The True Passover

Magister dicit, tempus meum prope est, apud te facio Pascha cum discipulis meis. Videtur quidem de tempore solemnitatis Paschae dicere; quod tempus non suum tantum, sed omnium erat Judaeorum. Et ideo potius nobis quamvis latenter illud insinuat tempus quod suum proprium esse recognoscit, jamque proximum, quando ad hoc venerat ut pateretur. Et hic est tempus ejus et hora quae venerat: Ut transiret de hoc mundo ad Patrem, quod est verissimum Pascha facere. Sanctus Paschasius Radbertus Corbeiensis, Expositio In Evangelium Matthaei, Lib XII, Cap XXVI Source: Migne PL 120.887b-c

'The Master says, my time is near, with you I shall make the Passover with my disciples.' 1 This seems to speak of the time of the solemnity of the Passover, which time was not His own alone, but it was for all the Jews. And therefore, though in a hidden way, He intimates to us that He recognises that this time is to be His own, and already it is near, when He shall come to it to suffer. And this is His time and the hour which has come: 'That He pass from this world to the Father,' 2 which is to make the true Passover. Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 12, Chap 26 1 Mt 26.18 2 Jn 13.1

Pasch And Sacrament

Interea fit pascha : in occisione agni occiditur Christus, de quo in Evangelio dicitur : Ecce agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi. Vespere immolatur agnus, in vespera mundi passus est Domiinus. Prohibentur qui pascha faciunt ossa frangere; non franguntur in cruce ossa Domini, attestante evangelista, qui ait: Os ejus non comminuctis. Sanguine agni illiniuntur Israelitarum postes, ne vastator angelus adueat inferre perniciem. Signantur signo dominicae passionis in frontibus fideles populi ad tutelam salutis, ut hi soli ab interitu liberentur, qui cruore dominicae passionis corde et fronte signati sunt, qui etiam opere loquuntur: Signatum est super nos lumen vultis tui, Domine. Unde et appelatur ipsa solemnitas Phase, quod nos transitum possumus vocare, eo quod de perjoribus ad meliora pergentes, tenebrosam Aegyptum derelinquimus. Quod autem ait de agni illius est: Omnis alienigena non comedet ex eo, et in una domo comedetur, nec efferetis de carnibus ejus foras, hoc de Christi corporis sacramento, cujus agnus ille figuram obtinuit, proprie tenetur scriptum: cujus corpus et sanguis in una domo, id est, in una Ecclesia vesci praecipitur, nec efferri foras, in plebibus scilicet haereticorum, quae ab eadem Eccelsiae catholicae unitate foris vagantur. Sanctus Isidorus Hispalensis,Mysticorum Expositiones Sacramentorum Seu Quaestiones In Vetus Testamentum, In Exodum, Caput XV Source: Migne PL 83.294d-295b

Meanwhile the Passover is performed 1: in the killing of the lamb is the killing of Christ, concerning which it says in the Gospel: 'Behold the lamb of God, behold he who takes away the sins of the world.' 2 The lamb is sacrificed in the evening, in the evening of the world the Lord suffered. They who perform the Passover are prohibited from breaking a bone; the bones of the Lord were not broken on the cross, as the Evangelist bears witness, who says: 'His bones were not broken.' 3 With the blood of the lamb the door posts of the Israelites are daubed, lest the devastating angel venture to bring ruin. The faithful are signed with the sign of the Lord's passion on their brows for the security of salvation, as only those who are signed with the blood of the Lord's passion in their hearts and on the brow are delivered from ruin, who even it being done, say: 'Sealed on us is the light of your face, O Lord.' 4 Whence this solemnity is named 'Phase' which is what we call 'a passing over', by which passing from the worst to best, we abandon the darkness of the Egyptians. And when it is said, 'No foreigner shall eat of it, and in one house it shall be eaten, and you shall not take the flesh outside,' 5 this concerns the sacrament of the body of Christ, of which the lamb is a figure, and that especially it be held that which is written: 'the body and blood of it be in one house,' that is, it is commanded to be eaten in one Church, not outside, that is, not among the people of the heretics who wander outside the unity of the Catholic Church . Saint Isidore of Seville, Expositions of Sacred Mysteries or Questions on the Old Testament, On Exodus, Chap 15 1 Exod 12 2 Jn 1.29 3 Jn 19.32-33 4 Ps 4.7 5 Exod 12.43-46

