Whose Room was the Upper Room?

It's a Sunday workday, eating a "lunch" of staler crackers scoops of someone's almost-gone cream cheese from the back of the parish center walk-in cooler. I'm feeling ill-prepared/motivated for work today since it is g.o.r.g.e.o.u.s. outside. Not complaining about my office with-a-view, however.

Today's job is to pull together our next session for First Communion class. We've revamped our season to be much more hands-on and kid-learner friendly, and this session will help us break open that most mysterious part of the liturgy: the Eucharist.

There are three accounts of the Last Supper in the New Testament that sound like what we have at Mass:
Matthew 26
Luke 22
Mark 14

What struck me today was in the reading of these accounts, in all three accounts: a man who had a room ready for the disciples, and was willing to share without question.

Luke 22: 7-13

Preparations for the Passover.

When the day of the feast of Unleavened Bread arrived, the day for sacrificing the Passover lamb, he sent out Peter and John, instructing them, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” They asked him, “Where do you want us to make the preparations?” And he answered them, “When you go into the city, a man will meet you carrying a jar of water. Follow him into the house that he enters and say to the master of the house, ‘The teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ He will show you a large upper room that is furnished. Make the preparations there.” Then they went off and found everything exactly as he had told them, and there they prepared the Passover. 

So this is the thing. The master of this house has no name. He has no legacy, and is rarely mentioned in great homilies and treatises about the Last Supper. You cannot find him online or thru satellite mapping, and we have no idea if he was famous back then, but we do know he is not now. Reading these three accounts and parsing their meaning and connections so 52 second graders have a good learning session, and THIS is what the Lord gives me.

I need to be that guy. I need to:

be welcoming of others into my home

be welcoming of "inconveniences" in my life

thankful to help that "one more call" that comes in close to the close of the day

be intentional about keeping my home and office cleaned up enough that i can be hospitable in short notice

look for opportunities to open my home to others

not concern myself with any public notoriety about my generous gift of hospitality to the world (does it really matter if my mom's recipe Southern Cheesy Bread is the best thing they've ever had? does it really matter if there are toys aka signs of life strewn about the living room?

teach my kids to flush and wash out their toothpaste spit!

not be surprised when God picks us to be part of really big things

not be offended when our calling is to be a forgotten piece of the big story

This reminds me of the role of Sacristan in the Church. Arrives early, stays late. Sets up the room, sanctuary, sacristy, takes care to ensure that no one notices him or her or has any need during the blessed Liturgy. Gives, serves, and goes away mostly unnoticed, a postscript part in a liturgy of great mystery and awe. Let us recognize the importance of a life lived in the small parts of the story.