The Paschal Mystery

The Paschal Mystery Section 3: God’s Plan for Salvation Fulfilled

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • The events that are at the heart of the Paschal Mystery are Jesus’ Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension into Heaven. • The body of Christ on the cross, called a corpus, reminds us of Jesus’ death and saving action. • On Good Friday, the church is emptied of all ornamentation to remind us of the emptiness of the world without God and Jesus as the followers of Jesus felt as He hung between Earth and Heaven.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Jesus’ Passion refers to specifically His agony in the garden, His trial, and His crucifixion. • Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on a donkey and was welcomed as a king by the people, who heard of His miracles and works. • The chief priests, who were the overseers of the Temple, plotted to kill Jesus, especially since it was the week of Passover and Jesus was causing a disruption by overthrowing tables of money changers in the temple.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Thursday evening Jesus celebrates the Last Supper, which was a Passover meal, when Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist. • It is at this meal that Jesus is recognized as the Lamb of God, much like the lamb eaten at Passover Seders. • Jesus after goes to that Garden to pray with His apostles, or His closest companions and believers, but not with the usual 12 of them, but rather with 11.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Jesus prays in the Garden and becomes the “new Adam,” by accepting God’s will in the Garden, as opposed to the old Adam who denied God’s will by eating the apple. • Satan also enters Judas and leads the temple guards to where Jesus is and betrays God in the Garden, as he betrayed God with Adam and Eve in the Garden. • Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin, or the ruling body of the Jewish people, and found guilt of blasphemy when He says He is the Messiah.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Since the Jewish people are under Roman rule at the time, only a Roman governor could give the death penalty to a criminal. • The chief priests bring Jesus to Pontius Pilate, and accuse Jesus of being a king and inciting a rebellion against Rome. • Pilate finds Jesus guilt and hands Him over to be crucified, washing his hands clean of Jesus’ death in some Gospel accounts.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Jesus was given a purple cloak to wear and a crown of thorns, to mock His kingship. • He was scourged with a whip made of bone and metal, designed to rip the skin off one’s back and cause pain. • This torture was used by the Roman’s to scare the Jewish people into obedience to their laws and to prevent rebellion.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Jesus is then crucified on a hill called Golgotha, which means “Place of the Skull,” with nails through his wrists and feet. • Crucifixion deaths usually took days to complete with death due to not being able to breathe. • Jesus dies within six hours, probably due to the fact that He lost so much blood from the scourging.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • An eclipse and an earthquake accompany Jesus’ death, as well as the veil of the temple tearing in two pieces, which separates the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. • The tearing of the temple veil shows us that now, through Jesus, all people have access to God, and not just the elite high priests, who were the only ones allowed behind the veil. • Jesus’ body was not left on the cross like others, but was taken down and buried in a tomb.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Both the Jewish and Roman leaders wanted Jesus dead. • The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus dead because Jesus challenged their authority with the common people numerous times. • However, Jesus could not be put to death because of that, so they accused Jesus of blaspheming and saying He had powers, such as to forgive sins, that only God could possess.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Pontius Pilate, the procurator, or governor, had an allegiance to send tax money back to Rome from the area he controlled. • He set up puppet rulers under him, like King Herod, to keep the Jewish people in check with one of their own people. • Jesus was crucified by Pontius Pilate because he was a threat to the peace in Jerusalem, according to the high priests.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Jesus’ death is described in three metaphors in different letters of the New Testament: • Jesus, the Suffering Servant • Jesus, the Paschal Lamb • Jesus, the Ransom for Many

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • Jesus, the suffering servant, who washed the feet of the apostles at the Last Supper, serves us salvation by his death, teaching us that it is through service to others that we imitate him. • Jesus, the paschal lamb, was killed at the same time the lambs were being slaughtered in the temple for the Jewish Passover Meal. Paschal literally means Passover. • Jesus, the ransom for many, pays the price for our sins to deliver us from death by His death.

Part 1: The Suffering and Death of Jesus • God allowed His only Son to die for us because it was in this victory over death that Satan was defeated. • Satan, in the Garden of Eden, brought sin and death to the world. Jesus, through His death, ended the reign of sin and reunited us to God. • Jesus was not forced by the Father either; Jesus freely accepted the paschal mystery so as to redeem you and me from our own death.

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • The Resurrection and Incarnation are closely related in the sense that the Resurrection proved that Jesus was truly man and truly God, the only human to be raised from the dead, body and soul. • First women, then men, go to the tomb of Jesus. • An angel tells the women Jesus has been raised from the dead. • Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene. • Jesus then appears to the apostles and other disciples.

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • We can believe the Resurrection to be a historical event because: • The New Testament text can be traced backed centuries to Jesus’ time and the early beginnings of the Church • Early Christians preached this core belief of the faith and it is spoken of throughout the New Testament • The tomb was emptyand the apostles, who could have stolen the body to make it appear Jesus was raised, died for their faith in the Resurrection, so why would they die for a lie? • The apostles changed from sad and distraught after Jesus’ death to all of a sudden preaching that Jesus was raised; their change in attitude to even face death for their faith is testimony itself to the Resurrection of Christ.

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • The Resurrected body of Jesus was similar, yet not the same to what He looked like before. • People did not recognize him at first, but then they did, such as when He broke bread with them and ate. • Gnosticism is a movement that teaches only the elite are exposed to secret knowledge that brings about salvation (this is heretical). • Gnostics feel the soul is good and the body bad, so they said there was no bodily Resurrection of Christ.

