Day 81: Christ's Paschal Mystery

The Paschal mystery of Christ's cross and Resurrection stands at the center of the Good News that the apostles, and the Church following them, are to proclaim to the world. God's saving plan was accomplished "once for all" by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ. CCC 571

In today's reading, the Catechism begins by looking at the mystery of Christ's redemptive act on the cross. Being fully man and fully God, He is the only Lamb of God that could make such a perfect and loving sacrifice for our salvation (1 Cor 5:7; 1 Pet 1:19). Everything in His life on earth, including His teaching, is aimed toward that redemptive act. St. John's Gospel tells us that "salvation is from the Jews" (Jn 4:22) and as the Catechism Companion, Vol I notes:

The entire Old Testament is the story of how God lovingly and faithfully chose the Jewish people as his own, as his firstborn, and how he entered into a covenant with them in a powerful way. (p. 166)

Jesus as Lord and Messiah is the fulfillment of all their hopes and the promises made to them so long ago. Sadly though, the Jewish religious leaders of the time did not recognize Who Jesus Is, thinking instead that He was "possessed and out of his mind" (Jn 10:20). For this reason, while not all of them sought His blood (Lk 13:31), enough of them did, including the most important ones among the leadership (Mk 14:1).

The ending of today's reading gives us the reason why so many opposed Him:

In the eyes of many in Israel, Jesus seems to be acting against essential institutions of the Chosen People: - submission to the whole of the Law in its written commandments and, for the Pharisees, in the interpretation of oral tradition; - the centrality of the Temple at Jerusalem as the holy place where God's presence dwells in a special way; - faith in the one God whose glory no man can share. CCC 576