“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light…"

Never does this glorious Chapel look more beautiful than on this great night of nights.  Few of us worship in the evening anymore, so the Chapel, aglow with candlelight, is a strange, beautiful, wondrous setting.

We worship here in the evening every night during Holy Week.  But we don't light candles then. Why, on this night, does it seem normal and natural to fill this great room with candles?

In a Christmas sermon, the great theologian, Rudolf Bultmann asks, “Why is it that we light candles at Christmas and take joy in their splendor?...the lights that we kindle are a symbol of the Light..." [1]

Imagine a world before electric lights, when candles were the only source of illumination after dark. Rarely do we experience such darknes…