'Depart in Peace' - The End Is The Beginning

At the end of the Holy Qurbana, the celebrant turns to us and says "Depart in peace".

We see this as the end of the Holy Qurbana. The end of a long service relieves us. We take a moment to rest. We rush to finish up the announcements, offertory, food, meetings etc and hurry back home to rest! We feel good that we have done our part as "good Christians". We do all these every Sunday, yet we often wonder - what ails our Church?


The great commission

Only if we knew, the final benediction from the altar also is the call to a new beginning. Renewed and strengthened with the food from the altar, we are supposed to 'depart in peace' back into the world, we return to our fold, our lives, with Christ within us. We must remember another final benediction to the disciples from the top of a mountain near Jerusalem many many years ago "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." The priest's final benediction is also a reminder of the Great Commission of the Lord, each time and every time.

With Christ in us, we are asked to go back and live Christ-like, to obey His commandments and to "make disciples". It is a huge responsibility given to us at the end of each Holy Qurbana. Do we measure upto it?

'Depart in Peace' is also a call to take up arms, to put on the armor of the Lord and fight in the Lord's army. Our ignorance in understanding this truth lies at the center of our problems in the Church.

So our responsibilities do not end when we hear 'Depart in peace' it really begins at this point. We have been given the resources from the altar, now we are sent back into the world - to bear fruit. What fruits are we bearing?

outreach

We often wonder why we do not have an outreach program within the Church to reach out to those outside the Church. The blessing of 'Depart in peace' is the beginning of this out reach program. We do not need "missionaries" for the Church because all of us are missionaries indeed. In our daily lives, in front of our spouses, our children, our parents, before our co-workers, friends, countrymen, we are witnesses of Christ before each other. 'Depart in peace' is the cue for us to put our faith into action.

The benediction is a farewell

'Depart in peace' is also a final farewell from the altar. In case we are unable to come back again to partake in the Holy Qurbana in the worldly form, in case we are to confront death after we depart, the peace we received from the altar must reign within us, the peace from the altar must become our source of strength and courage and it must remind us of the blessed assurance, as in the end of the Great Commission, that the Lord will be with us till the end of age, even beyond our grave.

Finally 'depart in peace' is also the blessing to the faithfully departed ones, assuring the ones who passed away in faith, of the grace from the altar, now, forever and ever.

Source : ICON