We got up, ready to leave at 5am! Few things get us out of bed that early, but Mass in the Tomb is definitely one of them! Mass in the very place where Jesus' lifeless body was laid and the resurrection took place is something that will get night owl seminarians up from their slumber. Jesus is beckoning us to His tomb and His resurrection!
We took a short walk in a crisp early morning still very dark, and still very silent as the city is sleeping. After arriving and preparing for mass, our scheduled time arrives, and we pile our three priests and twelve or so seminarians into this tiny but stunning chapel. For many you have to duck to enter the first section of the chapel. Once inside the first room, the priests enter deeper into the second room where the altar is above the slab where Jesus was laid to rest for three days. To enter into this second room, everyone must stoop low. Just as the apostles did when they came to the tomb on the morning of the resurrection, they had to stoop to look in to see that his body was gone, and the cloth was laying folded up on the slab. You feel when you enter into that second section that you are entering deeper into the death of Christ until you look up and see the beautiful ornate icons and metal workings of the resurrection! They draw you into the mystery of Jesus' death and resurrection by physically bending low and raising your eyes to these images of the resurrection and this physical aspect draws you in deeper spiritually. As there are the two rooms through out Mass you're reflecting and praying on where you are and what is taking place right now in the Eucharistic liturgy, and hearing this voice, the voice of the priest, from the other room that is Jesus himself inviting you deeper into this mystery. And as we are so wrapped physically and spiritually into this reality of being in the tomb we are shown the glory of resurrection when the priest comes out to give us the Risen Jesus in the Eucharist. He not only shows us Himself resurrected, but then feeds us with that mystical bread of the death and resurrection that is His very body. Being present for the liturgy in such a place as the tomb truly gives you a foretaste of heaven.
Christ beckons us, and you, into his death and resurrection in every Mass. He calls us out of the slumber of our laziness and sin to glimpse the light of heaven. Mass at the tomb was definitely a full experience of that death and resurrection.
That began our day, and truly was the pinnacle experience for us. May we remember that every time we go to Mass, no matter where in the world we are, that experience in the Tomb is made real to us again and again glimpsing the resurrection and the foretaste of heaven receiving Jesus in the Eucharist.