INBOX INSPIRATIONS
April 13, 2022
The Mystery
Dear Friends,
The paschal mystery – this is what Holy Week is all about.
The word paschal comes from the Hebrew word Passover.
As you may know, Passover is the most sacred feast in the Jewish calendar.
It recalls the passing over of God’s people from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land.
The Old Testament Book of Exodus tells this story in detail and gives the origin of Passoveras the annual remembrance of God’s saving action for his people.
We believe that Jesus is the new Passover.
His was a passing over from death to life, from the cross to the resurrection.
This is the central mystery of our faith and is called the paschal mystery.
It is the mystery that when we die to self, we come to new or fuller life.
For example, when we die to our pride and ask for forgiveness, a relationship with another person can be restored and come back to life.
We ourselves can come to new and fuller life.
We believe that this mystery happens even when we die to our physical bodies.
We ourselves come to new, fuller, resurrected life.
Christ lived and revealed this paschal mystery.
This week is called Holy because in it, we remember and relive in our liturgies the paschal mystery.
On Good Friday, we are one with Christ in his suffering and death on the cross.
At the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday and on Easter Sunday, we celebrate Christ’s rising from the dead.
Before all of this, on Holy Thursday, we recall the Last Supper where Jesus gave us a way to remember and be in communion with the paschal mystery – the sacrament of his body and blood under the forms of bread and wine.
This remembering of the paschal mystery – “Do this in memory of me” – is important not just because Jesus told us to do this.
It is also important because
v it is the paradigm for understanding the journey of life,
v it transforms us into the image of God,
v and it moves us to live the way of Jesus.
So, yes, Holy Week celebrates the very heart or core of our faith – the paschal mystery.
Father Michael Schleupner
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