Some time ago I was I was in Jerusalem on a pilgrimage. To avoid the crush of the thousands of people who come to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher each day, my wife and I went there at 4:00 a.m. when the doors of the church are opened, and when that holy place is quiet and prayerful. Compared to later in the day, the place is virtually uninhabited, and the silence on Calvary at that early hour is thunderous and overpowering. This place of sacred blood, holy sacrifice, and infinite love prepares you to enter into the Divine Mystery. Later, but not much, with still few pilgrims and great silence, when Mass is celebrated on Calvary, when the Holy Sacrifice itself is re-presented there on the same small piece of earth as on that first Good Friday, the force of Divine love is beyond comprehension. It reaches into every molecule of your body. It envelopes and draws you into eternal Liturgy of the New Jerusalem.

I was thinking about all of this recently while sitting in a church waiting for Mass to begin. The place was alive with bubbly, pleasant conversation. Sports, family, food, school. It was all discussed. In the back of the church the ushers made small talk with each other and then with the priest when he arrived. It was much like the crowd at a theatre waiting for the curtain to rise. Much like the crowds in Jerusalem on that first Good Friday.

On that terrible, holy day the crowds and rabble along the Via Dolorosa were anything but quiet and contemplative as the sad procession of Roman soldiers and the condemned Galilean, cross on his shoulders, came slowly down the narrow stone streets. For the shop keepers and passersby the man was just another prisoner, and the event was just another Roman execution. Commerce and conversation may have been briefly interrupted as the procession passed, but likely things quickly returned to business as usual. The scene on Calvary itself was no more quiet. More like the crowd at a sporting event. Public executions were free entertainment, and even more entertaining when the condemned was a back country trouble maker.

But some people were very quiet, absorbed in anguished prayer. Standing on Golgotha, in the in the face of great cruelty and sin, with no power or control, Mary, John, and the other group of disciples could only rely on the power of God to sustain them. With the exception of Mary, they likely did not fully understand what they were witnessing, but just as likely sensed that something of great significance was taking place in their presence.

That “something” that was happening was an act of the greatest love ever known, before or since. “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting — John 3:16.

For those who missed religion class altogether or had Sister Innovator or Brother Progressive, it is this event of infinite love that is re-presented in the sacred Liturgy in our churches. “In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of Christ.” Catechism of the Catholic Church , #1370 . “The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the sacrifice of the cross…” CCC , #1366 .

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal reminds us of our duty to prepare ourselves for Mass. “Even before the celebration itself, it is commendable that silence to be observed in the church, in the sacristy, in the vesting room, and in adjacent areas, so that all may dispose themselves to carry out the sacred action in a devout and fitting manner” — General Instruction of the Roman Missa l, #45.

Section 45 of the General Instruction is not without purpose. If as the Catholic Catechism says in #1090, "In the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is celebrated in the Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle,” then our time before Mass is not the time for small talk and idle conversation. At that moment there is nothing even remotely small about where we are, and what we are preparing to experience. Indeed, “Those who now celebrate (the liturgy) …are already in the heavenly liturgy, where celebration is wholly communion and feast” — CCC #1136.

Pope John Paul II in his beautiful encyclical letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia reminds us that no matter how mundane the setting and how imperfect the earthly participants, the sacred Liturgy is more. It is a cosmic event, the meeting of heaven and earth, the imperfect with the perfect. “Yes, cosmic! Because even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world . It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation…Truly this is the mysterium fidei which is accomplished in the Eucharist: the world which came forth from the hands of God the Creator now returns to him redeemed by Christ” — Ecclesia de Eucharistia , #8.

So if you are tempted to distraction before Mass, close your eyes, relax, and listen for the voice of Jesus: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?”– Mark 8:17b-18.

Then picture the slow procession of the condemned Galilean as it goes along the narrow Via Dolorosa. See yourself following along, focused amidst the chaos on the prisoner carrying a cross on His shoulders. Follow on to Calvary, and prepare yourself to participate in the holy mystery that is the greatest sacrifice and love story of all time. As the Mass begins and the re-presentation of the mysterium fidei unfolds before you, join yourself to this profound celebration, in the Divine Presence, with the Mother of God leading you to her Son, in the midst of the Communion of Saints extending the hand of brotherhood between sons of God. Then go forward and worthily receive the Divine Body and Blood, and be taken into the very life and love of the Holy Trinity.