The Great Three Days

Location of the Upper Room

"On the day before He was to suffer, he took bread in his sacred and venerable hands....."
-Roman Canon

Tonight is the night.  Lent officially ends at sunset and the Paschal Triduum begins.  Customarily tonight at the singing of the Gloria, bells are rung.  I can understand why. The joy of beginning these moments that mark our Redemption are ones of great energy.  I know the excitement is pulsing through my veins as we are about to begin. The whole of the Liturgical Year leads up to these three great days.  The picture of the Upper Room as seen above will be the location of many mysteries in the next several hours.  We will watch our Lord gather His disciples in this location to wash their feet. He will take Bread and Wine and mystically turn them into His own Body and Blood. The Apostles will gather here tomorrow and huddle behind locked doors in fear and hiding from those who crucified Him. This room will be the place where on Sunday, Our Lord will walk through those locked doors radiant in the splendor of His Resurrection. Fifty Days following, this room will shake with a violent wind as the Gift of the Holy Spirit is poured forth on the newborn Church.

Tonight, gang, we are not just "warm and fuzzily" remembering past events.  It is not a "memorial" in the English language sense. By the power of the Spirit, we are literally spiritually catapulted to these events, no longer marked by earthly space and time, but elevated to eternal mysteries. That is what is means to "do this in memory of me." When your feet get washed and you receive communion tonight, you are there in that Upper Room. When you walk with Our Lord to the Altar of Repose and "stay with Him", you are in the Garden.  When you walk the Stations of the Cross tomorrow and kiss the Wood of Our Salvation, you will be standing at Calvary.  When you hold a candle and shake with joy during the joyful Exultet and vibrant Gloria on Saturday, you are standing at the Empty Tomb.  That physical Upper Room is now embedded in your heart.  No longer distant, but intimate.

Walk with Him these three great days.  Journey with Him to the Cross.  Rejoice with Him in the Resurrection.  Spend these days in prayer. Stay close to Him.  Our Redemption is nigh.