The Paschal mystery is central to Catholic faith and theology relating to the history of salvation. According to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "The Paschal Mystery of Jesus, which comprises his passion, death, resurrection, and glorification, stands at the center of the Christian faith because God's saving plan was accomplished once for all by the redemptive death of himself as Jesus Christ."
Catholic Church, Anglican, Lutheranism, and Orthodox Christian churches celebrate this mystery during Holy Week and Easter. It is recalled and celebrated also during every Eucharist,[Louis Bouyer, (1951) The Paschal Mystery, pp. 41 and 50] and especially on a Sunday, which according to Catholicism is the Pascha of the week.[John Paul II, "Dies Domini" 3, (1998), see the text on-line: APOSTOLIC LETTER DIES DOMINI. Access date:2012-03-12]
Background
According to the Book of Exodus, God commanded
Moses to tell the
Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors in order that the Angel of Death would pass over them. Paschal refers to the passage of God's destroying angel on the night of Passover. The angel "passed over" the houses of the Israelites but killed the firstborn child in the houses of the Egyptians.
[Pierre Émile Bonnard OP, (1988) Passover, in: Dictionary of Biblical Theology, p. 407]
Catholicism says that a sacred mysteries is a divine mystery which cannot be grasped by mere human reasoning and can only be Revelation by God through grace.[Cf. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius (24.04.1870), ch.2 De revelatione, Denzinger-Shönmetzer (DS, 36 ed.) 3005; cf. 3876; Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei verbum, 2-6.][Karl Rahner, Mystery, in: Sacramentum Mundi, vol. 4, p. 133.]
Patristic spiritual and theological aspects
The first known use of the term
Paschal mystery (literally
Mystery of the Pascha) was found in the homily of Melito of Sardis
Peri Pascha written between A.D. 160 and 170:
[Cantalamessa R. OFMCap, (1993) in: Easter in the Early Church, p. 41, endnote d. Cf. Eph3:4; Col 4:3.]
According to Raniero Cantalamessa, the
Patristics interpretation of the paschal mystery in its major facets and constituent dimensions may be summarized in four points:
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History. Historical events form the foundation for the Paschal mystery and are commemorated in the paschal liturgy of Easter
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Sacraments and mystagogy. Historical events of the death and resurrection of Christ are realized in the believer as passage from death to life. Primarily, it is achieved in baptism and the Eucharist, but the paschal solemnity of Easter taken as a whole is itself a sacrament, the paschal sacramentum.
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Moral and spiritual life. Pascha (or Easter) is a transitus – detachment from evil, conversion to good, and progress in spiritual life, until the final transitus to the Kingdom of God.
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Eschatology. In the early years of the Church Paschal mystery was celebrated with a vivid expectation of the coming of Christ. Gradually Christian communities have come to focus on the presence of Christ in the Church as liturgical anticipation of the parousia. Paschal eschatology has also individual dimension as eagerness for the heavenly Pascha. Paschal mystery becomes a pledge of eternal life.
[Cantalamessa R. OFMCap, (1993) Introduction, in: Easter in the Early Church, p. 2-3.]
Catholic teaching
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, states that "The Paschal Mystery of Jesus, which comprises his passion, death, resurrection, and glorification, stands at the center of the Christian faith because God's saving plan was accomplished once for all by the redemptive death of his Son Jesus Christ."
The Second Vatican Council
According to Pope Benedict XVI, the most important and essential message of the council is "the Paschal Mystery as the center of what it is to be Christian and therefore of the Christian life, the Christian year, the Christian seasons".
The term
Mysterium paschale was used repeatedly during Second Vatican Council (1963–65) as a meaningful designation of the Christian redemption proclaimed and now accomplished in the
liturgy. Council Fathers endorsed the fruit of the work of scholars of the Liturgical Movement, specifically
Odo Casel and the whole Maria Laach Abbey. The term
mystery of salvation made its way to the Council documents not without some opposition or misunderstanding. Some fathers expressed doubts saying that it was a vague and chimeric idea, its orthodoxy was dubious, and that it was ignored by sound
theology. Eventually the Council decided to confirm the importance of the term. It is reflected especially in the Constitution on the liturgy
Sacrosanctum Concilium.
