The first reading of our Mass today brings us to the Passover celebration. The Passover was the most solemn feast of the Jewish year. It had been instituted by God to commemorate the exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt and to recall annually, their liberation from the slavery to which they had been subjected. Every family would sacrifice a lamb. It had to be one year old with no blemish or disfigurement. The whole family would gather to eat the animal with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. They had to eat it hurriedly like people ready to depart on a journey.

The paschal lamb of the Jewish feast was a promise and figure of the true Lamb, Jesus Christ, immolated in the sacrifice of the Calvary on behalf of the whole human race. He is the true Lamb who took away the sins of the world; by dying He destroyed our death, by rising He restored our life. He is the Lamb who, by His voluntary sacrifice, really obtained what the sacrifices of the Old Law merely symbolized, namely, satisfaction to God for our sins.

Christ's sacrifice on the Cross is renewed each time we celebrate Mass. It enables us to live in a continuous state of celebration.