Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.
Some people claim orthodox christianity (and by that I mean Christianity that is conservative theologically – not the Orthodox arm of the Church) focuses too much on sin, and that it’s a downer to hear we are sinners.
But what if that is what we are? What if it is realistic and indeed freeing to recognize that I am a sinner – prone to always do the wrong thing? What if that simply puts the honour and glory on God, who saves sinners, of which I am chief? What if it makes sense of the world to know even Mother Theresa was a sinner? What is it makes sense of God and the work of Jesus on the cross?
So, we remember we are sinners this Wednesday, and we smear ashes on our foreheads in a cross-shaped claim on our sinful selves – a claim by God that says, “This one, this sinner, this lost sheep, this murderer, liar, cheating, unfaithful, selfish one – this one is mine. I save her. I saved him. They did nothing to earn it, can do nothing to deserve it, nor can they participate in this saving work of mine. I do it all by giving myself for them.”