95. Christ frees us from the slavery of sin.

Christ frees us from the slavery of sin.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 95

Ave Maria series

95  Why did Jesus choose the date of the Jewish feast of Passover for his death and Resurrection?

Jesus chose the Passover feast of his people Israel as a symbol for what was to happen through his death and Resurrection.  As the people Israel were freed from slavery to Egypt, so Christ frees us from the slavery of sin and the power of death.  [571-573]

A lamb holding a Christian banner is a typical symbol for Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). …..95

The Passover was the feast celebrating the liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt.  Jesus went to Jerusalem in order to free us in an even deeper way.  He celebrated the Paschal feast with his disciples.  During this feast, he made himself the sacrificial Lamb.  “For Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7), so as to establish once and for all the definitive reconciliation between God and mankind.  171   

[571-573]

"JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DIED, AND WAS BURIED"

571 The Paschal mystery of Christ's cross and Resurrection stands at the center of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God's saving plan was accomplished "once for all" (Hebrews 9:26)³¹³ by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ.—Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

572 The Church remains faithful to the interpretation of "all the Scriptures" that Jesus gave both before and after his Passover: "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory (Luke 24:26-27, 44-45)?"³¹⁴  Jesus' sufferings took their historical, concrete form from the fact that he was "rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes", who handed "him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified" (Mark 8:31; Matthew 20:19).³¹⁵ —CCC

573 Faith can therefore try to examine the circumstances of Jesus' death, faithfully handed on by the Gospels (Compare Dei Verbum 19)³¹⁶ and illuminated by other historical sources, the better to understand the meaning of the Redemption. --CCC