There was much proclaimed by the prophets about the mystery of the Pasch: that mystery is Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
For the sake of suffering humanity he came down from heaven to earth, clothed himself in that humanity in the Virgin's womb, and was born a man. Having then a body capable of suffering, he took the pain of fallen man upon himself; he triumphed over the diseases of soul and body that were its cause, and by his Spirit, which was incapable of dying, he dealt man's destroyer, death, a fatal blow.
He was led forth like a lamb; he was
slaughtered like a sheep. He ransomed us from our servitude to the world, as he
had ransomed Israel from the hand of Egypt; he freed us from our slavery to the
devil, as he had freed Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. He sealed our souls
with his own Spirit, and the members of our body with his own blood.
He is the One who covered death with shame
and cast the devil into mourning, as Moses cast Pharaoh into mourning . He is
the One that smote sin and robbed iniquity of offspring, as Moses robbed the
Egyptians of their offspring. He is the One who brought us out of slavery into
freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny
into an eternal kingdom; who made us a new priesthood, a people chosen to be
his own for ever. He is the Passover that is our salvation.
It is he who endured every kind of
suffering in all those who foreshadowed him. In Abel he was slain, in Isaac
bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was
sacrificed in the Passover lamb, persecuted in David, dishonored in the
prophets.
It is he who was made man of the Virgin, he
who was hung on the tree; it is he who was buried in the earth, raised from the
dead, and taken up to the heights of heaven. He is the mute lamb, the slain
lamb born of Mary, the fair ewe. He was seized from the flock, dragged off to
be slaughtered, sacrificed in the evening, and buried at night. On the tree no
bone of his was broken; in the earth his body knew no decay. He is the One who
rose from the dead, and who raised man from the depths of the tomb.