In today's first reading, Exodus 12: 1-8, 11-14, the Israelites, God's chosen people, celebrate the feast of Passover. God instructs each family through Moses to "procure for itself a lamb,...The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish...[W]ith the whole assembly of Israel present, it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They shall take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of every house in which they partake of the lamb...[T]he blood will make the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you."
"Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ, the unblemished male, the Lamb of God, through whom we are saved. "[N]o destructive blow will come upon" us who "eat of this bread" and "drink of this wine." Just as the Israelites celebrate the Passover as "a memorial feast...,which all...[of their]generations...celebrate with pilgrimage to the Lord, as a perpetual institution," so, too, do we Christians "offer [a] sacrifice of thanksgiving [the Sacrifice of the Mass] and "call upon the name of the Lord" in every Eucharistic celebration until the end of time.
The Covenant of the Old Testament is given to the people by Moses. The Covenant of the New Testament is given to us through Christ Jesus.
Just as Yahweh would lose none of His chosen people to their slave owners, neither will Jesus lose anyone of us to Satan, who prowls about the world seeking someone to devour! O, the greatness and the goodness and the mercy and the love of our God, revealed to us in Christ Jesus, whose blood was poured out for us on the cross!
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