[Louis Bouyer (1965), The Liturgy Revived. A Doctrinal Commentary of the Conciliar Constitution on the Liturgy, pp.11-12][Füglister, Notker, (1969) Passover, in: Sacramentum Mundi, vol. 4, p. 353] In the very beginning of 1st chapter, where the Council document speaks about
restoration and promotion of the liturgy,
paschal mystery is shown as the way
Jesus Christ has redeemed mankind:
Post-Conciliar magisterial documents
After Second Vatican Council the term
Paschal mystery has been used by Catholic Church
Magisterium as one of basic concepts of
Christian faith and life.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "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 describing the sacramental system of the church or the sacramental economy, the Catechism dedicates one chapter on the Paschal mystery in the Age of the Church. It teaches that "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)
It also said that "The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; 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.'Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren." (CCC 654)
In 1992 letter Communionis notio of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the about the Church understood as communion, paschal mystery is described as the means by which God's initiative was carried out to bring to disciples of Christ and, indeed, to the whole of mankind the gift of Koinonia.[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Communionis notio 3. Access date 2012-03-10.]
John Paul II in his letter on keeping the Lord's day holy wrote that to celebrate Sunday is to make present the graces of the Paschal mystery, which is the climax of the salvation history:
The document called Instrumentum Laboris, issued before the Synod on the Eucharist (2005), spoke about perception of the Eucharistic mystery among the faithful. In many developed countries Christians fail to see the Eucharist as a celebration of the paschal mystery. They tend to perceive it as simply the fulfilment of a Sunday obligation and a meal of fellowship. The paschal mystery, celebrated in an unbloody manner on the altar, is much more a source of spiritual strength to those Christians who live in the situation of suffering, wars, and natural disasters etc.[Synod of Bishops, XI Ordinary General Assembly, The Eucharist: source and summit of the life and mission of the church – "Instrumentum Laboris" 33. Access date: 2012-03-10.]
During the 2005 Synod, Pope Benedict XVI and bishops emphasised the need for the faithful to enter more deeply into the mystery being celebrated. They called for a process of mystagogy, i.e. initiation into the mystery of Salvation. According to the Pope's exhortation published after the Synod, initiation into the mystery of the liturgy should respect three elements:
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Interpretation of the events of Jesus' life, and the Paschal mystery in particular, in relation to the entire history of the Old Testament.
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Introduction into the meaning of the signs and gestures of the rites. In a highly technological age people no longer understand them.
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Safeguarding the impact celebration of the rites should have on Christian life in all its dimensions – work and responsibility, thoughts and emotions, activity and repose.
[Benedict XVI, Post-synodal apostolic exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis" 64. Access date: 2012-03-10]
Pope called for new communities and movements to assist in the practical realisation of that programme in :
Among the new communities of consecrated life which contribute to the Christian formation there are e.g. Community of St. John, Community of the Lamb, Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem and others. The Pope spoke also about new movements and groups working in the field of Christian formation. Among internationally active there are e.g. Charismatic Renewal, Communion and Liberation, Community of the Beatitudes, Community of the Chemin Neuf, Community of Sant'Egidio, Emmanuel Community, Focolare Movement, Neocatechumenal Way, Opus Dei, etc. These communities, movements and groups have emerged in the 20th century on the grounds of Second Vatican Council's renewal of the Church.
Paschal mystery and the traditionalists
The concept of the paschal mystery is criticised by the traditionalists. According to the address of the Superior of the Society of St. Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay (2001),
the theology of the "paschal mystery" minimizes the mystery of the Redemption, because it considers the sacrament only in its relation with the "mystery", and because the conception that it makes of the "memorial" alters the sacrificial dimension of the Mass and as a consequence it
renders the post-Conciliar Liturgy dangerously distant from Catholic doctrine.
[Cf. Bishop Bernard Fellay, The Problem of the Liturgical Reform – A Theological and Liturgical Study, Kansas City: Angelus Press, 2001.] Card. Joseph Ratzinger and Fr. Jonathan Robinson CO of the
Toronto Oratory assert that the traditionalists put themselves in a false position, overlooking the fact that the Vatican II's teaching about this issue restored a profoundly traditional doctrine, central to Christian thought and experience.
