Passover is a divinely commanded remembrance ritual that celebrates the liberation from Egypt of the enslaved descendants of Jacob/Israel.
The Bible describes the many, failed attempts to convince the Pharaoh to grant them freedom. Ten plagues or divine actions were meant to force his hand. He resisted nine, but with the tenth, the death of every firstborn son, he relented and allowed the Hebrews to leave Egypt.
Through Moses and Aaron, God had instructed the Hebrew people what to do to safeguard their firstborn sons during this final, dreadful, and decisive plague.
They had been told to sacrifice a lamb, to smear its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their dwellings as a sign to the angel of death to pass over them, and to make a meal of the sacrificed lamb.
For many centuries the key element of the Passover ritual was an actual sacrificial offering, in the Jerusalem temple, of a lamb, followed by a sacrificial meal. But, with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, it was no longer possible to have the sacrifice.
Gradually, the meal, the remembrance ritual changed. The remembrance included that of the sacrificial lamb itself, and the meal, no longer actually sacrificial, became more symbolic, a reminder of the ancient salvific acts of God.
The Passover ritual meal (the Seder) also includes various other symbols that remind the participants of details of what they are remembering of the past with thanksgiving and hope.
Jesus’s death is tied to Passover; his last supper meal with his disciples before his death is usually identified as a Passover ritual—and anticipatory to the great sacrifice of Jesus’ life (as the lamb of God).
For Christians, this ultimate sacrifice of Jesus is at the heart of their version (the Mass) of the ancient remembrance ritual.
Just as on the evening of the tenth plague a lamb was sacrificed and its blood became salvific, so the first followers of Jesus viewed his death on the cross.
Just as, in the Seder, the sparing of the firstborn of the Hebrews and their liberation is symbolically celebrated, so too, in the Mass, our being spared and liberated by the death of Jesus is remembered and symbolically celebrated.
Jesus himself gave the remembrance symbols to his followers: the broken bread, shared by all at the table, this was his body, broken for their and our salvation, and the cup of wine, shared by all at table, this was his blood, shed for their and our salvation.
“Do this in remembrance of me.” he said.
This Christian remembrance ritual, rooted in the Passover and associated with the Resurrection, began to be enacted every Lord’s Day (Sunday), not just once a year at Passover (Easter) time. It even became a daily ritual for many.
Because of centuries of theologizing and analyzing of the specifics of the ritual and the exact meaning of the Lord’s words, as well as great religious divisions about the matter, a great emphasis was placed on transubstantiation and real presence.
An unintended consequence was less attention to the original significance of the remembrance ritual’s principal symbolic actions, the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the wine.
Liturgical reforms in the last century were not so much refinements of complex ceremonials, elaborate vesture, and special architectural arrangements as a challenge to us to rebalance our understanding of this core remembrance ritual of our lives.
16 April 2023
(Adopted from a
21 March 2021 original)