Alleluia, Christ is risen! (The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!)

The season of Easter continues…

On this Third Sunday of Easter, I thought I would share a bit about an important seasonal symbol in the sanctuary.

That big fancy candle that suddenly appeared (and then disappears and appears again throughout the year).  

There are so many signs, symbols and traditions that are part of our weekly and seasonal rhythms. We don’t have to understand all of them to appreciate the whole, to connect with God and with one another in song, prayer and sacrament. Yet, understanding them can lead to a deeper appreciation and engagement in our corporate worship and spiritual lives. 

To that end, we call that big fancy candle the Paschal candle.

Paschal refers to Easter.

In most languages, Easter is linguistically related to “Paschal” (Pâques in French; Pascua in Spanish; Pascha in many Eastern European languages…). These all come from the word Passover/Pesach, the Jewish holiday celebrating the story of the Exodus.

This is because Easter is known as the Christian Passover. This is not just because Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, but because followers of Jesus since ancient times have seen in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection the continuation and culmination of God’s work of deliverance and freedom, as seen in the Exodus narrative.

We light the Paschal candle first at the Easter Vigil to signify the light of Christ coming into the world. It is the first light, from which all other lights are lit. We keep it lit all through the Easter season as a special sign to mark the light that has shone in the darkness and that has not been overcome (John 1:5).

Beyond that, we always bring it out for baptisms. This is to show the link between ‘Pascha’ – Easter - and our baptism: in baptism, we share in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. As part of the baptism liturgy, the candidate for baptism or their family is given a baptismal candle, lit from the Paschal candle, receiving the light of Christ.

We also bring out the Paschal candle for funerals. The candle stands as witness to God’s faithfulness and promise to be with us, even in death. We are reminded of the Christian hope: that in the Easter story, Christ has gone before us and has defeated the powers of sin and death.

Who knew there was so much to say about one candle?!

I pray that this provides some insight, inspiration or meaning (or maybe just a fun little piece of trivia), as we continue to celebrate this Easter season together.

Thanks be to God, alleluia!

CG+