The Easter Season is ended with its overflow feasts of Pentecost, Trinity and Corpus Christi, and the Church returns to Ordinary Time. Its liturgical color is green. St. Victor said simply in the 12th century, "Green is the most beautiful of all colors." Perhaps he had in mind the enormous variety of green shades. And the 13th century Bishop of Paris, William of Auvergne said, "Green is halfway between white, which dilates the eyes, and black, which makes them contract, creating a calm sensation, especially when viewed in great expanse."
Well, much of nature's green "great expanse" has been chopped down, clawed up and paved over — so we must catch the green wherever we still might see it. Crawling along in traffic and looking left or right for a moment, we might see a tree that remains alive and lovely in its calming green.
Today, a green light means GO! Perhaps the Church is telling us — now go and do something wonderful with all of the prayers, songs, sermons, sights and sounds you've encountered these weeks since Easter Sunday. GO!
Green also symbolizes hope. The little person's voice at the end of the St. Jude's Hospital for Children ad says: "Hope means never, ever giving up." We don't have to be Christian to have hope, but knowing Christ's bright, Easter rising suggests (as opposed to being cynics) we ought to be a people who are good at living in hope.
The Medievalists said of green, it is the color which symbolizes rebirth, life, nature, spring and eternal life. Come September, October, and most of November, I may be tempted to boredom with all the green weeks. But green, of many kinds (look at the detail of the antique vestment here) is packed with many meanings. It's an invitation to thoughtful awareness.
