Passover and Pascha: From Exodus to Easter
As a Catholic, I am fortunate to have a group of close friends who happen to be Jewish. I’ve known Robert for more than 20 years. Cathy, Diane and Patricia are more recent friends who have welcomed me to sit in on their weekend Mah-Jongg game. While I feel socially connected to them, I can’t help feeling a spiritual bond, especially at Easter. Perhaps this is because the Easter liturgies I celebrate and the Passover rituals they enact have much in common.
Both Passover and Easter are spring feasts. Passover begins on the night of the first full moon after the vernal equinox, or the 14th of Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew Calendar festival year. The date of Passover is prescribed in Leviticus 23:5.
The Passover of the Lord falls on the fourteenth day of the first month, at the evening twilight.
Scholars believed that Jesus died on the cross on this day at the hour when the lambs for the feast of Passover were being sacrificed, prefiguring the image of Christ as the Passover lamb found in 1 Cor. 5:7.
Some celebrated Easter on this night every year. But, eventually it was decided that Easter would be commemorated on the first Sunday (Sunday being the day of Resurrection) after the full moon of spring.
Passover, prescribed in the book of Exodus celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The primary symbol for Passover is matzo, or unleavened bread, a reminder that the Israelites left Egypt in haste, without time for baked bread to rise. Because the Exodus story tells of the unfathomable faithfulness of God, it stands at the core of the Jewish faith. It is a powerful reminder to all of us of God’s desire to be in an intimate, covenant relationship with humankind. This is one reason that out of nine readings provided for the Easter Vigil, the Exodus reading, according to the Lectionary, “Should always be read.”
The covenant relationship between God and God’s people as told in Exodus is renewed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and expressed in the Eucharist. It provides the pattern for all human relationships.
The reading from Corinthians which we hear on Easter Sunday, sums it up best:
Let us celebrate the feast not with the old yeast, that of corruption and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Amen.
