The Nature and Necessity of Beauty in the Light of Eternity
Artwork pictured above: The Annunciation
In our modern world, we’re so often bombarded with interpretations and expressions of “art” that insist on being recognized as beautiful or consequential—as if it were a highly acclaimed work from a Renaissance or Baroque master. We all know, however, that this is absurd. There is objective beauty, just as there is objective truth and goodness. This is because God is Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. Creativity in the arts that is oriented towards God, who is Beauty, then reflects Him in works that are objectively beautiful as a result. By contrast, a piece of modern art, such as a painting that looks like it was created by a manic chimpanzee, has no orientation towards Beauty, but rather chaos and disorder, and is thus, objectively ugly. We are so inundated with forms of “creativity” in the arts that are not oriented towards Beauty and are disordered, that we are, in many ways, desensitized to just how offensive these expressions of “art” can be. Even in many of our own churches, we are accustomed to a de-emphasis on the presence of Beauty and its reflection in our Lord’s dwelling place. It is imperative that we prioritize Beauty and reflect it in our churches, including the domestic church, so that this true and rightly-oriented art assists us in transcending the material and lifts us to what is eternal.
God is Goodness, Truth, and Beauty
How do we know that God is Goodness, Truth, and Beauty? According to the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Catechism states (nos. 40, 41):
Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our starting point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and thinking. All creatures bear a certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures—their truth, their goodness, their beauty all reflect the infinite perfection of God. Consequently we can name God by taking His creatures’ perfections as our starting point, "for from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.”
It is through created things, primarily God’s creation, that we come to know the One who created them. The Transcendentals—Goodness, Truth, and Beauty—are the attributes of God and the manifestations of perfection in God’s creatures and creation that altogether reflect the infinite perfection of the Creator. What are Goodness, Truth, and Beauty? Goodness can be understood as the perfect conformity to God’s will. Truth, as defined in the Catechism is, “the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality” (CCC 2500). According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “Beauty relates to the cognitive faculty; for beautiful things are those which please on being seen” (Summa Theologica, 1, 5, 4). Through human encounter with the Transcendentals, man comes to know the ultimate and infinite perfection of Almighty God.
True Art, Oriented Towards Beauty, Reflects God
When man orients himself towards God in order to create expressions of art that seek to glorify Him, then the Goodness, Truth, and Beauty of God are reflected and man has an encounter with the living God through manifestations of His being. The Catechism states, “Created ‘in the image of God,’ man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works” (CCC 2501). This is especially true in the creation of sacred art. The Catechism (no. 2502) states:
Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God—the surpassing invisible beauty and love visible in Christ, who “reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature,” in whom “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
For much of human history when Christianity reigned in the culture, such as the Renaissance, creativity and expression in the arts were truly devoted to God with an aim to give Him glory and communicate the eternal truths of His Divinity and mysteries of the Christian faith. This led to a prolific societal blossoming of magnificent and wondrous works of art such as Michelangelo’s Pieta, Mozart’s Requiem, and the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. The great masters were not only given extraordinary gifts in their artistic abilities and intelligences, but they were also formed in a culture that embraced Christ as King and sought to give Him all glory, laud, and honor. Take it from the words of Michelangelo:
Beauty was given to me at my birth as the true model for my dual calling. It is both a light and a mirror for me in both art forms. Whoever thinks otherwise is mistaken. For beauty alone inspires me to envision the sublimity of the conceptions I undertake to paint and sculpt. While insolent and foolish people concoct a false notion of beauty, reducing it to the level of their senses, beauty comes from heaven and will lead any sane spirit to the place from which it came.
The result is the flowering of truly beautiful art oriented towards the Creator and reflecting the multiplicity of His perfections through the senses given to man to make God known.
