Last Wednesday, February 17, was Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Lent, of course, is the Christian season of 40 days (excepting Sundays) leading up to Easter, and it is traditionally a time of sacrifice and taking stock in one’s life. Probably less commonly known is that the word “Lent” is related to the word “length”, and it has to do with the days getting longer (in terms of sunlight) during this time of year. A few years ago, on Ash Wednesday in 2007, I had a bit of a surreal experience. For Ash Wednesday in 2007, I had the privilege of doing something that few Unitarian Universalists get to do. At the hospital where I was training as a chaplain then, I got to deliver to patients, families, and staff ashes blessed by a Roman Catholic priest. It was a busy day. The hospital had about 850 patients – and many of those patients had visitors – and the hospital had thousands of employees too. Something like 50% of the people in that part of our country are Roman Catholic, and the custom of having ashes put on the forehead is of course quite important in that tradition. There was only one priest on the Pastoral Services staff, so for Ash Wednesday, all chaplains got to join in the fun. All of us chaplains were running around the hospital the entire day distributing the blessed ashes. It was the one day people were more anxious to see a chaplain than a doctor – it was our one glory day! Someone remarked that it was like “the Super Bowl for chaplains”, and it was true. When you distribute the ashes, according to tradition, you put them on the person’s forehead in the form of a cross and pray the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I was struck by the poetry of these words, and struck also by their stark and humble reality. Many (perhaps most?) Unitarian Universalists believe that we will return to dust. I wonder, though, how many of us think of ourselves as “dust” now? At first, it doesn’t sound too appealing. At first, I felt like I was saying, “Remember that you’re dirt… you’ve always been dirt, and you’ll always be dirt.” This seems to fly in the face of our first Unitarian Universalist principle, affirming the “inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Or, does it? As the day went on, I began to experience the words as strangely liberating, in a sense. “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” And so, that’s one reason why I believe that Unitarian Universalists have something to gain by observing Lent: it’s a time for perspective, and humility. We Unitarian Universalists sometimes take ourselves very seriously, what with our inherent worth and dignity. But Lent reminds us that we’re just dust, and to dust we will return. And actually, that’s okay. Actually, isn’t that wonderful? It’s liberating, if you let it be. If you don’t care for the “dust to dust” language, perhaps you’d prefer the language of the prophet Isaiah, who says, “All [humans] are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fade when the breath of God blows on them. Surely [we] people are grass. Grass withers, flowers fade – [only what is Divine] stands forever.” Amen, and Blessed Be.

Posted by Rev. M. Lara Hoke on February 24th, 2010