In one biblical story Adam (whose name means clay), is sculpted out of the soil of the earth and awoken with the breath of life. This story speaks to our commonality with the entire material world. We are made of the earth. The molecules that make up our bodies originate in the earth. Plants draw them up from the soil. We make bread with those plants. And in the course of a meal we take in these same molecules to form our own bodies. God’s first blessing to Adam is “Every plant of seed and fruit for food.” Or, as my mother would say, “You are what you eat.”
But, like all of us Adam has two parts. His clay body is sculpted from the earth. But he also has an invisible self: thoughts, emotions, spirit, and soul – the breath of God. This consciousness he shares with the other animals of the garden. But unlike the other animals he wields this consciousness toward a terrible realization: awareness of his own inevitable death.
Five years ago my father died. We buried his body in an earthy grave. I imagine his body decomposing in to the ground. The molecules that were once him have returned to the soil. “Dust you are and to dust you will return.”
I stood by my father’s bed while he was dying. His breaths grew further and further apart, until he exhaled for the last time. I waited for the next breath but it never came. Did his spirit disappear with that last breath? Or, as his body decomposed into the earth did his consciousness also dissolve back into some universal consciousness?
The night before Jesus died he prepared himself and his followers. Offering them bread he said “This is my Body.” And wine (the fruit of the garden) this is my blood.” He asked his followers to use this ritual to remember him.
Over every living thing
Which is to grow
To flower
To ripen on this day
Say again the words:
This is my body.
And over every living thing
Which is to wither
To bleed
To die on this day
Say again the words:
This is my blood.
