[김애란] ‘You are dust and to dust...’

‘You are dust and to dust...’ 

“Fine dust alert” has become a serious signal of human disaster. When the air is dim and blurred with air pollution, we are advised to wear masks to minimize the ultrafine dust entering into our body. Air cleaners or purifiers have become a popular necessity.

Fine dust is aggravated by exhaust fumes from internal-combustion engines of old diesel vehicles, smoke from factory chimneys, yellow dust from the Mongolian desert, the pollution from China and fires on the mountain.

Fine particles or particulate matters are so tiny that they can be inhaled into the lungs and cause serious health problems. Recently I also feel uncomfortable with my throat from time to time.

Double shifts of drivers are practiced, but still, so many cars are running bumper to bumper on the streets. Even though our land is not big enough, cars seem to have become a daily convenience. Who would control the persistent desire to have more and more?

“Remember that you are dust and to dust, you shall return!” This is a dictum that the priest says during the Mass on Ash Wednesday. This saying originally came from Genesis 3:19 in the Old Testament when God reminded Adam and Eve of their inevitable destiny.

If we remember our being as dust, we would neither possess nor desire so many things. It is a pity that we are always running short of good memory.

The Lenten season always invites us to simplify our lives by the help of fast, repentance, prayer and doing good to others. Believing that we are mortal beings created by God out of the dust of the earth, we are invited to renew our old lifestyles and live the Gospels.

So on Ash Wednesday, we celebrate a ceremony to remind ourselves of our being as dust. During the Mass, the priest touches the ashes and makes the sign of the cross on our foreheads, saying “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return!”

Those ashes are made from the dried palm or cedar branches that we used during Palm Sunday a year ago. In memory of people’s cheerful greetings with palm branches in their hands to greet Jesus who entered Jerusalem on a donkey, we also cheer Jesus with a piece of cedar branch and place this branch near the crucifix in the room for a year.

Then, just before the beginning of the Lenten season, the community gathers all the dried branches and burn them to use during the ceremony on Ash Wednesday.

Spiritually, the dust symbolizes humility. We are nothing but dust; we came from dust, and one day we shall return to dust. Then, why should we confront one another? Why should we deny one another? There is no reason at all not to like others.

Fine dust in the air reminds us of our mortal beings. One day, we shall also return to ultrafine dust. Even though we live in the most highly developed society in the four-dimensional space, it is not easy to control the natural phenomenon due to the overuse, abuse or exploitation of natural resources.

Fine dust is floating here and there constantly, and our earth is seriously aching and suffering a lot due to the excessive desire and uncontrollable possession of greedy people. What shall we do? “Remember that you are dust and to dust, you shall return!”

The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ March 13 online/ 14 offline, 2019