Bishop Hutterer: 40 Days of Contemplating Mortality and Embracing Life
“By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
Photo by Sander Mathlener on Unsplash
Some may find it strange, but I welcome Ash Wednesday. While I believe we are a resurrection people, I also feel we can’t have that joy of new life without contemplating the reality that life is broken, and that things have an ending as much as a beginning.
In today’s world, it may seem a little bleak to spend a day talking about death and even more so, sin. These are not popular modern conversation starters.
Things in the world are not as they should be. Individually and communally—it is on us.
People flee violence and domination, some people don’t have clean water or food, and still others — some within our own nation and families — live in fear. We live in a world where greed and corruption are daily occurrences. We acknowledge truth if it confirms our pre-conceived feelings, ideas, and beliefs. We have all contributed to the way that things are.
Ash Wednesday, as well as the season of Lent, invites us as to reflect on themes that our modern world often encourages us to evade: confession, grief, and mortality. These are not subjects to be feared or shunned but embraced as vital in shaping the richness and depth of our lives.
Recently I’ve been reading the book “The Wild Edge of Sorrow,” by Francis Weller. The author and psychotherapist invites us into the sacred work of grief, suggesting that in our sorrow we find the seeds of our greatest growth.
Weller's insights resonate with the Lenten journey. Just as he encourages the embrace of grief to discover renewal and intimacy, the season of Lent calls us to confront our finitude, to face the dust from which we came and to which we shall return. We are not here forever. Life is so, so fragile and can change in an instant.
We walk the path of Lent not in despair, but with hopeful expectation. It is rare time where we allow ourselves to feel the depth of our humanity, where we acknowledge the collective sorrows of our world, and where we find comfort in the companionship of each other and our God. We are reminded that grief, when witnessed within our church community and held in the light of God's love, leads us to a fuller appreciation of the gift of life.
I invite you to walk these forty days not in isolation but in togetherness, sharing in the sacred rituals that guide us through the valleys of loss and into the embrace of gratitude. Let us use this time to explore the terrains of our hearts, to offer up our sufferings, and to receive the grace of God that is ever-present in our journey.
On Ash Wednesday, we are called to pay attention and to remember that we are beloved dust and to dust we shall return.
You are God’s beloved dust,
The Rev. Deborah K. Hutterer
Bishop
Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA
