3rd Sunday of Easter (The Coenaculum)
Today’s Gospel presents us with another post-Resurrection account. More than simply surprise and joy that Jesus is alive, one gets the sense that the Jesus’ followers are slowly piecing it all together, remembering the clues that he had given and reflecting on Old Testament prophecies that point to the events that they had experienced with him.
What we hear described in this reading happened later in the day that Jesus was Resurrected—Easter Sunday. It had already proven to be an action-packed day. Jesus, as the reading describes, suddenly appeared in the midst of his followers—which by the way, this encounter is also described in John’s Gospel, when slow-to-believe-Thomas was not with them.
It's been long believed that this encounter took place in the upper room, where Jesus shared the Last Supper with his disciples. Even more, many have also believed that this is the place where the Pentecost event occurred. Think about it: it would therefore be the place where on Holy Thursday Jesus established the Eucharist and ordained the first priests; where on Easter Sunday he gave his Apostles the authority to forgive sins; and where, fifty days later, the outpouring the Holy Spirit would occur. In other words, on that site, four of our sacraments were established.
If you go to Jerusalem, just outside the southwestern portion of its walls, about a half mile from the place where Jesus was buried, there’s building known as the Coenaculum, which means “eating place”. Through the centuries, the structures there suffered decay and destruction. The current building on that site, built in the 14th century by Franciscans, only about two centuries later was converted into a mosque under the Ottoman empire and was stripped of virtually all its adornments. It wasn’t until 1948, the establishment of the state of Israel, that Christians could again enter the building on this sacred site.
If you go to visit where the upper room is today, it remains unadorned, very unspectacular and almost nothing seems to commemorate all that happened there. You can’t celebrate Mass there, nor can you pray outwardly. As not to create a disturbance or violate what was permissible, the group I traveled with were permitted to whisper in praying the 3rd Glorious Mystery (Descent of the Holy Spirit) and 5th Luminous Mystery (Institution of the Eucharist).
That’s the site where Jesus again appeared to his disciples, showing his wounds, inviting them to touch, and even again, eating with them. It’s as though he says to this incredulous group: “Are you starting to get it? It’s me. Are you starting to figure it out, that what Moses and the scriptures describe points toward what you just experienced in these recent days? Do you not remember all that I told you along the way, of how I would suffer and die, but that I would transcend death in order to kill the effect of sin? Is it beginning to come together for you?”
Similarly, this is our site, where we’ve come to hear these same Scriptures and receive the clues from Jesus. This is the place—our Coenaculum, if you will—where we’ve come to share intimately with him at the table of his Body and Blood. This is the site where Jesus speaks the words of Absolution to us as we acknowledge how sin still has a hold on us. This is the site where next Saturday, the outpouring the Holy Spirit will come upon our parish sons and daughters. This is where we’ve come to receive his transformative grace.
And just as this building can be thought of as an echo of the site where Jesus appeared to his disciples, his words to them echo all the way to us: “Peace be with you. Do not fear. You’ve experienced all this. You’ve heard my words. Are you starting to get it, you who I love, but are slow to believe and slow to move? Will you speak what I have spoken to you? Will you live as I have shown you? Will you be my witnesses when you leave here? To whom? How so? Peace be with you. Do not fear.”