Laetare Ierusalem! Rejoice, O Jerusalem!
Here on this Fourth Sunday of Lent, we celebrate a little bit of rejoicing in the midst of the desert of Lent. During both Advent and Lent, we get to have a peek at a rare color of vestments which only come out twice a year: in Advent on Gaudete Sunday and in Lent on Laetare Sunday. Both of these days are a reminder of the joy of the forthcoming seasons. In this moment of Lent, we fast, but we know that our fast is not eternal. We know there is hope ahead for us. Therefore, we don these rose-colored vestments as a reminder of the hope and joy of the coming season of Easter.
First, a little background about the vestment colors used during the Lenten season. During days and seasons of penance, the priest and deacon wear violet vestments. There are two symbolic meanings to the color violet. In antiquity and indeed throughout history, violet dyes were expensive to manufacture. This meant that only royalty could practically afford it. As the tradition of different colors of vestments became more widespread, violet became the symbol of penance. If we are honest, there are times we need to be humbled a bit. By associating the color of royalty with penance, it is a reminder that the kingdom we long for is not of this world. Instead, we long for the Kingdom of God.
A unique fact about violet, and indeed all of our liturgical colors, is that there are multiple shades of the color. Violet can have more blue in it or more red in it. Violet can be light or dark. As such, there is a tradition to wear violet vestments which have a red tint. This color has become known as roman purple.
Back to our celebration of Laetare Sunday, we rejoice in the hope of the new days to come: the celebration of Our Lord’s Resurrection. As such, on this day, the tradition developed for priests to wear vestments with roman purple, but dyed in a way to make it much lighter. The result is that these vestments became known as “rose vestments.” The word “rose” comes from the Latin word rosa, meaning “pink.” This is because the resulting color looks like a shade of pink.
A common joke in the seminary is that priests like to let people know that we wear “rose vestments” today rather than pink vestments. Many priests might remind people that “Jesus didn’t ‘pink’ from the dead, He rose from the dead!” While all of this is in good fun, I would add that we must look past this detail. Instead, today we are reminded that we are people who look ahead in hope of the good things to come.
–Fr. Alex