Ashes to Ashes

We were formed from the dust, from the earth. But - and this is the most important thing - while God did form us from the dust, He did something more. As He formed us, He also breathed His life into us. He gave us a rational soul, an intelligent spirit. And in that intellect is our reason, our free will, and our conscience, the stuff of God’s own life. And It’s what makes love possible.

Here’s a quote from the Catechism, paragraph 382: “Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. The doctrine of the faith affirms that the spiritual and immortal soul is created immediately by God.” So as He formed us from the dust, He - at the same time - breathed His life into us. And that’s how He intends us to live, now and forever, as a unity of body and soul.

What about death? When we die, our soul leaves our body, the dis-integration of an integrated being. But since God’s eternal desire is for us to live as a unity of body and soul, He will unite our body and soul together again after death. This is the resurrection of the body.

Recall the words from Ash Wednesday, then, “Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” As those ashes were placed on our body, they reminded us of what will become of this earthen vessel upon death. Our body will return to the dust from which it was formed. The soul, however, will be, for the first time, separated from the body. And this should cause us to reflect. The man who is in no way unsettled by this reality has not given it enough thought.

When we die, we’ll be like newborn children, entirely dependent and incapable of helping ourselves. It is then that we hope to have the company of Our Lady (“pray for us, now and that the hour of our death”), and the Saints (“Saint Joseph, pray for us”), and our own loved ones who have gone before us. We’ll need them all, because we’ll be making our way into a land we’ve never been. If we do not have good company then, we will be lost.

What about the reunification of the body and soul? That will happen when Christ comes again in glory. When He comes in glory, “He will change our lowly body to conform with His glorified body (Phil 3).” Wonderful for the living, yes, but not for those who are spiritually dead, those who “conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ.” “Their end is destruction.” (cf. Phil 3)

It is true that “the souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them (Wisdom 3),” and that these “shall live forever.” The spiritually dead, however, “will be an everlasting horror and disgrace (cf. Daniel 12).” You can just see how Lent prepares us, then, not only for the liturgical celebration of Easter, but for our own death, and for the coming of Christ in glory, whichever comes first. By allowing Christ to cleanse this temple, the temple of our own body, the more we will be prepared to rise with Him after death. +