"You are dust and to dust you shall return" versus resurrection of the body (Catholic perspective) In the Ash Wednesday mass of the Catholic Church, the priest puts a cross made of ash in the forehead, whilst saying:


  You are dust and to dust you shall return


I understand the literal and (I think) the spiritual meaning of these words. Yet, in both the Apostle's creed and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed state:


  I believe in ... the resurrection of the body


According to the Catholic Church, how are these two statemets/beliefs reconcilable?
The dilemma is actually resolved in the Old Testament Scriptures. 

(St.) Irenaeus of Lyon (130-202) defended against those who objected to the Christian belief of the resurrection of the dead in Book V of Against Heresies, showing how the Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead is supported in the writings of the Prophets.  

I think that the passage from Ezekiel 37 is especially relevant.  It is talking about resurrection from bones and not dust, but I think the concepts are affine enough to merit mention.

Your title asks for the "Catholic perspective".  Irenaeus is a respected Church Father, so I think his writings would be considered authoritative in this point (I am Orthodox, not Roman Catholic - anymore - but we share a common early Church tradition).


  Now, that He who at the beginning created man, did promise him a
  second birth after his dissolution into earth, Isaiah thus declares:
  
  
    The dead shall rise again, and they who are in the tombs shall arise, and they who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew which is from
    You is health to them. (Isaiah 26:19)
  
  
  And again:
  
  
    I will comfort you,
    and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem: and you shall see, and your
    heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish as the grass; and
    the hand of the Lord shall be known to those who worship Him. (Isaiah
    66:13)
  
  
  And Ezekiel speaks as follows:
  
  
    And the hand of the Lord came
    upon me, and the Lord led me forth in the Spirit, and set me down in
    the midst of the plain, and this place was full of bones. And He
    caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were many
    upon the surface of the plain very dry. And He said unto me, Son of
    man, can these bones live? And I said, Lord, You who has made them
    knows. And He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and you shall
    say to them, You dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the
    Lord to these bones, Behold, I will cause the spirit of life to come
    upon you, and I will lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh again
    upon you, and I will stretch skin upon you, and will put my Spirit
    into you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.
    And I prophesied as the Lord had commanded me. And it came to pass,
    when I was prophesying, that, behold, an earthquake, and the bones
    were drawn together, each one to its own articulation: and I beheld,
    and, lo, the sinews and flesh were produced upon them, and the skins
    rose upon them round about, but there was no breath in them. And He
    said unto me, Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say to the
    breath, These things says the Lord, Come from the four winds
    (spiritibus), and breathe upon these dead, that they may live. So I
    prophesied as the Lord had commanded me, and the breath entered into
    them; and they did live, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great
    gathering. (Ezekiel 37:1, etc.)
  
  
  And again he says,
  
  
    Thus says the Lord,
    Behold, I will set your graves open, and cause you to come out of your
    graves, and bring you into the land of Israel; and you shall know that
    I am the Lord, when I shall open your sepulchres, that I may bring my
    people again out of the sepulchres: and I will put my Spirit into you,
    and you shall live; and I will place you in your land, and you shall
    know that I am the Lord. I have said, and I will do, says the Lord.
    (Ezekiel 37:12, etc.)
  
  
  As we at once perceive that the Creator  is in
  this passage represented as vivifying our dead bodies, and promising
  resurrection to them, and resuscitation from their sepulchres and
  tombs, conferring upon them immortality also (He says, For as the
  tree of life, so shall their days be [Isaiah 65:22]), He is shown to
  be the only God who accomplishes these things, and as Himself the good
  Father, benevolently conferring life upon those who have not life from
  themselves.
  
  Against Heresies, V.XV.1