As I meditated, my attention became fixed on the burning candle in front of me. The following are thoughts of the moment.
I could see in my mind’s eye an old candlemaker. He was busily moving about in his workroom preparing to make the day’s supply of candles. He had a large vat of hot wax in which he could dip a candlewick. After just a moment, he would withdraw the wick, now coated with hot wax, and allow it to dry. This process he repeated many times until the candle had reached a suitable size. I was surprised to see the old man become disgusted with the shape of one of the candles he was making. Dipping the candle back into the vat of hot wax, he simply allowed the wax to melt away and then he began again.
That evening, as the sun fell behind the trees, the old man removed one of the candles from the nail in the corner where they hung. He placed it on the table in the center of the room. Once it was lit, the room was filled with a warm glow. Hours later, there was but a short stub of the candle left. The candle was extinguished, and the old man went to bed.
As I sat before the Altar of Repose, I thought about this vision. What could it mean? As I prayed, this is what I heard.
“The old man is me (God). The wick is you and the wax is my presence in the world about you. Carefully in each day…in each breath that you take, I make myself present for you. Often you fail to see me, though I am there. Often you attribute experiences of me to other things, frequently calling them coincidences. But there are other times that you do realize my presence; that is the wax which clings to the wick layer upon layer… experience upon experience. Though we have become intimately related, we are not yet one. Remember the candle whose shape was distorted? With only a little heat the wick was stripped of the wax and the two were separated…the wick only wick, and the wax still waiting form. By itself the wick would burn so quickly that the light it would provide would hardly be worth the trouble. The wax, on the other hand, would suffocate the match with which it was trying to be lit. Only together as a candle can they provide a sustained amount of light.
Remember the candle that burned for hours, how it warmed the cabin with a soft glow? That is how the wax and the wick become one. Your experiences must be shared with others. It is a sacrifice, but it is not your sacrifice…it is our sacrifice. Both wax and wick, when offered up to benefit another, come together in a oneness called light. Light cannot be divided from light but only from darkness. You and I together have become the light of another, and that light can never be quenched. It is by this light that other candles can be made, and my body grows.”
Praying, watching, sitting quietly before the Altar of Repose is an experience few in this parish have taken advantage of. Give it some thought this year. Consider spending an hour meditating on Christ, on his passion, on his promises of new life. Who knows, it might become for you a marvelous experience of meeting Christ in a new way.
Father Bill Myrick
