for thou wilt light my candle - candelaria

"For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness." (Psalm 18:28 of the King James Version)

We find these words as we look up at the façade of the Chapel of Lights.  It is located just beside the Jaro Cathedral a few steps away from the Shrine of Our Lady of Candles.  This is where we have been lighting our candles for a year now in her honor.  But what does it mean when we pray to God “thou wilt light my Candle”?  What does it mean when we say, “The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness”? 

Before I saw this verse, I always thought I was lighting a candle to God, I was lighting a candle to our Lady. But the Psalm says otherwise.  It is God who lights my candle.  It is God who enlightens my darkness.

I never thought I could write another article about the Candelaria at her feast again.  This verse however led me to agree to write this piece for our fiesta this year when Fr. Carlo Noquez asked me to do so.  (And besides, Fr. Carlo has a unique way of asking for a favor.  He does not do it quietly.  He asks you in a very loud voice to everybody’s hearing, you would be so ashamed of yourself if you would not agree.) 

Light in Scriptures

What is light?  And its opposite, what is darkness?

In creation, when everything began, light symbolizes the presence of God and darkness is God’s absence.  It was God’s first act – to create light, which in effect caused the removal of darkness. 

From then on, with the creation of the light, there was order, when in darkness there was only chaos.  Throughout the Old Testament light is always associated with God, with God’s word, with salvation, with truth, with goodness and with life.  And anything that is opposed to God is darkness – sin, condemnation, lies (include fake news here), wickedness and death.

The New Testament resonates what the Old Testament says about the light, but now this is personified in Jesus.  He is the incarnate Word of God, the Sun of justice, according to the prophet Malachi (4:2), who has come as the light that enlightens all people, so that those who believe in him will no longer be in darkness.  Thus, to be with Jesus means to be in the light.

John MacArthur in his comprehensive study of the use of the word “Light” in scriptures says that in the bible the figure of light has two aspects, namely, intellectual and moral.

Intellectual Light

Psalm 119 says, “your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” 

Light is intellectual truth contained in God’s word, and in particular in Jesus who is Word become flesh.  It is in God’s word, in Jesus, where we continue to discern what pleases God.  Only by looking at Jesus and the words of scriptures as our reference can we have a true understanding of ourselves, of salvation, of events taking place in our lives and in our surroundings, and only can we know God’s will and purpose for us.

Moral Light

In the Letter to the Romans Paul exhorted them saying,

“The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime . . .” (Rom. 13: 12-13)

The Light is moral truth. To be with Jesus is to live in the light.  It is having with us a moral compass to guide us on our way.  Again, Paul himself wrote:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. (Eph. 5: 8-9)

There are instances too when together the intellectual and moral aspects of the light are referred to, as in the book of the Prophet Isaiah:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil,
who change darkness to light, and light into darkness,
who change bitter to sweet, and sweet into bitter! (Is. 5: 20)

Living in the Light

To be in the light, thus, means to be changed intellectually and morally, that is,

-      to know and love God and to acknowledge that Jesus is our Lord and Savior

-      to allow oneself to be guided by the Holy Spirit as one listens to God’s word and discern God’s call and will.

-      to receive the sacraments especially the Eucharist and the Confession in order to sustain one’s self in living in the light in this dark world

-      and to love and serve others as Christ did.

Light symbolizes God’s love and care for his people.   Jesus is the light par excellence because He is the revelation of God’s love for his people, its visible expression, when he healed the sick, when he drove out evil spirits, when he fed the hungry crowd, when approached and talked to lepers, when he touched the eyes of the blind, when he raised the dead to give them back to a widowed mother, to a pleading father, and to Mary and Martha.  But more importantly there is no greater love than when he gave himself for all of us and for our salvation to die on the cross.  And from the tomb he rose again that we too might live with him forever.  Jesus is the love of the Father for us and thus He is the true Light – the love and care of God for his people.

The Liturgy

The Liturgy presents salvation as Light.  Starting on the Eve of Christmas, December 24, in times past, was the longest night and the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice (now its Dec. 21 or 22).  But from December 25, the night becomes shorter and the day becomes longer.  If you noticed (and I bet you didn’t) the Collect, the opening prayer for Midnight Mass (it’s now just simply called Night Mass, by the way) never speaks of a baby born in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, or shepherds watching their flock in a silent night, or of angels singing Gloria in Excelsis Deo.  None! (Kill-joy!).  Rather, it speaks of the Light:

O God, who have made this most sacred night
radiant with the splendor of the true light,
grant, we pray, that we, who have known the mysteries of his light on earth,
may also delight in his gladness in heaven.

Christmas celebrates the coming of the Light with the first reading from Isaiah proclaiming, “A people that walked in darkness has seen a great Light… (Is.9:1)

Forty days later, February 2, in the old calendar is the end of Christmas (now it’s the Day before the Baptism of the Lord), when the Blessed Mother, since she bore a male child, was required by the law of Moses to purify herself 40 days after the birth of the male child and offer for herself two young pigeons or turtledoves (that’s all she can afford, cf. Lev.12:2-8). 

The theme of the Light continues.  In January 1 Mary was celebrated as Theotokos, literally, the bearer of God (the Mother of God).  In February 2 she is celebrated as Light-Bearer.  With the lighted candle on her right and the Child Jesus on her left she presents to us the Light of the World, Jesus her Son (Frankly I would always prefer an image of Mary holding Jesus as if she is presenting him to us).  And by the way February 2 is midway between Winter Solstice (Dec. 24) and the Spring Equinox (March 21) when, by this time night and day, the length light and darkness, day and night becomes equal (equi-nox – equal night). 

With March 21 as point of reference the church can now find the exact date of Easter - a Sunday after the first full moon of Spring.  That’s April 1 for the year 2018.  And the full moon?  March 31, exactly at 8:36 in the evening.  With the Full Moon and the Spring Sun, Easter as the festival of the Light reaches its zenith.  If you notice (this time I would like you to closely observe the sky) at this time, before the sun sets, the moon already rises to light the evening, and before the moon sets at dawn, the sun already rises.  At Easter there is no time when the earth is without light.  St. Gregory of Nyssa has a wonderful homily for Easter saying:

Before the rays of the sun totally disappear, the moon rises on the other horizon to shed its light on the world.  Before the moon completes its night journey, the brightness of the sun mingles with the moon’s remaining light.  Darkness is thus completely absent on the night of the full moon because of the uninterrupted succession of the sun and the moon.

Thus, Easter symbolizes the quality of Christian life, a life lived fully in the light, without mixture of darkness.

In Easter, in the Vigil mass, like Mary we now hold our own candles and allow Jesus the Light of the World to light our Candles.  Now, like Mary we become bearers of the Light. 

Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (638 AD) in his sermon on the feast of February 2 said:

"Our bright shining candles are a sign of divine splendor of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ."

With our candles in hand then, and with a life lived “fully in the light, without mixture of darkness,” we heed the command of the Lord:

You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others . . . (Mt. 5: 14-16)

A Prayer

To end this long article, I would like to share a beautiful prayer which rephrases Psalm 18 taken from a commentary by Matthew Henry:

“Thou wilt light my candle: thou wilt revive and comfort my sorrowful spirit; thou wilt guide my way, that I may avoid the snares laid for me. Thou wilt light my candle to work by, and give me an opportunity of serving thee. Let those that walk in darkness, and labor under discouragements, take courage; God himself will be a Light to them!”

Amen.  Viva la Virgen.  Viva to the Bearer of the Light.