Observance of Holy Week
by Jim Bemis
This week's commencement of Passover is closely followed by the celebration of Holy Thursday, the remembrance of the Last Supper, traditionally the beginning of Easter observances. The coincidence of these religious ceremonies invites reflection on the strong bonds between the Jewish and Christian religions.
As Pope John Paul II observed, the Jewish people are the "older brothers" of Christians, and their traditions make up a vital part of our common history and culture. You cannot understand the Christian religion without first understanding the essential role that Judaism played in its founding.
Passover commemorates the Israelites' flight from Egypt to the Promised Land. God commanded Moses and Aaron to prepare their people for escape by sacrificing an unblemished, male lamb, marking the side and upper doorposts of each house with its blood. After offering a share to the Lord, the Israelites were then to eat the lamb, along with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
This was the Israelites' last meal in Egypt before their redemption from slavery. That night, an angel executed judgment by killing all the firstborn of Egypt, "passing over" only those houses with the Lamb of God's blood on its doors.
One of the most important covenants of the Jewish people is recounting each year their exodus to freedom, handing down the story from generation to generation. This exchange takes place at the dinner table in the beautiful Seder ceremony, fulfilling the biblical command that the history of Passover perpetually be retold.
At the Seder, foods symbolize the Israelites' experience: lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs, parsley and an egg (suggesting the renewal of life), and salt water, representing the slaves' tears. The Haggadah, or "telling," is read together, teaching the Passover story through parables, songs, legends, and psalms.
Passover prefigures the Easter celebration. Catholics, too, believe they are saved by the unblemished, sinless Lamb of God in the paschal (Greek for "passover") sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose body is given up as an offering to God and is shared by the people in the Eucharist. As in the Passover, the appearance of the blood of this Lamb is a sign of redemption.
As the Seder honors the Israelites' last meal in Egypt, the Eucharistic sacrifice commemorates Christ's Last Supper. The passion of His death on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday forms the central drama of Christianity, and, like the Passover story, is retold and reenacted by generation after generation.
Further, both Passover and Easter are celebrated in memory of deliverance: as do their Jewish brethren, Christians believe the Lord leads them out of slavery. For Christians, Easter delivers the faithful from the bondage of sin into the Promised Land of grace, from darkness into light, from death to everlasting life.
James Bemis is an editorial board member, weekly columnist and film critic for California Political Review. He is also a columnist for the Internet website Catholic Exchange and served for years as a columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. He is a frequent contributor to The Wanderer, the oldest weekly national Catholic newspaper. Mr. Bemis' work has appeared in National Catholic Register, Catholic Faith & Family, Catholic Digest, Thomas Aquinas College Newsletter, The Wanderer Forum Focus, the Los Angeles Times, the Ventura County Star, and the Simi Valley Enterprise. His five-part series, "Through the Eyes of the Church," on the Vatican's list of the 45 Most Important Films in the Century of Cinema, was published in The Wanderer. Mr. Bemis is currently writing a book on Catholic art, literature and film.
