Commentary on Exodus 12:1-8,11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Today’s Scripture readings cover the whole sweep of what today’s feast means. The First Reading is a description of the Jewish Passover Meal. It is a sacramental re-enactment of the meal taken by the Israelites before their flight across the Red Sea from Egypt—a flight from slavery to freedom and liberation.

This annual commemoration could be called the ‘Eucharist’ of the Jews—except that they celebrate it just once a year, and not weekly or even daily, as we do. It is a sacred remembering of God’s great act to liberate them from slavery, and it is the beginning of their long journey to the Promised Land. It is no coincidence that it was precisely during the celebration of this meal that Jesus instituted what we now call the Sacrament of the Eucharist. This is the link between the Hebrew and Christian Covenants.

In the Second Reading, Paul recalls what Jesus did during that Last Supper—that Passover Meal:

Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

These actions were to be repeated by his followers in memory of the liberation brought about for us through his suffering, death and resurrection.

Three events are thus united into a new mystery:

There is a new liberation, not just from physical slavery, but from every kind of slavery, especially that of sin and evil. There is now a new Pasch and a new Passover. There is a new Lamb—the Lamb of God. There is a new unleavened bread—the Bread that is the Body of the Risen Lord. The blood of the lamb is now replaced with the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus, who takes away the sin of the world.