Friday, July 21, 2023 – 15th week in ordinary time, also feast of St Lawrence of Brindisi
Ex 11:10-12:14; Ps 116:12-13, 15 and 16bc, 17-18; Mt12-1-8
We need to pay close attention to today’s reading from the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. It is where God prescribes the method the Israelites will celebrate the feast of the Passover for all times to come. God is preparing them to flee their oppression, and while they may not know it yet, this will be a practice for the night they are to flee. It is also time for all of us to take notice, and prepare, for our own exodus. For the world is changing and we will need to prepare for what is coming next.
The plight of the Israelites in Egypt is something that all of us should study, learn and understand how God was with them throughout all the times of their history. How God’s plan for the salvation of the Israelites is also God’s plan for our own salvation. God needed to make a statement, and He will do so on that night, to convince Pharaoh to let His people go; by taking Pharaoh’s only son away from him. Only by doing so will it procure the freedom of God’s children from oppression. Then, by the symbol of a pure unblemished lamb’s blood, spread over their doors, the destructive blow from God will pass over them and they will be set free. This is the promise God made to them. Our Jewish friends celebrate this feast every year, the feast of the Passover, to commemorate the time the Lord freed them from persecution and oppression.
If you read the book we were given during Lent this year called, “Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist,” you would immediately recognize the importance of the Passover meal. This is where Jesus’ passion begins, at the Passover meal. On Holy Thursday, we begin our remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection at the Last Supper, and we spend the next two days continuing to go through His passion and death, until it culminates at the Easter Vigil on Saturday night. It is also, at the Passover meal, where Jesus instituted the Eucharist, “This is my body” and, “This is my blood.” Brant Pitre describes throughout that whole book the message of Christ’s passion starting with the Last Supper, or the Passover meal. If you have not read the book, I urge you to find it and read it.
As you read the book, you will find that you can look back and see the parallels of our own Savior, Jesus Christ, throughout all Jewish history. How God gave up His own son, the unblemished Lamb, to free us from our own persecution and oppression by sin. To allow us to escape that torment and become free. We commemorate it every time we go to Mass and re-live the passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. A time for us to girt our loins and mark ourselves with the body and blood of Christ by participating in the Eucharistic celebration and receiving Jesus in us. Just like our Jewish friends, we too need to remember our Savior, the one who gave everything for us and shed His blood so as to free us for all eternity.
As Jesus tells the Pharisees, something greater than the temple is here. Now is our time to see what that is, to receive the mercy and grace God wants us to have. The final sacrifice has been given, for the Lord is here. Take heed and remember, not only what the Israelites did during the Passover, but what Jesus did for us and for our salvation. Study it, learn from it and remember it every time we go to Mass.
Saint James Catholic Church 