The Deacon's Bench
A thorough and compelling answer from Deacon Bill Ditewig:
Recently, a good friend and a priest whom I respect very much, asked me just WHY the deacon should be the person who chants the Exsultet at the Easter Vigil. “The rubrics permit someone other than the deacon to sing it, so why not just get the person with the best voice to do it? Tell me why the deacon should do it!”
I think there is so much more than simply worrying about the niceties of who gets to do what during the Easter Vigil. In particular, we should reflect on why the Church has long called upon her deacons for this responsibility. As one commentator summarizes, “From the time of Saint Jerome, when deacons composed their own poems in praise of the candle, to the later Middle Ages. . . , the blessing of the Easter candle was the high moment of the deacon’s year.” (Margaret B. Freeman, “Lighting of the Easter Candle.” Freeman was a curator of Medieval Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
There follows an exceptional lesson in liturgy, history and theology—noting, in particular, the consistent and enduring connection between the deacon and Christ, represented by the Easter candle:
Bishop Ignatius of Antioch, writing in the early second Century:
“Correspondingly, everyone must show the deacons respect. They represent Jesus Christ, just as the bishop has the role of the Father, and the presbyters are like God’s council and an apostolic band. You cannot have a Church without these. . . . Let the deacons (my special favorites) be entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ who was with the Father from eternity and appeared at the end of the world.”
The history of the association of the deacon with the Candle goes back to this same period. The minister most often associated with Christ in this literature is the deacon; for this reason, the deacon is entrusted with the great sign of the risen Christ: the Easter Candle. In fact, in many early liturgical texts, and even some into the early 20th Century, it is the Deacon who actually blesses the Candle and inserts the grains of incense.
There is much more and I encourage every deacon, priest, pastor and music director to read it all.
Deacon Bill concludes:
If the Service of Light at the Easter Vigil were simply a matter of choral performance, the answers would be simple. However, as we have seen, there is much more to the history and theology of this part of the Vigil than performance alone…Perhaps creative ways are necessary to assist the deacon in this task, or alternative musical settings might be made available. Ultimately, of course, the decision of who will chant the Exsultet rests as it should with the pastor. However, the significant connections between the Candle, the Cross, the Gospel and the deacon should not easily be overlooked or set aside.
Photos by Rosalind Chan
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