So here's my account of the most powerful mass I attended while in the Holy Land. (Be warned, liturgical purists, you may not be happy.) On Thursday of our pilgrimage, we had mass on Mt. Zion. We weren't able to celebrate right in the cenacle itself, but in a little chapel nearby which was close enough for us. Of course the homilist (Fr. John Solana, LC, the director of Notre Dame de Jerusalem) spoke about the institution of the Eucharist, and it was an intimate little celebration.
At the close of his very moving homily, Father said: because of where we are, I'm going to invite you to do something I wouldn't encourage any other place. Namely, because Christ distributed that first communion personally to his disciples, I invite you to remain in your seats and we priests will bring communion to you. And I further invite you if you would like, to receive in your hand and before communicating, take a few moments to simply hold the Lord in your hands and adore him for a few moments, telling how much you love him, before you actually communicate.
Looking at my words as I write them, I see that they don't convey the power of this experience, and I suppose some LC-bashers will take this anecdote as fresh evidence agin' 'em. You'll have to take my word for it that when you are right in the spot where the Last Supper took place, in the midst of meditating on Christ's sacrifice, from which he gained nothing for himself, undertaking it only out of love of you, you have a lot to say to him.
There were many aspects of Christ's life that I'd never really thought about which came to life upon seeing the places they occurred. But the one place I found I seriously had to correct my imagination was Gethsemane. I'd always assumed that when Christ left the upper room, he pretty much walked out and was right in the Garden of Gethesemane. Or if not right there, pretty close by. In fact, it's quite a walk between Mt. Zion and the Mt. of Olives. He had to descend Zion, walk across the Kidron Valley, and then ascend to reach his favored place of prayer.
Here's a photo from the halfway point, taken from the Kidron Valley & looking up at the Mount of Olives. If you can make out the golden frieze of a church towards the lower left of this shot, that's Gethsemane, and the golden mushroom domes in the upper center of the photo are from the Orthodox church in the middle of the Mt. of Olives. Were this a panoramic shot, you could see the Dome of the Rock to the left, directly across from Gethsemane, though separated by some distance. From Gethsemane, Christ would have had a perfect view of the Old City of Jerusalem, and particularly of the Golden Gate and the Temple.When Judas departed the upper room to let the Pharisees know where Christ was spending the passover, he didn't have far to go: just a short descent down Mt. Zion to Caiaphas' courtyard. Christ, on the other hand, made the long walk from Zion to Gethsemane, and then after his arrest the soldiers took him back up to Mt. Zion to face Caiaphas. (Incidentally, Annas' house is closer to the Mt. of Olives, which perhaps explains why the guards made the pit-stop there first --they probably didn't feel like traipsing Jesus all the way back to Mt. Zion if they could avoid it.)
