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SOUNDS AND COLORS: A LITURGICAL INSIGHT
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We have moved from purple to white/gold and now to green in the last several weeks. Why do we do this? We have done (and not done) special music—is there a reason? Surely there is, and that’s what I want to share with you this time.
Shifting of colors is a way of marking the changing of liturgical seasons, but we must first understand what the colors represent. Red is used most rarely for weekends—it symbolizes blood (no surprise) and is therefore especially appropriate for Palm Sunday and Good Friday (also the martyrs, but they’re typically weekday Masses). It also represents the fire of the Holy Spirit and so makes its appearance on Pentecost (and at Masses when Confirmation is celebrated).
Purple is a subdued color that (depending, perhaps, on the shade) can mark preparation and penance—it is characteristic, then, of Advent and Lent (both times of preparation).
Gold/white is the color of rejoicing, and so it is the color of Christmas and Easter, as
well as great saints’ celebrations (particularly of Mary, the Mother of God).
The bulk of the liturgical year is called “Ordinary Time,” and its color is green (as is my vestment today). Green is the color of spring, of flowers and trees, of new life, of hope. St Paul (Romans 8:24) reminds us that we are saved “in hope.” So we mark that vision in green.
Our music parallels this movement. In Advent, for example, we sing “Wait For The Lord” since Advent is about waiting for the birth of the Savior. We also do not sing the “Gloria” since it’s the song of the angels on Christmas—if you like, we are “fasting” until we can “feast” at Christmas in the praise of God as the shepherds heard it. We also use a special set of Mass parts to mark the joy of this season (and will return to them in Easter for the same reason).
Since it’s a time of joy, I also sing the Eucharistic Prayer, and we all sing the Lord’s Prayer. Extra music is always a sign of extra joy, and after all: EVERYONE knows at least the first verse of the Christmas carols!
Lent is very somber—our Mass parts are in Latin because their music is very stark. We refrain from the “Gloria” because it’s too joyful; we refrain from the “Alleluia” for the same reason (and because, as St Augustine reminded us, “alleluia” is our song because we are Easter people). We can wait a bit.
It all breaks loose from the Easter Vigil on, through Pentecost: more gold/white, more joyous music, more thankfulness for our redemption and incorporation into the Priestly People of God in Jesus Christ.
“Ordinary Time” finds us singing what (for us) might be called the musical setting of our “regular” Mass parts. Again, it’s a way of marking off one season from the next. That setting will be used, beginning this weekend. Variety may or may not be the spice of life, but it is a way of differentiating the cycles of our liturgical lives. Do we long for Thanksgiving dinner and are we willing to refrain from bags of Doritos while the turkey is in the oven? I think so! In the same way, we can long for the transition from purple to white/gold—from Advent to Christmas, from Lent to Easter. And if it’s time to ease back on indulgence, let’s do so purposefully. And when it’s time to rejoice, let’s do it fully.