Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

We often hear Christ described as the Passover lamb, the Eucharist as the Paschal (relating to “Passover”) Feast, and the Easter Triduum as a celebration of the Paschal Mystery. These designations have their roots in Scripture, in which Jesus makes many of these associations. It is at the Last Supper, presumably a celebration of the Passover meal, where Jesus cements the association between the Jewish feast of Passover and his impending suffering, death, and eventual resurrection. His Body and Blood are given up for all. His life is laid down for our salvation. Why should Jesus connect his saving mission with Passover? Couldn’t it stand on its own? There are many Jewish feasts. Why this association? What does it mean for us? We see in today’s first reading that the Israelites have just exited Egypt and already the narrator of Exodus is discussing the importance of the annual celebration of the Passover feast—the meal eaten in haste as God delivered them from slavery in Egypt (Ex 12:41-2). There are many reasons why this event and its commemoration are so prominent, but the display of God’s saving action on behalf of the chosen people is perhaps chief among them. God does not abandon God’s people, rather God ultimately saves them. The wonder of God’s saving action is clear from today’s psalm: God “remembered us in our abjection”… “freed us from our foes”… etc. and the refrain is especially important: God’s “mercy endures forever.” This is the message of Passover; God’s saving mercy is the continual celebration of the Jewish people.

Jesus’ death and resurrection is nothing if not evidence of God’s saving mercy. It is a new Passover. When all that Jesus said and did seemed empty and broken, God raises Him from the dead, bringing life from death. But this is not simply another minor event in the relationship between God and us. It has the status of a new Passover because God’s move to save us encompasses not only the Jewish people, but all people. As the angel of death passed over the Israelites in Egypt, so too it passed over Jesus, but this time death dies. That is, death is not the end for us. God’s mercy extends even into the grave. Looking back over Jesus’ life, this saving mercy of God is not a surprise. As the Pharisees plot Jesus’ death, what does Jesus do? He goes off and cures all who were following Him (Mt. 12:14-15). God’s mercy overflows in Jesus. It restores health to the sick.

Yet, this is a new Passover because we cannot understand it apart from the Jewish tradition in which Jesus clearly stands. Even his healing work is understood by both He and His followers in terms of the Jewish Scriptures (which become the Old Testament) (Mt. 12:17-21). The God who raised Jesus from the dead is the same God who saved the Israelites from Egypt. This is who God is. Let our prayer today be that we might know this God, whose mercy extends even to the grave, especially in our darkest moments, and that we might make this God known to others by our lives of loving mercy.

- Tim Gabrielli