If you go to Mass or a celebration of the Word on Wednesday, ashes will be put on your forehead and you will be told to 'remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return'. The truth about your human existence will thus be outlined to you in a very stark way. We live in a society that thinks it is sophisticated and has little time for what it calls the 'myths' of the Christian faith. And yet even a cursory glance at the tv or the magazines in the newsagents tells us how sold on make believe this present society is. The Church gives us the real message about ourselves: we are dust and we shall return to dust. How uncomfortable the chat show hosts and celebrities would feel with that 'revelation'!

And yet the Church also tells us that dust is not all we are. Through our baptism we have become the children of God, and the season of Lent which begins on Wednesday gives us time to become more like Jesus our brother. To do that we need to listen to the other words that accompany the giving of the ashes: 'Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel'. Each Lent gives us the opportunity to do just that, letıs take up the challenge to repent and turn back to the gospel that tells us the truth about ourselves.

P.D.