Rediscovering beauty

VATICAN officials are recently studying the possibility of rediscovering the true essence of beauty and of how beauty can be used as a way of evangelization and dialogue among different peoples and cultures.

This, in my view, is a most welcome development that promises to be a very exciting endeavor, considering the level of confusion we have with respect to what causes and constitutes beauty.

I believe that many things will be clarified at last, snatching us from the grips of narrow-mindedness and ignorance. What is worse is that many of us are not even aware of this sad predicament of ours.

Like freedom and love, beauty is a very misunderstood concept, often reduced to ridiculous low and shallow forms. Nowadays, when one talks about beauty, it is almost invariably spoken of in terms of the physical, the external, the material.

It is hooked to whether one has a shapely figure, tall, charming, nice, shiny hair, blemish-free skin, oozing with sex appeal, etc., etc. In this understanding of beauty, only very few persons and items can be considered beautiful, an outlook that is very discriminating.

There is nothing wrong when beauty is spoken of in these terms. The problem arises when such concept is considered, wittingly or unwittingly, to be the exclusive definition of beauty or at least the main consideration to be made about beauty.

That would put us in a world of illusions and false images that can lead us to unfair and dangerous situations. It can degrade humanity. It can turn man into an object, a shell without the living substance.

And that's what we are having now. Wherever one goes, this is the message that is conveyed, regardless of whether it is done intentionally or not. There seems to be an invisible hand that leads people to think of beauty in this superficial form.

It is the usual consequence of a poor vision of humanity. It is an understanding of man stuck in the physical and external aspects, focusing more on the body and ignoring the soul, intoxicated with freedom without any reference to God as freedom's author.

That concept of beauty cannot enter the world of human suffering. It cannot understand such world, and would not know what to do with such reality. It is a stranger to the world of the spiritual and the supernatural.

That Vatican effort, if pursued relentlessly, will hopefully help us to expand our understanding of beauty. It can point to us the most important element that causes and constitutes real beauty. And this is none other than one's intimate relationship with God.

At the moment, the idea of mixing God and beauty appears to be strange, if not unthinkable. You can hardly hear people talking about God and beauty in the same occasion. This is one of the funny anomalies we have in our time.

And this anomaly appears to be reinforced again by the media, with characters as in stars and celebrities freely talking about beauty, styling themselves as experts in beauty, without knowing where beauty comes from.

For sure, this Vatican effort will have to face tremendous challenges. Changing mindsets and purifying and enriching cultures are not easy jobs at all. But this initiative has to be done. Yes, it may take a thousand steps, but we have to make the first ones.

I only hope that people are mature enough, as they often present themselves to be, to realize there are very important elements related to one's understanding of beauty, long ignored and neglected, that now need to be grappled with very seriously.