St. Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus about the “departure” he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. They’re talking about His death. Now, death is certainly a departure, but we would hardly call it an accomplishment. For Jesus, it is an accomplishment in the sense that his death is the perfect fulfilment of the Father’s will. By it, God rescues humanity and creation from destruction. Did he not cry on the Cross as he died, “It is accomplished”?

This departure means even more for Jesus. It isn’t just departure from this life into death and the grave. It includes His departure from the grave in the resurrection and then again in the ascension. What we now await is his return in the very glory which the Father gave him for accomplishing the marvellous deed of salvation. On Mount Tabor, Jesus gives Peter, James and John a glimpse of that glory so that, when they see him crucified, they will realise that his words to them were true: the Son of Man will be put to death but will rise again on the third day. His bloodied, crucified and buried body will be transfigured and transformed into his risen and glorious body. And so, too, will our bodies be.

An aunt of mine in her final years used to say that she felt she was in the departure lounge from this life. Human life is a constant departure from the moment we leave our mother’s womb. The passage of time and all the places we pass through in life require us to move on, to depart, to leave them behind. We are pilgrims. Our citizenship is in heaven. We must leave behind our childhood, adolescence, youth, middle age and, yes, our old age, too. What and how we will be in our risen bodies will be something completely new. We do, of course, accumulate experiences and memories by which we forge our identity, for good or for ill. With St. Paul, we need to forget what lies behind and reach forward for the prize which awaits us, that is, to share in the glory of Christ in our spirit and in our risen body.

But Christ stands not only at the end of our journey. He is at its beginning and all the way through. He is our alpha as well as our omega, and everything in between. But He will not impose Himself on us at any stage. He offers us faith, hope and love as well as all the riches of His grace in Word and in Sacrament. He desires with divine longing that we freely choose Him and the direction in which He wants to take our lives. As his departure was accomplished in obedience to the Father, so he wants us to listen to Him so that our journey and departure will be in obedience to Him.

It was while he was praying that Jesus was transfigured. Prayer revealed the underlying glory of who He was. It is deep personal prayer which keeps our hearts alert to Christ, to his will and directions, and which will guide us to take the right decisions towards that departure lounge. In prayer, Jesus transmits to us in a hidden and spiritual fashion His own glory, and readies us to die in Him and for Him. Prayer gives us the strength and wisdom to let go, to leave behind, to entrust to His care and mercy both the bad and the good we have done, until the day when he comes to lead us out of this life into eternity. In Lent, then, let us ask for the grace to become accomplished in prayer that, in God’s good time, we too may accomplish our departure to gaze on the glory of Christ together with all the saints and the full company of heaven.