This past Tuesday at home church it was my turn to present the Phos Hilaron. Sunam TAs on Tuesday, so she walked to hX from school. I was to bring Nolan and dessert. It didn’t go well. We got there late; there was a cooking disaster resulting in a store-bought chocolate cake having to substitute for Sunam’s homemade peach cobbler; our pastor’s wife was in the ER for kidney stones; Nolan was tired and cranky; I was tired and cranky; and I forgot my notes. So my presentation of the Phos Hilaron was hardly splendiferous, but here is what I would have said, had my mood been better and my notes been present.

The solitary flame has been a symbol of our faith since the time of the old covenant. In the wilderness out of Egypt, the glory of God would appear over the tabernacle as a flame at night. The book of Exodus (Exodus 27:20-21) commands that a lamp always burn in the Tabernacle of the Testimony; in contemporary Judaism the Ner Tamid (Hebrew for the eternal light) hangs above the Torah Ark, and the Catholic church prescribes that an altar lamp burn continually before the tabernacle.

During the time of Christ, the Festival of Tabernacles (or Feast of Booths) had symbolic components involving water and light. It was during the celebration of the Festival of Tabernacles that Christ boldly claimed: “If you are thirsty, come to me and drink! Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you (John 7:37).”

For the ritual of light, four massive candelabra were set up in the Court of Women of the Temple and the light could be seen throughout Jerusalem. The next day on the Mount of Olives Christ announced “I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won’t be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life (John 8:12).” This is a call back to the prophet Isaiah wrote, “I, the LORD, will be your everlasting light (Isaiah 60:20),” and is also referenced earlier in the book of John when Christ was proclaimed the “true light that enlightens every man (John 1:9).”

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “You are like light for the whole world… Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven (Matt 5:15-16).” Christ is the source of light, and we are to reflect it to the world. This idea of Christ being a light to the world, and the idea of using light as a symbol for Christ, became an early element of Christian tradition. By the 4th century, a candle or lamp was kept perpetually burning at the church of the holy sepulcher (i.e. the empty tomb of Christ), its glow to serve as a symbol of the living light of Jesus.

This brings us to the early hymn Phos Hilaron (called Hail Gladdening Light or O Respledent Light in English). There is some evidence that the Phos Hilaron was already in use in the Second Century, by the early Christians who would meet in the Roman catacombs. The tradition evolved to become a standard part of vespers (evening services), and was called the lighting of the lamps. As Christians gathered to worship, the Phos Hilaron was sung and a candle was brought forth: a solitary flame calling the church to celebrate their risen Lord. And even though we have electricity today, and don’t need to light lamps to see each other during evening services, we can still use the candle to remind us of our risen Lord, the light of the world.