Per 6 11/6/12
Paschal Mystery and the Passover
The Paschal Mystery is one of the central concepts of the Christian faith relating to the history of salvation. The work God the Father sent his Son to accomplish on earth, it says in 1 Corinthians 5: 7, “get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. The Passover is a Jewish festival which was prepared in John 19: 14, Jesus’ disciples were instructed to go to the city where a man will meet them caring a jar of water and he will lead them to wherever he enters and they must go to the master of the house and ask where they may eat the Passover with their disciples, he will show them a large upper room and they will prepare there (Mark 14: 12-16). In the Passover, all food is available thru Jesus’ Eucharistic undertones (John 6: 51-55). The Passover commemorates the story of Exodus, which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. The Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the Egyptians before the Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves, the tenth plague was the worst, it involved having the death of the Egyptian first born. “Each family must raise a lamb that is a year old. Slaughter it on the 18th day the blood is taken and spread on the doorpost allowing the pharaoh’s army to Passover the house hold” (Exodus 12: 1-6). The Passover is also known as the feast of unleavened bread, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread dough to leaven. So for the two day duration of Passover, no leavened bread is eaten (Mark 14: 1).