The Colour Purple

Another thing I love about liturgy is the use and change of colour. So much meaning can be crammed into a single shade.

Right now, the colour is a Lenten purple. Purple strikes me as being so complicated. On the one hand, it is the colour of repentance and sorrow, and also of course always a sign of forgiveness. We are preparing for the greatest Sacrifice in history, the Sacrifice that drives in the gravity of our guilt.

But the Sacrifice also looks forward to our forgiveness, and the promised Resurrection, the free gift of God to us. Surely, while we must accept our fallen nature and our individual failings in order to best receive this gift – hence the preparation by repentance – we also must not forget that the reason we are mourning is the same reason we will be joyful. Surely, while it is necessary to recognize the truth of ourselves in order to give thanks and praise, the emphasis should be on the praising. That is why Lent is never the end. It helps remind us of that, I think, when we splash a little pink into this time. Laetare Sunday: Rejoice, O Jerusalem! Amid pain and suffering there is the unmistakable vibrancy of joy and happiness.

Purple is also the colour of royalty. Christ’s kingship is realized just as much in his Lenten journey as is the white and gold of the Resurrection. The purple robe placed on him, along with the crown of thorns, ironically recognizes this kingship in and by the very act of sending him to his death.

Purple helps me to remember that Jesus’ suffering is never far apart from his glory, and that I shouldn’t lose sight of one when in the face of the other. When we cover all the images in the church with purple cloth on Good Friday, are we not proclaiming exactly that? All the glory, all the truth of our faith might be hidden under suffering and despair; hidden, but always right there underneath the surface; hidden, but soon to be revealed.

I like it when the altar ‘dressings’ are changed along with the priest’s vestments rather than changing vestments and using unbleached linen for everything else. It is not only the priest, as image of Christ, who is on this journey. Rather, it is all of us, the whole Church, the Body of Christ.