THERE’S practically an SOS signal
issued widely today
insofar as our sense of beauty is concerned. Beauty to most people has
been abducted and is in urgent need for rescue. It has been held
captive for a long time by some social, cultural and ideological
forces that distort its true nature and character, and deny its full
rights.
I remember Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, way back in 2008,
making a most heart-felt appeal to reconnect the search for beauty
with the search for truth and goodness of actions, or morality, which
in the end can only be found in God.
The de facto separation of beauty from truth and morality
has transformed beauty, in the words of the Pope Emeritus, “into a
path that leads to the ephemeral, into banal and superficial
appearances, or even a flight toward artificial paradises, which
disguise and hide interior emptiness and inconsistencies.”
I believe this issue has to be given due and immediate
attention before things get any worse. With the many developments
nowadays that can easily seduce and intoxicate us because of their
enormous capacity to give us instant pleasure, convenience and relief,
we have to learn to be most discerning and prudent so as not to get
lost or confused in what really would comprise as good and beautiful
to us.
We need to reiterate quite strongly that beauty in the end
is a matter of being with God. For art, for example, to portray
beauty, it has to be inspired by God. I agree with what a certain
Herman Hesse, quoted by the Pope Emeritus, once said. “Art,” he said,
“means revealing God in everything that exists.”
Being “custodians of beauty,” artists therefore have to
realize that they need to be inspired by God always. They have to go
beyond technical perfection and worldly inspiration.
They need to be faithful to God and consistent to God’s
will and ways. Only in this way can they capture real beauty, not the
reduced and compromised one. Let’s hope that they can manage to pursue
their artistic creativity and originality along these lines.
Thus, unless we see God in everything, which means that we
have God in us to be able to see him in everything, we would hardly
see real beauty. Our sense of beauty would be the distorted or false
type.
We have to be wary of our strong tendency to romanticize
our concept of beauty. It is often said that beauty is in the eyes of
the beholder. This can be true only if one has God in himself.
When our sense of beauty is truly inspired by God, then we
can see beauty in everything, including our suffering, failures, and
the drudgery of the daily routine of our life.
Otherwise, he will simply be dependent only on some
technical if not peripheral aspects of beauty that at best can only be
transitory and highly limited. He would simply be at the mercy of
material or sensual stimuli. He would not be able to see beauty in
everything, especially in those times when our human mind can only
discern suffering, pain and other forms of contradictions.
We need to have a more effective catechesis on what beauty
really is. We need to liberate the world from an insidious
misconception that has deceived us for long. The organic connection
between God and beauty has to be clearly established in the minds of
people.
And after catechesis, one has to learn how to contemplate
beauty in everything, seeing to it that more than simply guided by
what our senses can discern, we have to be guided by the truths of our
faith. In this way, we can contemplate God in everyone and in
everything, and find beauty and meaning in them.
This would also be a good way to fill up our mind and
heart with good things that would leave us happy and in a better
position to do more good things. Right now, many people find
themselves empty or simply drifting away, and very vulnerable to look
for compensations that can be instantly sweet yet poisonous, like
drugs, sex, etc.
This, I know, is a big challenge, but it simply has to be
tackled one way or another. Let’s hope that more and more individuals
can take on this challenge. And let’s hope that in the future, we can
readily see some welcome change in our culture insofar as our sense of
beauty is concerned.
Yes, we have to fix our sense of beauty so we may be able
to see beauty in everything irrespective of our human and earthly
conditions.
insofar as our sense of beauty is concerned. Beauty to most people has
been abducted and is in urgent need for rescue. It has been held
captive for a long time by some social, cultural and ideological
forces that distort its true nature and character, and deny its full
rights.
I remember Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, way back in 2008,
making a most heart-felt appeal to reconnect the search for beauty
with the search for truth and goodness of actions, or morality, which
in the end can only be found in God.
The de facto separation of beauty from truth and morality
has transformed beauty, in the words of the Pope Emeritus, “into a
path that leads to the ephemeral, into banal and superficial
appearances, or even a flight toward artificial paradises, which
disguise and hide interior emptiness and inconsistencies.”
I believe this issue has to be given due and immediate
attention before things get any worse. With the many developments
nowadays that can easily seduce and intoxicate us because of their
enormous capacity to give us instant pleasure, convenience and relief,
we have to learn to be most discerning and prudent so as not to get
lost or confused in what really would comprise as good and beautiful
to us.
We need to reiterate quite strongly that beauty in the end
is a matter of being with God. For art, for example, to portray
beauty, it has to be inspired by God. I agree with what a certain
Herman Hesse, quoted by the Pope Emeritus, once said. “Art,” he said,
“means revealing God in everything that exists.”
Being “custodians of beauty,” artists therefore have to
realize that they need to be inspired by God always. They have to go
beyond technical perfection and worldly inspiration.
They need to be faithful to God and consistent to God’s
will and ways. Only in this way can they capture real beauty, not the
reduced and compromised one. Let’s hope that they can manage to pursue
their artistic creativity and originality along these lines.
Thus, unless we see God in everything, which means that we
have God in us to be able to see him in everything, we would hardly
see real beauty. Our sense of beauty would be the distorted or false
type.
We have to be wary of our strong tendency to romanticize
our concept of beauty. It is often said that beauty is in the eyes of
the beholder. This can be true only if one has God in himself.
When our sense of beauty is truly inspired by God, then we
can see beauty in everything, including our suffering, failures, and
the drudgery of the daily routine of our life.
Otherwise, he will simply be dependent only on some
technical if not peripheral aspects of beauty that at best can only be
transitory and highly limited. He would simply be at the mercy of
material or sensual stimuli. He would not be able to see beauty in
everything, especially in those times when our human mind can only
discern suffering, pain and other forms of contradictions.
We need to have a more effective catechesis on what beauty
really is. We need to liberate the world from an insidious
misconception that has deceived us for long. The organic connection
between God and beauty has to be clearly established in the minds of
people.
And after catechesis, one has to learn how to contemplate
beauty in everything, seeing to it that more than simply guided by
what our senses can discern, we have to be guided by the truths of our
faith. In this way, we can contemplate God in everyone and in
everything, and find beauty and meaning in them.
This would also be a good way to fill up our mind and
heart with good things that would leave us happy and in a better
position to do more good things. Right now, many people find
themselves empty or simply drifting away, and very vulnerable to look
for compensations that can be instantly sweet yet poisonous, like
drugs, sex, etc.
This, I know, is a big challenge, but it simply has to be
tackled one way or another. Let’s hope that more and more individuals
can take on this challenge. And let’s hope that in the future, we can
readily see some welcome change in our culture insofar as our sense of
beauty is concerned.
Yes, we have to fix our sense of beauty so we may be able
to see beauty in everything irrespective of our human and earthly
conditions.
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