Creed death resurrection

JESUS CHRIST SUFFERED UNDER

PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DIED AND

WAS BURIED.

What is the Paschal Mystery?

• The most important part of the Gospel. Easter!

• Our Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are passion narratives with introductions.

• In short form the Paschal mystery involves two aspects the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

Paschal mystery is understood as Christ’s

• passion,

• crucifixion,

• death,

• burial,

• descent into hell,

• Resurrection,

• and Ascension.

What is the Paschal Mystery?

Christ’s Death (CCC 599-623) liberates us from sin.

Christ’s Resurrection (CCC 638-58) opens for us the way to new life.

Christ’s death is closely related to three sacrifices in the Old Testament

1. The sacrifice of the Covenant (Ex 24:4-8).

2. The sacrifice of the Passover Lamb (Ex 12:1-14, 21-27, 46-47).

3. The sacrifice of the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:1-34).

1. Sacrifice of the Covenant (Exodus 24:4)

• Jesus’ words spoken over the chalice, calling his blood the “blood of the covenant” (Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Luke 22:20).

• St. Paul refers to the same Tradition “This chalice is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Cor 11:23-27).

2. The Sacrifice of the Passover Lamb (Exodus 12)• John the Baptist refers to

Jesus, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29).

• In John’s Gospel the soldiers “came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs” (Jn 19:33-36) fulfilling the regulations that “not a bone be broken” of the Passover lamb (Ex 12:46; Num 9:12).

• The imagery of the book of Revelation is evocative of the Passover lamb.

• St Paul exhorts; “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Cor 5:7).

3. The Sacrifice for the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16)• The Letter to the Hebrew’s

(9:1-17) explicitly compares sacrifice on the Day of Atonement with Christ’s death and entry into the sanctuary.

• St John calls Christ’s sacrifice “an expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 2:2; 4:10) and says we are cleansed by his blood (1 Jn 1:7).

• St. Paul calls Jesus redemption as “an expiation by his blood” (Rom 3:23).

The Mystic Lamb by Jan van EyckThe Lamb of Sacrifice, abiding forever, surrounded by the instruments of the

Passion and the saints gathered in heaven, the fruits of the atonement.

Prefiguring the Paschal Mystery in Scripture

The Proto-Gospel (Gen 3:15)– The seed of the woman will

crush the head of the serpent, who will bruise his heal.

– “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”

The Sacrifice of Isaac on Mt Moriah (Gen 22, cf. 2 Chron 3)

• “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

• Mount Moria becomes the site of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Passover Lamb (Ex 12)

• Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old; you shall take it from the sheep or from the goats. . . In this manner you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's passover.

• “The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of ‘the righteous one, my Servant’ as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the slavery of sin” (CCC 601).

• [Isa 53:11; cf. 53:12; Jn 8:34-36; Acts 3:14]

• The Paschal Mystery entails the

following aspects: Christ’s passion,

crucifixion, death, burial, descent into

hell, resurrection and ascension

(CCC 512) which we have grouped

into five stages:

What were the events of the Passion?

What were the events of the Passion?

Gethsemane

The Last Supper

The carrying of the cross

Scourging

“Ecce, homo!”

Crucifixion

Crowning with thorns Trial

Triumphal entry Laying in the tomb

The Paschal Mystery

1. Passion and Crucifixion: The suffering of Christ prior to His Death.

2. Death: The separation of Christ’s human soul from His body. “By his death, Christ liberates us from sin” (CCC 654).

3. Descent into Hell: The “Harrowing of Hell” in which Christ descended into the realm of the dead to free the souls of the just and lead them to eternal life. (CCC 633)

The Paschal Mystery

4. Resurrection: The reunification of Christ’s human soul with His body (which was now glorified). “By his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, ‘so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.’ (Rom 6:4; cf. 4:25) (CCC 654).

The Paschal Mystery

Exploring the Paschal Mystery

Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ

• “Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God’s plan.” (CCC 599)

Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ

• Jesus freely chose to die– He had power to lay down His life and take it

up again (Jn 10:18)– We must be careful not to blame the

individuals (Judas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate) for their personal sin which is known to God alone or the Jew’s collectively for the passion and Crucifixion.

Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ

• The Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus' death (CCC 597)

• The Church does not hesitate to impute to Christians the gravest responsibility for the torments inflicted upon Jesus (CCC 589)

Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ

• Offered Himself to the Father– Ultimate sacrifice to God (“for the sins of the

whole world” 1 Jn 2:2)– “From the first moment of his Incarnation the

Son embraces the Father’s plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission” (CCC 606)

– The death of Christ is the purpose of the Incarnation

– Acting out of love “Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death”(CCC 609)

Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ

• Sacrifice: redeems man from sin– Both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes

the definitive redemption of men, and the sacrifice of the New Covenant (CCC 613)

– “Completes and surpasses all other sacrifices” (CCC 614)

– Accomplished through obedience (opposed to Adam’s disobedience)• Obedience unto death

Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ

• Buried– 3 days to demonstrate truly dead (not rise right

away)– No corruption (3 days considered the time

when corruption began)• “During Christ's period in the tomb, his divine

person continued to assume both his soul and his body, although they were separated from each other by death. For this reason the dead Christ's body ‘saw no corruption’” (Acts 13:37). (CCC630)

The Descent into Hell

• “By the expression "He descended into hell", the Apostles' Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil "who has the power of death" (Heb 2:14).” (CCC 636)

The Descent into Hell

• “In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven's gates for the just who had gone before him.” (CCC 637)

The Descent into Hell

• Opened the gates of heaven: did not deliver the damned or the demons but freed the just souls who could not be reconciled with God until Christ.

• (CCC 633)

The Resurrection (Opening Way to Eternal Life)

The Resurrection

• The Church teaches that Christ’s Resurrection is an historical reality– “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching

is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14)

• Empty Tomb: Not itself definitive proof of the Resurrection (could be explained otherwise), but the “first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection” (CCC 640)

Appearances of Risen Christ

• Mary Magdalene and holy women (Mk 16:1; Lk 24:1; Jn 19:31, 42)

• Peter (1 Cor 15:5-8)• The Twelve• Over 500 brethren

together• James• All the Apostles

Faith is born “from their direct experience of the reality of the risen Jesus” (CCC 644)• Only in seeing Him, seeing Him speak,

seeing Him eat, even touching Him do they believe

Resurrection

1. Not resuscitated (like Lazarus): just a return to ordinary earthly life, but glorified: “he shares the divine life in his glorious state” (CCC 646)

2. Will not die again!

3. Truly a body (touches Apostles and eats with them)

4. The same body (marks of the Passion and Crucifixion)

5. New properties (not limited by space and time)

Condition of Christ’s Resurrected Body

• The Resurrection is the Work of the Trinity

• Jesus is raised from the dead by the three divine persons of the Trinity who act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics.

• The Scripture mention the action of all three persons of the Trinity. Cf. CCC 648

Work of the Trinity

Work of the Trinity

Detail: Holy Trinity with Mary Magdalene, St John the Baptist and Tobias and the Angel by Botticelli

The Paschal Mystery Accomplishes the 4 Purposes of the Incarnation

1. The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God.

2. Shows us God’s love.

3. Models true human holiness

4. Makes us partakers in

the divine nature