Christians around the world celebrate this week, as the holiest week of their faith, where they remember Jesus Christ's passion, death and resurrection.
The Sacred Paschal Triduum of the passion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper.
And every time we celebrate the Lord's Last Supper, it reminds us of the the ‘Upper Room’.
lt was said that the Last Supper event happened in this room.
The ‘Upper Room’ was the place of the formation of the early church.
That includes events which form the backbone of Christianity such as The Last Supper, where the new Covenant was instituted and the Eucharist was first celebrated, and the
Pentecost where the Holy Spirit descended.
It was said in the scripture that Jesus and his disciples gathered in the ‘Upper Room’ to celebrate the Jewish feast of Passover, the most important feast, their first taste of freedom after many years of slavery.
That day, Jesus gave his command to his disciples to “love one another as I have loved you”.
The letter of John says “lf anyone says ‘l love God’, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen,” (1 John 4:20).
But Jesus told his disciples not only to “love one another”, but also to serve when he washed his disciples’ feet.
Jesus would like to highlight the importance of humble service to each other.
Service at this point means “self -giving” which he modelled himself in Calvary.
Jesus concluded the ceremony by giving his apostles his own body and blood, the pinnacle of Christian worship.
~ Contributed by Father Line Abilgos of St Michael’s Catholic Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
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