is, not just, ‘How are you going to live the rest of your life?’, but, ‘How are you going to live forever?’ Often people have focused on a moment of divine judgement, where some go to reward, others to punishment. But I wonder if we can imagine our present lives in a slightly different way: as the time we’re given to choose aright how we’re to spend forever.

Each human life is an unfinished project towards a vision of eternity. Perhaps to be given everlasting life means to be granted the completion of that unfinished project. Whether that proves to be our reward, or our punishment, remains to be seen.

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