The Paschal Mystery refers mainly to the Suffering, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus.
Paschal comes from Pasch, how the early Christians referred to Easter, the new Passover.
The Paschal Mystery is a core doctrine of the Catholic Church and an essential belief of any Christian.
This is why God the Father sent Jesus and how the Messiah would save mankind from sin and death.
This redemptive work of Jesus is celebrated and emphasized in the liturgy especially leading up to Easter.
Catholics participate in and receive the saving effects of the Paschal Mystery through the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist.
Jesus shows compassion in his suffering:
Bearing the sins of a guilty world:
In the liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ signifies and makes present. During his earthly life Jesus announced his Paschal mystery by his teaching and anticipated it by his actions. When his Hour comes, He lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father “once for all.” His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death He destroyed death, and all that Christ is – all that He did and suffered for all men – participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1085
Jesus died and rose from the depths of human life:
Jesus’ Suffering is part of God’s plan:
Dear brothers and sisters, the Paschal Mystery which the Holy Triduum enables us to relive is not only the memory of a past reality; it is also a reality in our time. Christ also conquers sin and death today with his love. Evil in all its forms does not have the last word. The final triumph, the triumph of truth and love, is Christ’s!
Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, 4 April, 2007
The foundation of Catholic practice and identity:
Experiencing the Paschal Mystery in an unbloody manner:
For the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1: 18
Swallowing up all of the sin of the world:
The most fitting way for God to redeem mankind:
The Old Testament roots of the Paschal Mystery:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
You are made to be Holy:
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