Unique Dust It is with some curiosity that I see the state of our world today. The past two years have been dominated by a pandemic that has exposed much of humanities heart. There never seems to be a day when the word “controversy” has not been at the forefront of any news! It is with these thoughts in mind, that certain questions occur. Asking who and what we are? Maybe, “Why we are here.” This past year has been a difficult one for many around the globe. There has been a clear widening of the gap of “who has” and “who hasn’t, and sadly “who one is”. As an Anglican School central to our core beliefs is, “every single one of us is made in the image of God. Every one of us is loved unconditionally by God and we must avoid, at all costs, diminishing the dignity of any individual to a stereotype or a problem. Our hope is that all our Anglican schools will be communities where everyone is a person known and loved by God, supported to know their intrinsic value.
I argued that as in life there was a uniqueness in the contents of each box. Why? Each of us has within a certain entity that is our humanity. It is a conscience, a soul or sacred voice that speaks to us. This uniqueness is other than our bodily elements (hydrogen, carbon, calcium, etc.) which have a source in God’s creation dating back to the birth of our universe more than 13 billion years ago. The unique spiritual within that body has another journey to make. A journey that is one of faith. Yet that is not the end of the earthly essence of being. Each of these boxes contained a unique essence, the result of that person’s environment and lifestyle their eating and drinking habits. Hence there could be lead, silver, potassium, selenium, lithium, vanadium and even things like arsenic! Consequently, no two boxes would be the same. We are spiritually and chemically unique. In a unique way creation serves us with a present. Each one of us is unique, special, important and above all to be honoured.
I find the Ash Wednesday Service a reminder of just what we all are and whet we are made of. It would be sad if we were just dust. It would be sad that we became nothing at are death. As a Chaplain in the Royal Australian Navy, I was accustomed, when at sea, to having several boxes stored in my cabin. On the outside they were identical. On the inside unique. Each contained the remains of an earthly life once lived. A life that began in the womb and ended in death. Often, I would share a cabin with a doctor. Once the stack of white boxes became a topic of discussion. We each accepted that our bodies are made up of various elements such as Oxygen 65%, carbon 18.5%, hydrogen 9.5%, nitrogen 3.2%,Calcium 1.5%, phosphorus 1%, potassium 0.4%, sulphur 0.3%, sodium 0.2%, chlorine 0.2% and magnesium 0.1%, that because in the live human body hydroxyapatite (Ca5(PO4)3(OH)), makes up 50-70% of each person bones it must follow that such elements as calcium, phosphorus, oxygen and hydrogen would be predominant in the ashes as only bone remains after cremation. Page 10
Article by Father Jeff Jarvis, College Chaplain
