Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a journey. The journey doesn’t end with the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. On that day, we gaze up into the heavens but realize that we still have work to do on earth and places to go.
Only in the Gospel of St. Luke are we told that Jesus climbed the mountain of the transfiguration in order to pray. St. Luke emphasizes the role of prayer in the lives of Jesus and His disciples. He had learned how the Church could not make progress without prayer, and if we ask what is wrong with the Church, and our own lives, the answer is often the same: there is not enough prayer. The story of transfiguration is a story of prayer, and our understanding of it can be deepened if we look back in the Bible. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he found the people worshiping a golden calf, and he was angry but he stayed with them. Elijah, too, ran from the people, but found faith among the Gentiles. Jesus finds confusion among the people He has left behind but, instead of running away, He sets His face for Jerusalem. Prayer gives us peace, but we have to take that peace into the turbulence of people’s lives.