The transition from shadow to reality

A bloodless sacrifice; a new and divine covenant. Dedicate yourselves today, and dedicate a straight spirit within your hearts, so that you may receive the mysteries of the new and true feast, and enjoy today a joy that is truly heavenly. Depart having been enlightened by the things of the new Pascha that do not grow old, instead of the old mystery-types, so that you may grasp as much as possible the difference of our days from those of the Jews, and what the comparison of the types is to the truth.

Let us begin the Pascha of the resurrection and the vision of Christ from what is here. Once the lawgiver Moses was sent from God from a high mountain toward the type of the law for the salvation of a people. Likewise, the Lord the lawgiver was sent, and God from God, and a mountain from the mountains of the heavens, for the salvation of our people, which is the truth. But Moses redeemed them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians; but Christ redeemed us from the devil and the demons. Moses slew the wrongdoer, the Jew, striking him in the sand; Christ also slew the devil, casting him into the abyss. Moses reconciled his two brothers who were fighting; Christ also reconciled his two peoples, uniting the heavenly to the earthly.

There, Pharaoh's daughter found Moses when she went to bathe; but the Church, the daughter of Christ, receives Christ when she is baptized, not from a river of three months, as Moses, but from the tomb after three days instead of Moses. There Israel made the Pascha typally and at night; here we celebrate the Pascha luminously and by day. There, it was toward the evening of the day; here, it is toward the evening of the ages of the age. There, the doors of the lintels were smeared with blood; here, the hearts of the faithful are sealed with the blood of Christ.

There the sacrifice was at night, and the crossing of the Red Sea was by night; here is salvation, and the Red Sea of baptism is luminous, and the fire of the Spirit is burning. In this, the Spirit of God is truly brought and shines forth, and upon the same water, in which the head of the dragon is crushed—the ruler of the demonic dragons of the devil's peoples. There, Israel was in the nocturnal baptism of Moses; there a cloud covered the people; but the power of the Most High overshadows the people of Christ.

There, after the people were saved, Mary of Moses departed; but here, while the Gentiles are being saved, the Church of Christ celebrates together with all her churches. There, Moses offers a rock of the creation; here, the people offer a rock of faith. There, the legal tablets are shattered, signifying the end of the law and growing old; but here, the divine laws are preserved indestructibly. There, a calf was slaughtered for the punishment of the people; but here, the Lamb of God is sacrificed for the salvation of the people. There, a rock is struck with a rod; but here, Christ the rock is pierced in the side. There, water flows out of the rock; but here, blood and water spring from the life-giving side.

They received quail meat from heaven; but we receive the dove of the Spirit from on high. They ate manna for a season and died; but we eat bread for eternal life. But those things have grown old as things that are ancient and shadowy, and they are completed; but those of our people increase and remain forever. This Passover of ours is the prototype; that shadowy passing was of the legal matters. Thus, perceive the meaning of the feast; thus, examine the things of Moses and the prophets concerning the day, so that you may be convinced of the resurrection. For all are clothed in the covering of unbelief.

It possesses many types, indescribable of the resurrection from the dead and of living again. The slaughter of Isaac is a reliable witness to this. The pit of Joseph, in which he was cast by his brothers and from which he ascended immortal, is a type of this. The pit of Jeremiah, from which he ascended once from corruption and stench, is a type of this. The whale of Jonah is a type of Christ's resurrection, from which he emerged after three days. You also have another type of the imprisonment of Hades: the prison of Joseph, where the snare of his brothers shut him up, from which he emerged unhurt after three years, just as Christ is three days from the dead.

With these, Daniel also typifies the tomb of the Savior with the den of lions, from which Jesus ascended living, as having been rescued from the lions of Hades and from death. Through these, rebuke the Jews; through these, reprove them; in this way, on behalf of Christ's passion and resurrection, defend yourself. The word grants you these things today as weapons for an alliance; these things the feast grants you.