YOUCAT Question n. 95 - Why did Jesus choose the date of the Jewish feast of Passover for his death and Resurrection?
(Youcat
answer) Jesus chose the Passover feast of his people Israel as a symbol for
what was to happen through his death and Resurrection. As the people Israel
were freed from slavery to Egypt, so Christ frees us from the slavery of sin
and the power of death.
A deepening through CCC
(CCC 572)
The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of "all the
Scriptures" that Jesus gave both before and after his Passover: "Was
it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?"
(Lk 24:26-27, 44-45). Jesus' sufferings took their historical, concrete form
from the fact that he was "rejected by the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes", who handed "him to the Gentiles to be mocked and
scourged and crucified" (Mk 8:31; Mt 20:19). (CCC 573) Faith can therefore
try to examine the circumstances of Jesus' death, faithfully handed on by the
Gospels (Cf. DV 19) and illuminated by other historical sources, the better to
understand the meaning of the Redemption.
Reflecting and meditating
(Youcat comment) The Passover
was the feast celebrating the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. Jesus
went to Jerusalem in order to free us in an even deeper way. He celebrated the
Paschal feast with his disciples. During this feast, he made himself the
sacrificial Lamb. “For Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor
5:7), so as to establish once and for all the definitive reconciliation between
God and mankind.
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 571)
The Paschal mystery of Christ's cross and Resurrection stands at the centre of
the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim
to the world. God's saving plan was accomplished "once for all" (Heb
9:26) by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.
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