The Room Where it Happened (is the Upper Room of the Last Supper)

  The Room Where it Happened (is the Upper Room of the Last Supper) 

In the musical Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton is trying to get his debt plan through Congress, the plan that eventually established a federal banking system (among other things) of the United States. Hamilton arranges a “dinner” with Jefferson and Madison, who both have objected to the plan, with the intent to strike a deal. Hamilton meets Aaron Burr on the way to the dinner, and lets it slip that he is going to meet with the 2 men to work out a deal. Burr “wants in” - he has always felt jealous of Hamilton’s ability to persevere when he started from nothing. Burr was Princeton-educated and wealthy, with a distinguished family, while Hamilton came from the West Indies, the illegitimate son of a plantation owner and his married mistress. He had no fancy education, no family, and nothing to claim as his own but somehow wound up a significant person in the Revolution and the forming of the new United States of America as the right-hand man to General Washington, a player in the Continental Congress and the first Secretary of the Treasury. Aaron Burr practiced law and tried his hand at politics, but he was not as well-liked or as popular as Hamilton. He had a bad case of FOMO – fear of missing out. 

After Burr finds out about the deal, he ends his song “The Room Where it Happens” with:

              I've got to be in the room (room where it happens) 

I gotta be (the room where it happens) 

                     I gotta be (the room where it happens) 

I've got to be in the room (the room where it happens) 

I gotta be, I gotta be, gotta be (the room where it happens) 

In the room (I wanna be in the room where it happens) 

     (Source: Musixmatch; Songwriters: Lin-manuel Miranda; The Room Where It Happens lyrics © 5000                         Broadway Music)

I’ve seen Hamilton before when it was on TV during Covid and listened to this song many times. But when I saw it performed on stage in June, it seemed I was hearing the words for the first time, as if my senses were heightened. Though I doubt Lin-Manuel Miranda had this in mind, another meaning of the words of the song, and another scene became very clear to me.  

Instead of actors on stage, I saw the Apostles and Jesus in the Upper Room the night of the Last Supper. I thought of all of us, like Aaron Burr, who were not there. But that is where the similarity to the musical ends. We desire, like Burr, to participate in the Lord’s Supper, but unlike Burr, we can fulfill that desire every time we go to Mass! We do not have to have FOMO - we, His faithful, have the re-creation of the Last Supper, the presence of Jesus, Incarnate Son of God, in flesh and blood, sacrificed for us, which we consume as bread and wine, like the Apostles did. We are all invited to the dinner - to be in "the room where it happens" - all welcome to partake in the meal and satisfy our hungry hearts! We say “we gotta be in the room where it happens” and make sure we are; we get to Mass, worship Jesus, and ask for his mercy a minimum of seven times, finally acknowledging we are only worthy through His Word. Then we, in Thanksgiving, participate in the greatest deal ever made in the history of mankind – our salvation by Jesus’ very act of sacrifice for us on the cross.

The Eucharist is “it”! Eucharist means “Thanksgiving” because we not only give thanks for being in the room where it happens, but for the gift Jesus gives us over and over until the end of time, the gift of his very self.  

I understand that for some people, this is a stretch. But the clarity I experienced in this idea cannot be denied. We have the gift, the privilege, the MIRACLE of being in the room where it - the Eucharist - happens. Don’t be like Burr. Don't miss out.

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the[a] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." --Mt 26:26-28