– “Easter” derives from Latin (Pascha), ancient Greek (Paskha) and Hebrew (Pesach or Pesah = passage). Initially, it indicated the passage of the Lord through the houses of the Jews, still in Egypt, to free them (Ex 12,23.27). It then came to refer to the passage of the people from slavery in Egypt to liberation through the Red Sea. Thus, God saved them from “death” – a term that summarizes in itself all the suffering of captivity and slave labor –, to free them for “life”, leading them, safe and sound, to the desert of Sur ( Ex 15,22). The Lord commanded that the people always remember this event, the most important of the Old Testament:
Deut 16:1 : In the month of the ears, be sure to celebrate the Passover in honor of the Lord your God, because it was in that month that he brought you out of Egypt during the night.
Leviticus 23 :5: On the fourteenth day of the first month, between the two evenings, is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in honor of the Lord: you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days.
– Jesus celebrated his last Paschal Supper with his disciples and made a revelation to them. It was going to be a paschal meal different from the previous ones:
Lc 22,15 : I have ardently desired to eat this paschal supper with you before I suffer.
Mt 26 :1 : When Jesus had finished all these speeches, he said to his disciples: “You know that in two days it will be the Passover, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to be crucified”.
Jn 2:13 : The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
– The evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke narrate basically the same thing: Jesus took the bread and, after blessing it, gave it to his disciples, saying:
Mt 26,26-28; Mc 14,22-25; Lk 22,19-20 : “Take and eat, this is my body which is given for you”. Then he took the chalice and, after giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying: “This is my Blood of the New Covenant, shed for you”.
Mk 14:1 : Well, in two days would be the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread.
Mk 14:12 : On the first day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover was sacrificed, his disciples asked him: “Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal?”.
Lc 22,1 : The Feast of Unleavened Bread, called Passover, was approaching.
– Paul described the Institution of the Eucharist in a similar way to that of the evangelists, but added the commandment of Jesus: “Do this in memory of me”. “Making memory” is updating, making present what Jesus did in a ritual way at the Last Supper and in a real way on the Cross”. “That supper, therefore, as Jesus celebrated it, was not a fact to end in the past. It was, rather, the first link in a chain of celebrations that would take place in all times and places in Christian communities”. (MISSA understand and participate. Father Luiz Miguel Duarte. Paulus, 2010 –3rd edition, pp.: 12,13). In this way, Jesus gave a new meaning to the Jewish Passover. From now on, for Christians, Easter would mean the passage from the Death of Christ to the Life of his Resurrection, or, in terms of spirituality,
– The religious tradition of Israel at a certain time united the Feast of Unleavened Bread with the Feast of Passover. They were two festivals that evidently did not originate in Israel, but rather from ancient semi-nomadic tribes dedicated to grazing and other sedentary tribes, dedicated to the cultivation of cereals, who celebrated an ancient rite at the beginning of the new harvest. Passover and Unleavened Bread unite in Israel with a new reference point: the liberating gesture of the Lord in favor of his people. Both festivals involve, in their origins, some religious sense: freeing people and cattle from bad influences; the farmers, in turn, hoped that the next harvest would also be freed from all negative influences, such as drought, thieves, fires, etc. “At Passover, according to the Jewish ritual, all leavened bread found in the house was discarded (Ex 12:15), the paschal lamb was sacrificed (Ex 12,6) and unleavened bread was eaten (Ex 12,18-20). Such rites symbolically prepared the Christian mystery: By his sacrifice, Christ, the true Passover Lamb, destroyed the ancient leaven of sin and made possible a holy and pure life, symbolized by unleavened bread”. (Jerusalem Bible Commentaries. Paulus, 2004).
– The Apostle Paul was the first to associate the term Easter with the death and Resurrection of Jesus:
1Cor 5,7-8 : “Purge yourselves from the old leaven so that you may be the new dough, for you are unleavened bread, because Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed. Let us therefore keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and corruption, but with unfermented bread of purity and truth.”
