The Paschal Candle And Christian Unity

The Paschal candle represents Christ, the Light of the World.

The pure beeswax of which the candle is made represents the sinless Christ who was formed in the womb of His Mother. The wick signifies His humanity, the flame, His Divine Nature, both soul and body.

Five grains of incense inserted into the candle in the form of a cross recall the aromatic spices with which His Sacred Body was prepared for the tomb, and of the five wounds in His hands, feet, and side.

The Easter candle is lit each day during Mass throughout the Paschal season until Ascension Thursday.

That’s the back story. Now let’s look at things more closely…

Pope Benedict XVI wrote of the Paschal candle:

This is a light that lives from sacrifice. The candle shines inasmuch as it is burnt up. It gives light, inasmuch as it gives itself. Thus the Church presents most beautifully the Paschal mystery of Christ, who gives Himself and so bestows the great light.

We should remember that the light of the candle is a fire. Fire is the power that shapes the world, the force of transformation. And fire gives warmth. Here too the mystery of Christ is made newly visible. Christ, the light, is fire, flame, burning up evil and so reshaping both the world and ourselves. … And this fire is both heat and light: not a cold light, but one through which God’s warmth and goodness reach down to us.

Let us pray to the Lord at this time that He may grant us to experience the joy of His light; let us pray that we ourselves may become bearers of His light, and that through the Church, Christ’s radiant face may enter our world. (Homily, Easter Vigil, 7 April 2012)

The Easter Season, also known as Pascal Tide or Eastertide, also brings to light a remarkable feature of the Christ-candles’ transformative and unitive force among Christians.

When the Anglican and Lutheran churches implemented their own calendar and lectionary reforms in 1976, they adopted the same shortened definition of the Easter season as the Roman Catholic Church had promulgated six years earlier.

The candle is a tremendous symbol of the light that has come into the world, and which binds us together — Jesus Christ