The Lord God fashioned man of dust from the soil.  Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life and thus man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

These are the very first words that we hear from the Scriptures on the first Sunday of Lent.  With these words we are reminded of the Jewish-Christian claim that human beings receive life from the God who breathes into us and brings us to life.  From God’s own life, from God’s own breath, we are brought to life.  The text is evocative.  The human creature, is fashioned or given shape and form by God and then brought to life with the breath of God.  Human beings are truly made in the image and likeness of God.

It is the dust of the soil that we return to each year on Ash Wednesday, when we take ash (dust) and sprinkle it on our heads.  As the priest or minister does so he or she use the words: Remember that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.  The action and words are redolent of the Genesis account of creation.  This is no accident.  The journey of Lent will take us to the Easter celebrations which will culminate in the Pentecost feast where God will once again send the Spirit and breathe life into God’s people.

The signing with ashes on Ash Wednesday does remind us that the work of creation, for each of us, and for our world, is yet incomplete.  Each one of us grows weary over time, we physically age, we emotionally become drained, we become tired and in need of in-spiration.  The season of Lent can be a time for us to stop and slow down.  It can be a time for us to open ourselves again to being ‘breathed into’ by the God who gives us life.  It can be a time for us to renew and restore our lives in the Spirit.  It is for this reason that the Church offers us the three disciplines of fasting, acts of charity and prayer.

And when we gather in community on days like Ash Wednesday and the Sundays of Lent we never just do so as individuals.  We always gather in the name of the human family.  We are aware as we gather that the human family is also in need of the breath of God.  The breath of God is needed in the hearts and minds of the world’s people where human beings tear each other apart in war; where ecological devastation continues; where the trafficking of vulnerable human beings exists; where envy, greed and oppression dominate lives and where human hearts have grown hard.  The breath of God is needed to draw the world back and awaken us to the preciousness and value of each and every person.

That is why we take the Lenten journey.  It is a personal journey and a universal journey.  Perhaps during Lent we could find a space each day where we can sit quietly and be in touch with our breathing.  As we breathe in and out we could ask the Lord God to fashion us again.  We could ask the Lord God to breath into us and give life to the parts of our lives that have died or need reviving.  And we can ask the Lord God to do the same for our beautiful, yet fragile, world.

By Fr Brendan Reed