A New Life

Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ διολώλασι μὲν τὰ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων πρωτότοκα, σέσωσται δὲ πανοικὶ καὶ διέδρα τὸν ὀλοθρευτὴν ὁ ἠγαπημένος Ἰσραὴλ, τῷ αἵματι τοῦ ἀμνοῦ κατακεχρισμένος ὅσον εἰς τύπον Χριστοῦ τοῦ δι' ἡμᾶς ἐν νεκροῖς, ἵνα καταργήσῃ τὸν θάνατον, ταύτῃτοι δικαίως εἶεν ἂν ἑαυτῶν μὲν οὐκέτι τὰ σεσωσμένα· πρέποι δ' ἂν μᾶλλον αὐτὰ διακεκτῆσθαι λοιπὸν ὡς ἴδια τὸν ὑπὲρ ἑαυτῶν κεκινδυνευκότα. Ὃν γὰρ τρόπον οἱ τοὺς ἤδη γεγονότας ὑποχειρίους βαρβαρικοῖς ἀπαλλάττειν ἰσχύοντες, καὶ τῆς ἀδοκήτως ἐπενεχθείσης δουλείας ἐλευθεροῦν διὰ τοῦ τὴν πρὸς ἐκείνους ἀνατλῆναι μάχην, μονονουχὶ τὴν δεσπότου λοιπὸν ἐπέχουσι τάξιν, αἵματι τῷ ἰδίῳ τοὺς ἁλόντας κατακτώμενοι· κατὰ τὸν ἴσον, οἶμαι, τοῦτον λόγον καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, τὸ τῶν ἀκαθάρτων δαιμόνων καταδήσας στῖφος, καὶ τὸ ἴδιον αἷμα τεθεικὼς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν· ἀποστήσας τε οὕτω τὸν θάνατον, καὶ καταλύσας τὴν φθορὰν, ἰδίους ἡμᾶς ποιεῖται λοιπὸν, ὡς τὴν ἑαυτῶν μὲν οὐκέτι, τὴν αὐτοῦ δὲ μᾶλλον διαζῶντας ζωήν. Εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἀπέθανεν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, οὐκ ἂν διεσώθημεν· καὶ εἰ μὴ γέγονεν ἐν νεκροῖς, οὐκ ἂν τὸ δυσάντητον τοῦ θανάτου κατεσείσθη κράτος. Οὕτω καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Παῦλος μεμυσταγώγηκε, λέγων, τοὺς διὰ Χριστοῦ σεσωσμένους· Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι· ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγώ· ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός. Ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκὶ, ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ  ἀγαπήσαντός με, καὶ δόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ. Ὥσπερ οὗν μονονουχὶ τὴν τοῦ σφαγέντος ἀμνοῦ ζωὴν ἔζων οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ, οὕτω καὶ ἡμεῖς οὐχὶ τὴν ἰδίαν ἔτι ζῶμεν ζωὴν, ἀλλὰ τὴν τοῦ δι' ἡμᾶς ἀποθανόντος Χριστοῦ, εἰ καὶ ἀνεβίω πάλιν. Ζωὴ γὰρ ἦν κατὰ φύσιν, ὡς Θεός. Χρὴ τοίνυν ἡμῶν ἁγίαν εἶναι τὴν ζωήν· τοιαύτη γὰρ ἡ Χριστοῦ. Ἁγίως δὲ ζῇν ᾑρημένοι, τὴν ἀξιάγαστον αὐτοῦ καταπλουτήσομεν εἰκόνα, σύμμορφοί τε γεγονότες τῷ δι' ἡμᾶς καθ' ἡμᾶς, καὶ Μονογενεῖ μὲν ὡς Θεῷ, πρωτοτόκῳ δὲ διὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον, ἱερεῖον ἀνάθεμα καὶ ἀξιόληπτον ἀληθῶς ἐσόμεθα τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρί. Ἅγιος Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας, Γλαφψρων Εἰς Την Ἐξοδον, Βιβλιον Β' Source: Migne PG 69 437

For when the firstborn of the Egyptians perished, He protected each house of his beloved Israel from the exterminator, which was turned aside by the unction of the blood of the lamb, which is a type of Christ for us, who died that He abolish death, by which rightly it be that they no longer consider their salvation for themselves, but rather that they become His who ventured this for them. For as they were liberated from subjection to the power of barbarians and from the shameful servitude which was imposed on them, He guarding them in the way He did against blows in the struggle, it was not that they might take some other lord, but only that by the blood they have their Lord. In this way then, I judge, Christ our Lord, from the profligate crowd of unclean demons, by His own blood poured out for us, with the destruction of death and the abolition of corruption, freed us for Himself, and brought us into His service, lest after we live for ourselves rather than Him. For unless He died for us it is certain that we would never have been saved. Unless He had died for us never would the savage power of death had been conquered. So even the holy Paul instructs us concerning the saving power of Christ: 'I am crucified with Christ, I live now not I, but Christ lives in me. Though I live now in my flesh, in faith I live for the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.' 1 As then the Israelites lived by the sacrifice of the life of the lamb, so we should no longer live our own life, but His, Christ, who died for us, as even He lived again. For life was according to His nature, as God. Therefore our life should be holy, for so was the life of Christ. For striving to live a holy life, we shall be enriched to become an image of Him, being conformed to Him, He who for us, that we be made so, the only begotten of God, was first born according to human nature, that we offer a holy and most acceptable sacrifice to God the Father Saint Cyril of Alexandria, from Glaphrya on Exodus, Book 2 1 Galat 2.19-20