By Dan Crean
“I am the light of the world”, Christ tells us. Each church has a Paschal Candle, lit on the Easter vigil as a reminder of our Savior’s words. The newly baptized are given candles lit from the Pascal Candle, the symbol of the source of all things.
We Catholics use candles in our liturgies all year round, but they’re present for ambience, not lighting. Candles are strictly symbolic in modern times, yet they endure.
Every child knows that moths are drawn to lights, fooled into thinking that they are the Sun. Our nervous systems are more complex, but humans, too, are drawn to light. Lighted candles have a hypnotic, calming effect for many people. They are at once fascinating and soothing, although excessive interest in fire, pyromania, is classified by psychiatrists as a personality disorder.
Tallow, rendered from the fat from beef or mutton, was the principal source of candle fuel in Europe for centuries. Produced in open vats in a process similar to soap manufacturing. In the Middle Ages tallow candles were yellow and burned somewhat erratically.
A superior candle fuel is beeswax. Extracted from beehives, beeswax is one of the most chemically homogeneous materials found in nature, consisting mostly of a compound called myricyl palmitate
Beeswax is prized as a candle wax because it burns so clean; there is little smoke or soot.
However, the scarcity of beeswax meant its use was confined largely to the aristocracy and large churches. Even so, medieval cathedrals would still accumulate soot on their ceilings and walls, the unfortunate byproduct of burning fuel indoors for centuries.
The bayberry shrub provided wax for early American colonists, and bayberry candles are still used today largely as decorative and specialty candles. Oil from sperm whales was also a popular lighting material, driving demand in the whaling industry in the 1700s and 1800s.
In the nineteenth century, chemists figured out how to break down tallow and derive stearic acid. This solid material for is stable when unlit and burns with a steady flame and little odor.
Most modern candles are made from paraffin from fossil fuels. With today’s refining techniques, manufacturers can produce odorless, white wax that yields a steady flame with little smoke. Dyes and odoriferous materials are sometimes mixed into the wax for aesthetic purposes.
From ancient times, candles were used for worship. In the fourth century, St. Jerome reported that “candles are lit during the reading of the Gospel not only so as to shed light and dispel the gloom but also to proclaim one’s joy.” Candles are understood as a symbol of the inner flame of God warming a person’s soul.
The consumption of the burning candle also represents the life of the person from birth to death. The Christian burns like a candle before God, his or her being consumed by the divine flame.
Today, of course, churches and holy places use electric lighting for room illumination. But candles survive as an important element of the mass. The formal General Instruction of the Roman Missal states “candles are to be used at every liturgical service as a sign of reverence and festiveness”. Further, the when the Eucharist is celebrated “on or near the altar there are to be candlesticks with lighted candles, at least two but even four, six, or, if the bishop of the diocese celebrates, seven.”
People also use candles in their homes. Electric Lava Lamps, decorative lights filled with colored fluid in motion that promotes a psychedelic experience, continue to be popular. Interior decorators know that lighting in can profoundly affect the dominant mood in a room. In additional to natural lighting and electric bulbs, decorators use candles as a way of psychologically taking people out of the workaday world. So, too, for religious people.
Conventional incandescent or fluorescent electric lights are too commonplace to provide a sense of reverence these days and provide too steady a light. The mystic seeks the flicker and liveliness and unpredictability of a flame as conducive to a prayerful atmosphere.
The Catholic Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy guidelines prohibits that “electrical bulbs be used in liturgical celebration…in the interests of authenticity and symbolism”. The candle’s light, which seems to mimic a living being, reminds of the presence of God.
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