The Paschal Mystery is Jesus’s great Exodus. Throughout the whole period of his public ministry, he framed the work of salvation in this light: bringing about freedom for captives, offering a new manna from heaven, and instituting a new Passover sealed in his own blood, just as Moses had sealed a covenant in blood at Mt Sinai. In giving his Body and Blood, Jesus made himself the new Passover lamb offered for the salvation of the people he would gather to himself in faith.
Jesus’s great Exodus does not simply look back to the first metaphorically. He institutes a new exit from a place of slavery to one of abundance, making an actual journey that would change humanity itself. The original Passover was celebrated in haste to prepare for a flight the following day. Likewise, Jesus spoke of his imminent departure from the world to a place also attached to a promise, one that he lays out to his disciples. Peter, sensing the reality of his departure, asks him: “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward” (John 14:36).
