Did Jesus institute Easter Sunday as a replacement for the Passover feast? Karlo Broussard explains to a caller why Catholics worship on Sundays and how it can be related to the Jewish feast of Passover.
Transcript (AI-Generated):
We can turn to Colossians chapter 2 verse 16, where Saint Paul writes, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” So, Saint Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is teaching us as Christians that we are no longer bound by the Jewish festivals, including the Festival of Passover, which was a precept imposed upon the Israelites to celebrate out of obedience to God. However, with the Advent of Christ through his death and resurrection, that precept has been abrogated, and we are no longer bound to adhere to that ritual.
Why? Because there is a new ritual that has been instituted for us by our Lord himself, which we call the new Passover, and that is the Last Supper and the Mass. Our Lord gives us the new Lamb of God, which is himself, his body, and his blood, along with his soul and his divinity. That’s why our Lord instituted the Last Supper within the context of the Passover meal, to show us that it is the new Passover, and he is the new Lamb. So, we have a new ritual which we must adhere to, and we see the early church practicing and performing that ritual with the breaking of the bread, as Luke calls it in the Book of Acts.
When do they do that? The common practice for the early Christians was to break bread, that is, to celebrate the Eucharist or the new Passover, on the first day of the week, which is Sunday, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. That became the day for the early Christians to worship God through the new Passover and the celebration of the Eucharist. So, on Sunday, we are no longer bound, given Saint Paul’s teaching, to the ceremonial precept of the Old Law to celebrate the particular festival or Feast Day of Passover. We are now bound, by the authority of the Church to bind and loose, to adhere to the new ritual of the Mass that is coming from our Lord himself, but on a specific day, Sunday, to celebrate the ritual of the new Passover.