The true paschal lamb speaks joyfully to those who will eat him, and the First-Born announced the Pascha in the dining room to his disciples.
Our Savior invited himself to his immolation and bloodshedding. His lifegiving bread was nutritious and well prepared, and his sheaf of ears came home full. The matter of his body was permeated with the yeast of his divinity. His mercy welled up and his love overflowed, so that he might become food for his own.
He took the "heap of wheat" away from Zion and gave it to the Church in holiness. He had prepared a new banquet, and now he invited his companions to it and called them to come. A feast he prepared for his Bride, to allay her hunger.
Our Lord slew his own body, and (only) then did mortals slay it. He pressed it out into the cup of salvation and then did the People also press it out on the cross. As priest he offered himself ahead of time, so that strangers might not exercise the priestly office. . . .
CYRILLONAS, First Homily on the Pascha
taken from Easter in the Early Church
1 comment:
"The matter of his body was permeated with the yeast of his divinity."
Beautiful, lovely, true.
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