Remember That You Are Dust, and to Dust You Shall Return

That is the phrase with which, today, Ash Wednesday, the cross is marked on our foreheads. A hard phrase that strikes us in the soul and the heart, because we remember (even if we don’t want to) that all of us, from the humblest to the most powerful, will end up as dust.

That is the only sure thing we have in life: death.

Death is a difficult subject, and very few people like to talk about it. Of course, for those of us who are Christians it is a little easier, because from childhood we are taught that True Life begins after death, and that what matters is that we fight hard to win Heaven and make sure we don’t end up in Hell.

I think one of the good things about living in Venezuela is that people talk about death more naturally. It’s hard, true. But it is vital that we do, because you never know when your time will come, or worse, your child’s. And don’t think I say this only because of crime; I know more than fifteen cases, close to me, of young people under 20 who have died unexpectedly of illness or in accidents.

Death is death, and for any parent whose child dies (even in bed and in holy peace), the only thing that can bring a little comfort (because the pain never goes away) is faith and hope in eternal life.

And Lent, which we begin today, is a unique time to reflect on this subject. Lent gives many of us a great opportunity to remember that suffering Nazarene, who was God and who died to save each one of us (not the sinner next to me, but me, and you). He, who could have changed his own destiny, chose to die to teach us that this life is nothing (however much money, power, intelligence, beauty and so on we may have) if we do not win Eternal Life.

We can ask God for many things this Lent: to increase our faith; to help us live as good children, parents, spouses, workers, business owners, soldiers, judges, intellectuals, politicians…; to help us understand that death is the beginning of eternal happiness if we walk this earth along the road God left us in the Ten Commandments; to help us pray hard for those who have died unexpectedly and perhaps were not yet ready to meet Him; to help us be sowers of peace at all times; to ask his forgiveness for our mistakes through the sacrament of confession; and to fill us with his divine grace and so give us the fortitude we need to face the hardest things in life, our own death or that of our loved ones.

That way we will live ready in case we are called for the final journey today, tomorrow or 80 years from now. If we manage to see death as a close friend, life will become much easier.

And we will strive, day by day, to be people of integrity, ready to give the best of ourselves to everyone around us. Because, in the end, we do not know whether today is our last day on this earth.