The Passover and the Mass
ALL
Jews celebrate the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt in the Passover meal. A sacrifice of an unblemished lamb is made in the celebration. The lamb is brought to the Temple and offered as a sacrifice. Then it is brought back home to be eaten by the family.
Jesus was celebrating this feast with His disciples on Holy Thursday when He did something unusual. He took bread and after giving thanks broke it and gave it to his disciples. He then declared that this bread was his body. Then He took some wine and declared that this was His blood. His disciples were all Jews and were familiar with the Passover meal. This was unusual. Then He gave the order to do it in memory of Him. He was reversing the Passover sequence. He hadthe meal first. Then the next day, on Good Friday, He offered Himself as the sacrifice. He was the lamb of Sacrifice as well as the priest on Good Friday. He created the meal of His own Body and Blood the night before. Then on Good Friday, He offered Himself as the new sacrificial lamb on the Cross.
This was the new Passover celebration in the new covenant in which He was the sacrificial Lamb. This is the sacrifice that we offer to the Father, in reparation for our sins, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, for over 2,000 years now.
The Cross is the ultimate sacrifice. In the Jewish Passover, what was sacrificed was an animal. On the Cross, we have the true Lamb of sacrifice that is offered to the Father in heaven. To this eternal sacrifice we join our own sacrifice in reparation for our sins. In Holy Week we celebrate own Passover. We are liberated from our own slavery to sin with the offering of the True Lamb of Jesus on the Cross.
There is nothing that we can offer to the Father that is more pleasing to Him than to offer Him His Son. To this offering we join or own small sacrifice which is joined to the Eternal Sacrifice of Jesus in the Mass.
Every time that we attend Mass we offer Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. We are not passive onlookers. It is true that there is a ministerial priest who is presiding at the Mass but we all are also priests as we join the ministerial priest in offering Jesus on the Cross as He offered Himself on Calvary 2,000 years ago. Holy Week is prefigured in the Exodus of the people of Israel led by Moses out of Egypt. It is an exodus, a liberation. This time it is the liberation from the slavery to sin. The Mass is the continuation of the Sacrifice on Calvary 2,000 years ago.