Consider Jesus – Ash Wedensday

Got this from James M. Kushiner over at Touchstone Magazine.  Here are some good thoughts from our Orthodox brethren on this Ash Wednesday:

Thou only art immortal, who hast created and fashioned man: but we are mortal, formed from the earth, and to this same earth shall we return, as Thou hast commanded when Thou madest me, saying: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” There shall all we mortals go, and for our funeral dirge we sing” Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

Why does man deceive himself and boast? Why does he trouble himself in vain? For he is earth, and so to the earth he will return. Why does the dust not reflect that it is formed from clay, and cast out as rottenness and corruption? Yet though we men are clay, why do we cling so closely to the earth? For if we are Christ’s kindred, should we not run to HIm, leaving all this mortal and fleeting life, and seeking the life incorruptible, which is Christ Himself, the illumination of our souls?

Thou hast formed Adam with Thine hand, O Saviour, and set him on the border between incorruption and mortality; Thou hast made him share in life through grace, freeing him from corruption and translating him to the life that he enjoyed at first….

Christ is risen, releasing from bondage Adam the first-formed man and destroying the power of hell. Be of good courage, all ye dead, for death is slain and hell despoiled; the crucified and risen Christ is King. He has given incorruption to our flesh; He raises us and grants us resurrection, and He counts worthy of His joy and glory all who, with a faith that wavers not, have trusted fervently in Him.