Was the Last Supper a true Passover meal?

Pope Benedict examines this question in his book Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two; Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, by Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, © 2011 Ignatius Press, San Francisco (viewed on Kindle), pp. 106-114 (1. The Dating of the Last Supper).

Pope Benedict’s aim is “to become acquainted with the figure of Jesus” and to understand “the question of the actual historicity of the key events.” (pg. 103)

In the first place, we will consider the dating of Jesus’ Last Supper, which is essentially the question of whether or not it was a Passover meal. (pp. 105-6)

Pope Benedict decides that because the last Supper occurred on Thursday evening, it could not really be the Jewish Passover meal because,

The Passover feast in the year in question accordingly ran from Friday evening until Saturday evening, not from Thursday evening until Friday evening. (pp. 107-8)

Pope Benedict’s conclusion:

… the meal that Jesus shared with the Twelve was not a Passover meal according to the ritual prescriptions of Judaism … [but] was regarded as a Passover: as his Passover. And so it was. (pp. 113, 114)

However, Bl. Anne Catherine’s view, occurring 200 years prior to Pope Benedict’s analysis, is simple and direct:

The eating of the Paschal Lamb was performed by Jesus in haste and in perfect conformity to the Law. (p. 77)

[the Pascal lamb] of Jesus was not slaughtered in the Temple, though He observed all other points of the Law most strictly. (p. 59)

The text excerpts from Bl. Anne Catherine, in the table below, confirm that the issue of Jesus’ eating the Pascal meal on Thursday (rather than on Friday) was raised when Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedrin, and that Jesus’ celebration of the Pascal meal on Thursday was proven to them to be acceptable under Jewish law. (See pages 149, 150, in the text excerpts, below.)

Most important to her Catholic faith, Bl. Anne Catherine stresses that Jesus is the true lamb of the everlasting sacrifice:

That lamb was only a figure. Jesus Himself would on the next day become the true Paschal Lamb. (pp. 59-60)

Jesus spoke of a new period then beginning, and said that the sacrifice of Moses and the signification of the Paschal lamb were about to be fulfilled, that on this account the lamb was to be immolated as formerly in Egypt, and that now in reality were they to go forth from the house of bondage. (p. 58)

... A new era, a new sacrifice are now about to begin, and they shall last till the end of the world. (p. 59)

And Pope Benedict’s heartfelt words of faith harmonize with the words of Bl. Anne Catherine:

… Jesus dies at the moment when the Passover lambs are being slaughtered in the Temple [in preparation for the Friday evening celebrations]. Jesus dies as the real lamb, merely prefigured by those slain in the Temple. (Jesus of Nazareth, p. 108)

You may want to investigate the context of the excerpts from Bl. Anne Catherine’s reflections by using the “link to full text” links in the table, below.