Ash Wednesday, Dustification and the End of the World
Ash Wednesday and Cosmology
PROFESSOR ANTON MEEMANA
The rich symbolism of Ash Wednesday liturgy facilitates our spiritual and moral transformation and transcendence, our constant going beyond, our endless revolutionary continuity; that is, personal transformation through existential breakthroughs, spiritual outbursts and intellectual paradigm shifts. Ash Wednesday is the liturgical reenactment of cosmology. Every good liturgy has a cosmic dimension and a cosmological meaning.
Spirituality is never a flight from earth but an authentic celebration of our earthiness, our organic connection to the earth, our bio-chemical-psycho-spiritual connectivity to the earth. In that sense, the real term for spirituality is earthuality (Thomas Berry).
Spirit is the very depth, the very interiority of matter, of dust, of soil, of clay and of ashes. Escape from dust is escape from God and equally escape from earth is escape from our true destiny. Eternal life is facilitated in and through earthly realities.
There is no creativity without earthly connectivity. Sacred dust, holy soil, divine ashes, and mysterious clay are our family members.