The most beautiful liturgy in the Church year is the Easter Vigil. It begins with the blessings of the fire and candle.

During this part of the Vigil, the Easter fire and candle are blessed. The light of the fire represents the Risen Christ, who has destroyed the darkness of death, to become the light of the world. Once the Easter candle is lit, it is carried into the church, as the proclamation “Christ the light” is sung three times while the candle is carried into the church and brought to its place next to the ambo. As the candle is being carried into the church, the baptized members of the Church light their candles and slowly the church building is illumined by the light of all the baptized who are gathered to celebrate the Easter Vigil.

The light that is produced by the many who gather in the church, each holding his or her small individual candle, is impressive. It witnesses to the power of each individual candle to slowly disperse the darkness. Whenever I see the church lit up this way at the Vigil, I think of the importance of each Christian, as he or she witnesses to his or her faith in the world. The light that is produced in the church at the Easter Vigil depends upon each of us holding our candles and bringing our light to the darkened church building. This reflects a more significant truth that the Church depends upon each one of us to witness to our faith in the world in order that its message may be heard. One of the Church’s great documents, the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church from Vatican II, is called Lumen Gentium, and it refers to the Church as the light of all people. However, it also articulates the role of all the members of the Church in order to make that light present to the world. For the light of Christ to shine in the world, each Christian must bring it into his or her daily life. The light that is given off by every Christian holding his or her candle at the Easter Vigil, is a symbol for the light that each of us is called to bring to the world by reflecting the light of our baptismal faith in our actions, words and deeds. We are each of us called to bring Christ’s light to the world we are sent into as witnesses.

There is another ritual in the Easter Vigil that emphasizes the personal responsibility that all of the baptized have to bring Christ to the world. After those who have come to be baptized have been baptized, they are presented with a baptismal candle. This candle is given to all of the baptized to symbolize that we are each to make Christ the light by which we guide our lives and the fact that we are called to bring His light to all to whom we are sent. In order for Christ’s light to be brought into the world, each one of us must carry it so that Jesus will shine out through us. As the candle is presented to each newly baptized person this prayer is said: “You have been enlightened by Christ. Walk always as children of the light and keep the flame of faith alive in your hearts. When the Lord comes, may you go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.” I could not help but think of this prayer as I read this Sunday’s Gospel about those who had allowed their flame to go out and were not ready to meet the Lord.

There is another image that I would like to share with you. This year, because of the COVID 19 closures, I celebrated the Easter Vigil by myself. During the liturgy of the blessing of the fire and candle, I was here in the church alone—just me and the paschal candle. The church was almost pitch black. It struck me how useless I was, just one candle in the darkness. The Easter candle and my one candle did very little to disperse the darkness of the evening. I stopped to imagine how much light might be brought by 10 candles, or 50, or the usual full church that we might have at the Easter Vigil. It seemed to me at that moment how necessary each one of us is to the mission of the Church. As a priest all by myself, I am not able to do much to realize the mission of the Church. I, or you, are but just one voice among many in the darkness. However, if ten percent of us witnessed to our faith, the witness of the Church is significantly more powerful. Imagine a world in which fifty percent of us witnessed. I cannot imagine how amazing the world would be if one hundred percent of all Christians let their lights shine.

Sometimes, because I try to wear my collar whenever I am out, and I try to walk most places in the city, I am stopped on the street by people who want to tell me what is wrong with the Church. Most of the time, they want to tell me how I or other priests or bishops should change the Church. When I ask them what they have done to witness to Christ or change the Church they that are such experts about, they seem boggled that they have any responsibility for the Church. For many, the Church’s call to feed the poor, witness to the truth or speak in the name of justice is something that they believe belongs to the clergy, religious or the hierarchy. Yet, Church teaching and the Gospel are quite clear that the responsibility to witness to the faith is something that belongs to all of the baptized—all the members of Christ’s Body. The documents of the Second Vatican Council, when speaking about the responsibility of the lay faithful to contribute to the life and witness of the Church are quite strong. They basically say that those who do not contribute are “useless.” The Vatican Council Constitution on the role of the lay faithful in the life of the Church takes a tone which is not too far off the way that Christ speaks of those who have let their lights go out in this Sunday’s Gospel as it states: “Indeed, the organic union in this body and structure of the members are so compact that the member who fails to make his proper contribution to the development of the Church must be said to be useful neither to the Church nor to himself” (Apostolican Actuositatem, paragraph 2).

Those, like Christ’s words in today’s Gospel, are strong!

Here, in the Archdiocese of Toronto, over the past few years, Cardinal Collins has been emphasizing Stewardship as a way of calling all of the members of the Church to take responsibility for the life of the Church. The Archdiocesan Stewardship campaign has called all of us to be aware of the many gifts that we received from God. These gifts call us to see our call to Stewardship. As we receive the gifts of time, talent and treasure, we are called to render back to God that share of these gifts which reflects our gratitude for what we have received. Using the parable of the Good Steward as a call to give accounting to God for the gifts that we have received, Cardinal Collins has called all of us to be aware that the gifts that we have received have been given that we might serve and acknowledge God as the origin of all the good that we enjoy in this life. In this regard, Cardinal Collins has written: “Each of us spends a brief time in this life, preparing for our eternal life with God. While we are here, we receive everything from God, even life itself, and are asked to make good use of what God has entrusted to us. We are invited to be good stewards of His gifts. It is no wonder that the idea of stewardship plays such a central role in the life of faith” (Cardinal Collins, Pastoral Letter on Stewardship, 2018).

In this Sunday’s Gospel story of those who are rejected because they let their flames go out, we hear a reminder of the responsibility that each one of us has to care for the gift of faith that we have received in our baptism. The light of faith that we have been given, has been given for a reason. Each one of us must nurture this gift and use it to contribute to the mission of the Church in the world. Sometimes, we can be like those who thought it was the responsibility of others to care for their flames. Christ reminds us in this Sunday’s Gospel that this excuse will not work. Each one of us must tend to the care of our own flame of faith. There are many ways that we can do this. It can be done through our life of prayer, personal study and reflection and through our faith life lived in the community of the Church. If there are weaknesses in the life of the Church, we need to ask ourselves first what we have done to contribute to the life of our Church and parish community. As those who allowed their flames to go out learned the hard way in this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus is not going to ask us to give an accounting for everyone else in the Church. He will only be interested in what we did with the gifts that we received on this journey and how we used them to let His light shine.

I mentioned earlier in this reflection how sad I found it celebrating the Easter Vigil in the dark this past year by myself. So much was missing because it was just me holding my candle in the darkness. I longed to see the familiar site of my fellow Christians holding their candles and brilliantly illuminating the church building with their candles of faith. That being said, one place where I have seen all of us letting our candles shine is in the beautiful way that we have all come together to keep our churches open during this pandemic. The efforts of the entire community have made it possible for our churches to open and remain safe. It has been so inspiring to see how we have all come together to make this happen. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this great example of joint stewardship in our community. May the Lord continue to bless us all in this effort.

On the day of our baptisms, each one of us was presented with a candle to symbolize the light of Christ that we were to follow and make present in our lives. As we hear the Gospel this Sunday of those who cared for their flame and those who did not, may we all strive to realize the words of the prayer that was said to us on the day of our baptisms: “You have been enlightened by Christ. Walk always as children of the light and keep the flame of faith alive in your hearts. When the Lord comes, may you go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly Kingdom.”

Fr. Michael McGourty
Pastor, St. Peter’s Church—Toronto.

This reflection based on the reading for the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, year A: Wisdom 6:12-16; Psalm 63; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; and Matthew 25: 1-13.