Continuing with Alleluias

Springtime brings new green, new blooms, and even a little rain. Life seems to surprise us each year at this time. To top off the natural blessings of spring, the sun provides us with more light and warmth. This is a great context for our celebration of the Easter mysteries.

The ambiance of the Feast of the Resurrection invites us to find God in the springtime which we bring inside our churches. The Risen Lord’s newly resurrected life calls for color, light, water, oil to enliven our community of worship.

The Easter Season is ushered in with a wonderful splash of music, ritual, colors, light, and the sweet fragrance of incense. The Great Vigil began with the coming together of nearly a thousand people. The opening ritual challenges the dark and the cold with the lighting and blessing of the Easter fire. Around the fire the Paschal Candle is prepared and prayed over.

The ritual of the Paschal Candle speaks eloquently of the candle which is present through the whole Easter Season. Several things are inscribed on the candle and other decorations are placed before the actual lighting the candle from the fire. The Greek letters alpha and omega are inscribed: “Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega…” Then the year of grace 2009 is inscribed: “All times belong to him and all the ages to him be glory and power through every age for ever. Amen.”

The so-called “wounds” are placed on the Paschal Candle: “By his holy and glorious wounds may Christ our Lord guard us and keep us. Amen.” The “wounds” are wax nails adorned with a grain of incense. They mark the five glorified wounds of Christ, hands, feet, and side, which rise before the Father as a fragrant sacrifice.

Light Dispells the Darkness
Finally, the Candle is lit: “May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.” The light and warmth of the Paschal Candle, or the Christ Candle, begins its journey into the darkened church. Three times the Candle is presented to the Assembly and the light is dispersed to the candles of the faithful. The acclamation proclaims: “Christ our light! Thanks be to God!”

The Paschal Candle then is placed in the sanctuary and the Easter Proclamation is sung and the Candle is incensed by the celebrant who passes in a circle around the candle. Some might

call it a kind of dance of rejoicing and praise! Here the Paschal Candle will remain within the Assembly for the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Christ lives. The darkness is dispelled. We are People of Light. We continue to gather around the Candle in hope.

Sundays of Easter
Each Sunday the community will gather around the Candle to hear God’s Word, the continuing story of the Resurrection. The faithful will gather for the breaking of the bread, as Jesus did with his disciples after the Resurrection. The Sun of Justice has risen forever, thus changing the “day of the sun” into a Christian festival. Christ, the “Son” of God continues to be our light.

The Paschal Candle will continue to burn for all liturgical festivals from Easter through Pentecost. Through the season, baptisms will be celebrated as they were at the Great Vigil. Still others will be confirmed with the imposition of hands and the giving of the Spirit. Many will follow the believers welcomed at the Lord’s Table for the first time Easter Night.

Baptism is always in water and Spirit, where the newly baptized pass from death to life, as they come from the water. They are the “enlightened,” those who walk now in the light of Christ. Christ continually lights their path to the Eucharistic Table of fellowship with other believers.

Hope of Ressurection
The Paschal Candle burns at every funeral as the body of the deceased believer is blessed at the font of Baptism. The funeral pall recalling their white robes of baptismal innocence is imposed on the casket. The hopeful community prays: “In Baptism you have put on Christ. May you now rise with him to eternal glory.” Each believer passes through death with Christ and rises to new life in him. Easter is always our hope.

Christian Passover
As we live with the Paschal Candle throughout the Great Fifty Days of Easter, we continue to Passover in Christ from death to life, from darkness to light, and from slavery to freedom. Like the glory of God in the Book of Exodus, the candle is a “cloud in day” and “a pillar of fire in the night” on the way to the Promised Land. Hear the echo of the Vigil and its praises to the Candle: “May the Morning Star which never sets find this flame still burning: Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.”

CDH