Mysteries of the Upper Room

The Upper Room is truly a mysterious place. It is the one spot on earth that contained within it the four iterations of the body of Christ. It contained his historical body, his eucharitic body, his glorified resurrected body and finally his mystical body the Church.

The Upper Room Headquarters of the Apostles

When we first hear of the Upper Room it is as if Jesus planned the Last Supper in advance. When his disciples asked, “Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?” He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’ The Upper Room then is located above the living quarters of this mysterious stranger’s house. It was a large dining room also called the cenacle.

In the Upper Room Jesus taught the apostles servant leadership as he washed each of their feet. He led them in the Last Supper, the singing of Passover hymns and the prediction of his betrayal by Judas. At least three separate resurrection appearances took place there including the appearance to doubting Thomas who placed his fingers in the wounded side of the risen Lord. 

It remained the gathering place of the disciples after the Ascension of Jesus. ’When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying…’ (Acts 1:13).  The first major decision of Peter and the Apostles as leaders of the Church, the casting of lots to elect Mathias as Judas’ replacement, occurred within those hallowed walls. 

The Upper Room Birthplace of the Sacraments

The Upper Room is the location where Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood (Holy Orders) when he said, “Do this in memory of me”. He commissioned the Apostles to become priests who would offer the sacrifice of the Eucharist in accordance with Jesus’ command. With the coming of and the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit it is also related to the sacrament of Confirmation. The Upper Room is also where Jesus instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation. He appeared to them and breathed on the Apostles saying, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn 20:19-23).

The Upper Room as the New Tabernacle

The veil that separated the holy of holies from the holy room in the tabernacle could be thought of as the two levels of the home separated by the ceiling of the living quarters below which was also the floor of the upper room above. The Upper Room therefore was truly a holy of holies where the ark as the throne of God and chamber containing the holy things of God (ten commandment tablets, jar of manna and staff of Aaron) resided. The tabernacle contained a table with bread on it called the Table of Shewbread. It was lit with multiple flames that flickered over the seven branched candlestick. In the Upper Room at the Last Supper there was a table with bread among other food and drink. At Pentecost the room was filled with multiple flames which hovered and flickered over the Apostles and Mary, the holy ark. 

Just as the Tabernacle of Moses preceded the Temple of Solomon and later Herod as a prototype, the Upper Room preceded the individual bodies of Christians who are made to be temples containing the indwelling of the Holy Spirit first through pentecost and later through the sacraments. The Holy Spirit came into the Upper room through the windows and impregnated the room with holiness and new life. 

The church, as the body of Christ, is the new temple of God containing the presence of God in each individual cell (member) within the body. The Holy Spirit left that room within the souls of individuals who went out in a state of zeal to build up the body of Christ, the Church: beginning with evangelization and baptisms.

Mary in the Upper Room

Mary was in the upper room because she was under the care of the Apostle John. Jesus made her his mother and by extension the mother of the whole church when he said from the cross, ‘Woman behold your son”. From then on he took her into his home. While in Jerusalem, the only home John knew was the headquarters of the apostles, the Upper Room. Naturally, Mary would have been under his care especially during this uncertain time following the crucifixion and resurrection. 

Theologically, it was understandable that Mary as mother of the Church would be present for the birth of her children. Like the cave in Bethlehem where the Christ child was born, the Upper Room was made holy by the presence of Our Lady, ark of the New Covenant and unseen angelic hosts.

She attended to Jesus’ friends with maternal care guiding them through a type of Confirmation prep program. 

On Pentecost the Holy Spirit, her spouse, returned to overshadow her making her a mother once again. Her children, one by one were infused with the sanctifying grace and the indwelling of the Spirit so that they would be changed from the inside out and so that they would be able to lay hands on those seeking the sacrament of Confirmation and the same outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  

The Upper Room as Womb of the Church

Pentecost is called the birthday of the Church because it came together as the Mystical body of Christ to be animated as one body by the Lord, the giver of life, the Holy Spirit. The nascent church hiding in the Upper Room was truly the unborn child waiting to take its first breath and begin its life outside that warm and safe incubator. After Pentecost, and still now, the church gives birth to her children in the waters of baptism, sometimes in a womb shaped baptismal font. But the Upper room was where the Church was born.