[Cf. , cf. Louis Bouyer, The Paschal Mystery, in: Dictionary of Theology, trans. rev. Charles Underhill Quinn, New York: Desclee, 1965.]
Protestant view
The Protestant view of grace and salvation was strongly influenced by the
nominalism of William Ockham's razor. In
Martin Luther's opinion Ockham was the only
Scholasticism whose teaching was worth studying.
[Louis Bouyer, The spirit and forms of protestantism, p. 186-188] Rejection of traditional
Metaphysics, and especially the universals, paved the way to modern
empiricism.
[Gilson, É., History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages, p.499] In this nominalistic Protestant view of relationship between God and creation, the mystery of God becomes utterly unattainable for human reason, even if it is illumined by
Christian faith. While traditional understanding of the mystery of faith is that the Divine
revelation can use human word, somehow assimilating the Word of God, to initiate man into the mystery of the divine life, according to
Louis Bouyer, the Protestant view excludes such approach. Revelation of the mystery of salvation to man is compatible with traditional philosophy, like
Thomism, and incompatible with the Protestant view of grace influenced by nominalism.
[Cf. The spirit and forms of protestantism, p. 195, citation: The theologian who has thoroughly grasped the thomist doctrine (which in fact does more than systematise accurately the practice of the Church since the prophets and apostles) will not imagine that he can understand and manipulate any enunciation of the divine Word as he could those of his own mind. Nor will he conclude that the Word of God has to remain an unresolved enigma, a symbol impossible to decipher. Knowing that God made all things as a reflection of his own thoughts, and the human mind as a reflection of his own word, he will strive, his mind illumined by faith, to open himself to the mysteries God reveals, not confining them in the framework of his own ideas, but transposing and enlarging these, not destroying their value in their own order, but transcending the limits of mere reason — a real elevation, not a collapse into the subrational. Thus, the supernatural is received by the mind enlightened and elevated by faith, not as darkening its natural lights, but by the acquiescence of the human mind in its invasion by the Spirit of God; in this unique experience, it recognises both that it is rapt from itself and taken back by Him who had made it for Himself, in His own image.]
Bibliography
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Balthasar, Hans Urs, (1993) Mysterium Paschale : the mystery of Easter, Aidan Nichols OP (translation and introduction), Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA : W.B. Eerdmans, pp. 297
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Bonnard, Pierre Émile Dominican Order, (1988) Passover, in: Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Xavier Léon-Dufour (ed.), Third rev. edition, Pasay, Philippines - London: Paulines - Geoffrey Chapman, p. 406-409.
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Louis Bouyer, (1951) The Paschal Mystery. Meditations on the Last Three Days of Holy Week, London.
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Bouyer L.,(1956) The spirit and forms of protestantism, A. V. Littledale (transl.), London - Glasgow: Collins, p. 285.
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Bouyer L. (1965), The Liturgy Revived. A Doctrinal Commentary of the Conciliar Constitution on the Liturgy. London: A Libra Book, 1965, pp. 107.
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Cantalamessa, Raniero OFMCap, (1993) Introduction in Easter in the Early Church. An Anthology of Jewish and Early Christian Texts, Quigley SJ, J.T. Lienhard SJ (translators & editors), Collegville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, pp. 1–23,
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Füglister, Notker, (1969) Passover, in: Sacramentum Mundi, vol. 4, New York - London: Herder and Herder - Burns & Oates, p. 352-357,
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Gilson, Étienne, (1955, this edition 1985), History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages, London: Sheed and Ward, pp. 829,
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John Paul II, (1998) Apostolic letter On Keeping the Lord's Day Holy "Dies Domini"; see the text on-line: APOSTOLIC LETTER DIES DOMINI. Access date:2012-03-12.
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The Paschal mystery : ancient liturgies and patristic texts,(1969) Adalbert Hamman (editor), Staten Island, NY : Alba House, pp. 230
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Karl Rahner, Mystery, in: Sacramentum Mundi, vol. 4, New York - London: Herder and Herder - Burns & Oates, p. 133-136,
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