Passover is a divinely commanded remembrance ritual that celebrates the liberation of the enslaved descendants of Jacob/Israel—the Hebrew people.
The Bible describes the repeated, failed attempts to convince the Pharoah 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 instructed the Hebrew people what to do to safeguard their firstborn sons during the final, dreadful, and decisive plague.
They were to sacrifice a lamb, smear some of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their dwellings as a marker to spare them from the angel of death, and make a meal of the sacrificed lamb.
For centuries the key element of the Passover ritual was the actual sacrifice of a lamb followed by the sacrificial meal. However, after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, it was no longer possible to have sacrifices according to the Law.
Ever since that time, the remembrance ritual changed. The remembrance now includes that of the sacrificial lamb itself, but the meal, no longer actually sacrificial, became more symbolic, a reminder of the ancient salvific acts of God.
The Passover ritual meal now called the Seder 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, and 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.
For Christians, this ultimate sacrifice of Jesus is at the heart of their version of the ancient remembrance ritual, the Mass.
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 remembered and 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—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 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 meaning of the Lord’s words, as well as great religious divisions about the matter, emphasis was placed on transubstantiation and real presence.
An unintended consequence has been less attention to the 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.
21 March 2021