The Disorientation of Modern Art and the Desensitization of the Culture
In contrast, modern art in our increasingly secular and post-Christian society is primarily not oriented towards God and giving Him glory. These secular expressions of art, without any upward eternal and moral aim, are thus disoriented. As a result, modern art reflects what it is actually oriented towards, which is disorder and chaos. This disorder in the arts is clearly apparent in its manifestations. One could hardly argue that the disagreeable and displeasing works of modern art are as beautiful as the great cathedrals in Europe, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the sonnets of Shakespeare, or the symphonies of Beethoven. Of course, varying degrees of beauty or ugliness exist in the arts. This is because the closer to the perfection of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, an artist endeavors to imitate and reflect in an artwork, the more beautiful the masterpiece. The opposite is also true, in that the further disoriented an artist is to the perfection of the Creator, the more displeasing and disordered the outcome will be. This does not mean that all art that is secular or pagan cannot contain beauty. It does mean that an artist has to possess some upward moral aim towards Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, even if he or she has no concept of the One Almighty God.
Without an orientation towards God who is Beauty, our culture is producing art that is actually quite offensive to the senses, including our music, fashions, visual media, and all other forms of artistic expression. We are so overloaded by disordered and disoriented forms of art in our society, that we’ve become accustomed and desensitized to the chaos. We don’t blink when a song with expletives and crudeness comes over the speakers in public or even our own devices. We have little concept of beauty and modesty in dress, because the world has stripped the human body of fashions that uphold the dignity of being made in the image of God. We aren’t offended when visual and literary media turns pornographic and explicitly evil. If we are offended, and we are aware of these manifestations of chaos and disorder, it is because we live in the light of eternity. Deo gratias!
Even in our most sacred places, the beauty, which inspires awe and reverence and lifts the soul to eternal realities, is stripped away. The modern music is meant to invoke feeling, more than give all glory and praise to God with great solemnity. As a result, in many churches, the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ truly present in the Blessed Sacrament is unintelligible to a stranger, or even to a congregant. Without beauty present in our churches that lift us to eternal truths, we begin to forget the Truth.
Reorientation Towards Beauty
What our broken culture sorely needs is a reorientation towards Beauty and a revival of Christianity in the culture. In the arts, this means a reorientation towards God and pursuing the eternal truths and goodness of the Creator in order to reflect true Beauty in artistic expression. In the Church, this requires restoring true artistic expression in our sanctuaries, chapels, and music ministries that reflect Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, and make Him known. Reflecting Beauty is also essential for the domestic church, where young Catholics receive their first formation in the faith. By reorienting ourselves towards God in the arts, the culture will experience a revival of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty in all things.
Reflecting Beauty in the Domestic Church
Just as it is essential for beauty to infuse our sacred sanctuaries and chapels, so to is it vital for the health and harmony of the domestic church. When we adorn our homes with beautiful sacramentals, we give our minds and souls a continuous invitation to prayer that transcends the physical reminders of our faith and lifts us up to eternal realities. We are reminded that this world is only our ship, as St. Therese of Liseux said, and not our home. Our eternal home is with our Father in heaven, and it is for the health and sake of our souls that we are continuously reminded of our purpose on this earth: to love and serve God with all our heart, strength, mind, and soul, so that we may one day be united with Him in the glories of eternal life. Like truth and goodness, beauty in the domestic church reflects the Creator and serves as an ever-present reminder of our one true home.
Adorning our homes with beauty is quite simple in practice. We should search for sacred art and other sacramentals that remind us of our loving God and His Beauty—specifically, art created by skillful masters who were inspired by their faith to create sacred images that glorify God and His Bride, the Church. Having these visual reminders of God’s omnipresence, merciful love, and His divine will that reflect Him in His perfections, offers limitless and invaluable inspiration for the faithful in the domestic church. Take for example, a painting of the Annunciation hanging in the living room of a Catholic home. Every day, the family gazes on this beautiful picture and is reminded of Our Lady’s meek and humble fiat that led to the Incarnate Word, and to emulate her example of heroic faith, trust, and surrender to God’s holy will: “Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.” Not only does Beauty in the domestic church reflect God, but also it invites us to know, love, and serve Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls.
