The Paschal Mystery – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; April 5, 2026

They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him. The tomb is empty; Jesus is not there; he has risen; he is alive. He is not in the empty tomb, but he is here today; he comes in the Holy Eucharist, with the power of his grace and mercy.

On Palm Sunday, introducing the blessing of the palms, the priest says, “Today we gather together to herald with the whole Church the beginning of the celebration of our Lord’s Paschal Mystery, that is to say, of his Passion and Resurrection.” Palm Sunday heralds the beginning of the celebration; Easter, through its fifty days, brings in the completion and the fullness of the celebration of our Lord’s Paschal Mystery.

Well, the words of introduction do us the favor of identifying the “Paschal Mystery” with our Lord’s death and resurrection, but what is this mysterious word “paschal” all about, and why is it used to refer to our Lord’s death and resurrection? And why is this important for understanding Easter? Well, “Easter” is another strange word, but we are so used to it that we hardly even wonder about the word’s meaning.

If you look up the etymology of “Easter,” you will likely come upon an Old English name for a pagan goddess of spring. What is missed is the relation between the name of the so-called goddess and the direction “East”, which has its origin in the rising of the sun.

The rising of the sun, or the dawn, has two very important biblical references, one in the Old Testament and the other in the New Testament, that explain how it became deeply rooted in Christian tradition as a sign of Christ in his coming. The traditional direction of Christian prayer is not towards Jerusalem, as with the Jews, or towards Mecca, as with the Muslims, but towards the East.

The first passage is from the prophet Malachi, through whom God says, For you who fear my name, the sun of justice shall rise, with healing in his wings. (Mal 4:2) The second is from the Gospel according to Luke, who records the praise of Zechariah on the birth of his son, St. John the Baptist, speaking of the One, whom St. John will later announce, but who is already present, hidden in the womb of the Virgin: through tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Lk 1:78-79)

When God created the world, he made it so that the sun would rise in the east as a sign of Jesus Christ, “the sun of justice” and the “dawn from on high”, risen from the dead and coming in glory.

That is why “Easter” in English was fittingly adapted to speak of the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. It is not, however, the traditional Christian usage in which the Gospel was first proclaimed in the Roman Empire. The English came a bit late to the game. The ancient word used in both Greek and Latin was “Pascha”. “Paschal” simply means “relative to or belonging to the ‘Pascha’.”

So now we need to solve the mystery of the meaning of the word “Pascha”. If we spoke French, we would say, “les Pâques” and might notice that the Jews also celebrate “les Pâques”; if we spoke Spanish, we would say, “Pascua” and we might notice that the Jews also celebrate “Pascua”. Though the Jewish and Christian “Pascua” are different, they are related.

The root of the word is the Hebrew “Pesach”, which translates into English as “Passover”! The Jewish Passover commemorates the angel of death passing over the houses of the Israelites, marked by the blood of the lamb; Jesus, shedding his Blood as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, “passes over” from this world to the Father, (cf. Jn 13:1) through his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. He thereby gives us the power to pass through the waters of baptism, as through the Red Sea, to our salvation.  

Easter is the Christian Passover and, if you carefully read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, you might notice that it brings out this profound connection.

We could simply speak about our Lord’s death and resurrection, but by speaking of it as his Paschal or Passover mystery, we speak of the meaning of the event.

The beauty of the expression consists in its powerful synthesis, drawing many things into one.  The Paschal Mystery speaks of Jesus’ redemptive work, accomplished through his death and resurrection, as the fulfillment of the central saving event of the Old Testament, which in turn is manifested in the Church’s liturgy even more powerfully than the commemoration of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. The simple expression brings together the ancient history of Israel’s deliverance, Jesus’s salvific work, and the liturgy of the Church, all as defining the life of the Christian. The Paschal Mystery speaks of Jesus’ death and resurrection as at once the fulfillment of what went before and the promise of what is to come.

Through his Paschal Mystery, Jesus, the true Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, frees us from the slavery of sin and death, as the people of Israel were saved from slavery in Egypt through the blood of lambs smeared on their doorposts.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of the central role of the Paschal Mystery in relation to the liturgy in this way:

“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.” (CCC 1085, emphasis added)

What does it mean that Christ’s death and resurrection are the unique events of history that do not pass away?

First, the Paschal Mystery is viewed not just as Christ’s death, but as a unity, as a whole: Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. His suffering and death are contained, in a way, in their completion in his resurrection and ascension. He entered in the Holy Place, taking his own blood … thus securing an eternal redemption. (He 9:12) He does not continue to suffer, but he continues to carry his wounds, the trophies of his suffering, transformed and glorious. Seated at the right hand of the Father, he forever displays those glorious wounds, something like the continuous offering of his once-for-all sacrifice. He lives always to make intercession for us. (He 7:25)

Second, the Paschal mystery truly shares in God’s eternity not because of any continuation of the event, but because the One who suffered, died, and rose again from the dead is the eternal Son of God. What this perspective brings to the fore is the agency of the divine person, working for our salvation, through his sacred humanity, in which he suffered, died, and rose again from the dead. Jesus Christ is both victim and priest. As a victim, he is offered; as a priest, he offers. As a victim, he is passive; as a priest, he is active. The one who acts is the divine person, the Son of God.

Salvation requires our being freely subject to the salvific action of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen; it requires being united to the Paschal Mystery, which normally takes place through baptism. He who believes and is baptized will be saved. (Mk 16:16)

Finally, all the transforming and life-giving power of what Jesus did for us through the Paschal Mystery of his Cross and Resurrection touches us here and now in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Here we find that the tomb is empty; here Christ, risen from the dead, would enter the inner room of our hearts, saying, Peace be with you.

The transforming and life-giving power touches us here and now in order to prepare us for the eternal Paschal banquet of heaven.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!