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • Jesus appeared, body and spirit, to over 500 believers, making this an objective event, and not subjective. • St. Paul says that if we deny Christ’s Resurrection, than we deny our own future resurrection. • St. Paul says our seeds are like bodies. A seed must be buried, like our bodies when we die. However, like the Resurrection, from our bodies something new comes forth, transformed, that looks nothing like the seed, and that is our own resurrection.

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • In the Resurrection, the following truths are revealed: • Jesus is the true Son of God, who was raised by His Father as the first fruit of our own resurrection • All Jesus’ teachings are true, because in the Resurrection of Christ, we see Christ’s true divine nature

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • Jesus death liberated us from sin; His Resurrection opens up the gates for us to eternal life with Him in Heaven. • Exegesis is the study and interpretation of divine Scripture. • Jesus, before ascending to Heaven, taught his disciples proper exegesis of Scripture in relation to His own life, death, and Resurrection and then commissioned them to make disciples of all the world.

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • After Jesus died, He descended into Hell to save all those who died before he did who were righteous in their life. • Sheol is the Hebrew word for Hell, which is the place where God is absent. • Heaven was closed after Adam and Eve fell from the Garden, so all who died after them and before Christ went to Sheol, until Jesus went there after His own death and brought them to Heaven.

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • Christ ascended into Heaven forty days after His Resurrection. • The Ascension is when Christ took His seat at the right hand of the Father in Heaven to receive eternal glory. • It is an event that cannot be described in human language since Christ left this world and went into another, a world that we cannot see, yet believe in.

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • In the Incarnation, God came down from Heaven and became man. • In the Ascension, God left this human world and went back to Heaven, but He took His human body with Him, meaning Jesus is true God and true Man for all eternity. • Jesus’ Ascension implies three things: • Jesus Christ has authority over Heaven, Earth, and Hell • All humanity has the possibility to get into Heaven • Jesus is more present to us now in Heaven than on Earth

Part 2: The resurrection and ascension of Jesus • Jesus sent out His Holy Spirit to guide the Church on its mission throughout history, linking forever the Son and the Spirit as one. • Whether the Son is, there is the Spirit, and the Spirit, the Son. • Jesus is no longer limited to time and space as He was on Earth; through His Ascension, he is with all of us always, even if we cannot understand how, in the Holy Eucharist, in Scripture, in prayer, and right next to you and me now.

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • Saint Augustine said that in the Paschal Mystery, Christ saved us from something and saved us for something… • Christ saved us from sin and its consequences, which are: • Guilt and shame caused by sin • Loneliness, despair, and the feeling of not being loved from knowing we did something wrong • Addictions and attachments to things that may fill the void when we did something wrong and lost something • Death

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • We should not focus primarily on what Jesus saved us from, for He saved us for more important things. • Jesus saved us for: • Forgiveness and healing of venial, or minor sins and from mortal, or serious, sins • Freedom from fear of punishment for sins • Joy • Loving communion with God so we can see the beatific vision, or a direct encounter with God • Eternal life

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • All salvation comes from Jesus, who is the head, to us, who is His body. • In Baptism, original sin is wiped away and we become a new creation in God and for God. • Even so, temptation and weakness of control surrounds us, and we sin, can concupiscence. • For that reason, we are in an in-between state, between Heavenly glory and original sin.

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • At Baptism, we receive sanctifying grace to help us along the journey to Heaven that makes us holy and strive to achieve theological virtues, which are faith, hope, and love. • Theological virtues allow us to know God and unite our minds with His. • The Sacraments aid us on our way to eternal glory in Heaven.

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • We are judged by others all the time on how we look, what we wear, etc. • However, the only judgment that we should be concerned about is the final judgment God makes of our lives. • We all will face two judgments, which are: • Our own particular judgment • The final judgment

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • Christ’s second coming, also know as Parousia, is the beginning of the Final Judgment. • Those who accepted God’s grace and acted as He taught will receive His kingdom, and those who acted otherwise will be turned away. • The Shepherd, Jesus, will separate the goats from the lambs, and the lambs He will take with Him, and the rams sent to eternal damnation. • Those called to Heaven will be transformed, like the Resurrection, and be united in Christ.

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • Christ does not want us to fear the Final Judgment, nor the end of time. • It could happen tomorrow, next year, in 100 years, or right now. • No one except God knows when the Son of Man will return, seated in the clouds of Heaven. • Death is not the end; it is the start of a new and glorious beginning with God, our Creator, who will call us all home one day.

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • Heaven is a state of eternal union with God in which one experiences complete happiness and satisfaction of the deepest human longings. • Heaven is not bound by time or space, and neither is Hell, like we think of them as one is up, the other is down. • Hell is the eternal punishment of separation from God, reserved for those who die in mortal sin and do not repent, thus rejecting God freely at the end of their lives.

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny • The principal torture of Hell is not burning alive as in popular culture; it is being totally separated from God. • Purgatory is a state of final penance and purification which one may need after death before going into Heaven. • Souls go to purgatory when they are neither a perfect saint or a perfect sinner; yet once the soul is purified, it will enter Heaven.

Part 3: Redeemed by Christ: our eternal destiny

The Paschal Mystery