God the Father sent Jesus into the world and all of his actions are saving, but it is the final events of Jesus’ life that offer salvation and eternal life in Heaven in the most powerful way.
The Paschal Mystery refers mainly to the Suffering, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus followed by his glorious Ascension into Heaven where He sits at the right hand of God the Father.
Paschal comes from the word “Pasch”, how the early Christians referred to Easter. This is the new Passover where Jesus Christ became the Lamb who was sacrificed to save mankind from sin and death.
This redemptive work of the Messiah is beyond human understanding. It is a mystery revealed by God and accepted by Catholics as truth by faith. The Paschal mystery is a core doctrine of the Catholic Church and an essential belief of any Christian.
By his Passion, enduring horrible suffering for the sin of mankind, Jesus shows just how serious human sin is, while revealing the power and intensity of God’s love for the human race at the same time.
Even though God could have saved mankind in some other way, Jesus chose to experience the humiliating and painful death of Crucifixion as a man.
Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead on the third day confirms that He is the Son of God. Those who believe in Him and imitate his love for God the Father and for other people can look forward to their own resurrection when He comes again in glory.
Having ascended into Heaven, Jesus intercedes for mankind and rules over his Kingdom that will never end. Those who acknowledge that Jesus died on the Cross for their sins and live according to his teaching will also ascend to Heaven to live forever.
Because the Paschal Mystery transcends time, Catholics participate in it and receive its saving effects by memorializing the final events in the life of Jesus through the celebration of the sacraments, particularly Baptism and the Eucharist.
This redemptive work of Jesus is celebrated and emphasized in the liturgy every day throughout the year, but especially during Holy Week leading up to Easter.
Key events in the life of Jesus:
Jesus died and rose from the depths of human life:
Jesus’ Suffering is part of God’s plan:
Now I am reminding you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
1 Corinthians 15: 1-5
Jesus shows compassion in his suffering:
The most fitting way for God to redeem mankind:
Swallowing up all of the sin of the world:
Illustrating the gravity of human sin and the intensity of divine love:
But it is the Apostle Paul who, in the second reading, offers us the deepest analysis of the Paschal Mystery: Jesus, “though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant … He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross”. In the austere liturgy of Good Friday we will listen again to these words, which continue: “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Abasement and exaltation: this is the key to understanding the Paschal Mystery; this is the key to penetrating God’s wonderful plan which is fulfilled in the paschal events.
Pope John Paul II, Homily, 16 April 2000
The foundation of Catholic practice and identity:
Experiencing the Paschal Mystery in an unbloody manner:
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
The Old Testament roots of the Paschal Mystery:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Bearing the sins of a guilty world:
Share this page with friends and family to start a conversation about your faith.
Don’t miss a post. Learn more about the Catholic Church and strengthen your Catholic faith.
Find more Fiercely Catholic video issues here.
Subscribe here.
