The Hours Are Fading Fast

and then Lent will be upon us. "Memento!" Remember, O man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return. Lent begins with this recognition - the realization that the grave is our future. We have to face that. Sooner or later, we simply must. But the grave is not the END of our future. The ashes for which the day is named not only remind us of mortality, but they are placed on our foreheads in the shape of a cross. We are dust and to dust we shall return, but we have been united by Baptism to Him who became dust for us, who went into death for us upon the cross, and who came out from death victorious and alive forevermore. Glorified and glorious Dust, our Brother, our Savior, and our God. So we don't look at death the same way anymore. We're all headed there, and we'll all face it (unless our Lord returns first), but we don't face death as the conquered, but as the Conquerors. We need not fear his gruesome countenance anymore! Our Jesus has died for us, has blotted out with His own blood the accusation that was against us, and has flung wide for us the Kingdom of heaven. We go to our death's knowing that death itself is defeated by Him whose cross marks us as His very own, and so even on Ash Wednesday, we remember that we are an Easter people and that alleluia is our song. (St. Augustine).