Ash – dust  – earth

The stuff of which we humans are:
not
in our dreams and illusions
but in our corporeal reality.

God says to Adam,
the man par excellence:
You are dust,
and to dust you will return.

Ash dust earth
a brittle material
crumbling transitory poor

The mirror,
which is held up to us on this day,
shows us our starting point:
the lost paradise.

The other one,
he is held up to us in each Holy Mass,
shows us our target point:
the promised paradise.

ash
reminds us of our poverty and transience
and the cross reminds us,
that especially the poor and mortal man
is called to be
Son of God, Daughter of God.

So the time of ashes, of repentance
leads us
to life to hope to joy.