The root of the Church’s inability to adequately evangelize the Western world is that we are so full of truth and goodness that we have forgotten beauty. In that, we resemble the modern world we sometimes criticize. Beauty has been sacrificed to function and efficiency in architecture, ritual and thought. The notion that human creations should participate in the higher, more spiritual realms of existence is compromised. Yet, people come to God because God and creation are beautiful. They attract us. 

This analysis may sound harsh, but it is shared by many leading lights in our Church, including the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar who, although he died 37 years ago, continues to shine a light for many. Writing in 1961, Balthasar criticized the prevailing theologies of the day as resembling “the dead heaps of stones that were left over after the destruction of the holy Temple.”

Fortunately, Balthasar was not content with criticism. He maintained beauty is the force that unifies truth and goodness. Beauty holds an almost irresistible hold on human awareness. Because of that, we are drawn to the good because it is beautiful; we pursue truth due to its splendour.

Advertisement

A truncated understanding of religious truth reduces it to a dry set of propositions held in the intellect. Goodness, too, can be diminished to something less than glory; it can be seen solely as a set of ethical norms that cannot be violated. With such an understanding, it is little wonder Christian action is reduced to doing the minimum required with no impetus to live in God’s holiness.

Beauty thus gives life to truth and goodness. Its radiance shines through them, making truth and goodness not merely axioms in some system of thought but desirable in themselves.

Balthasar called faith “the transport of the soul.” He said: “It must be understood not as a merely psychological response to something beautiful in a worldly sense which has been encountered through vision, but as the movement of man’s whole being away from himself and towards God through Christ.” 

Advertisement

That movement is erotic, full of desire.

Those who know me would probably not describe me as a joyful person. However, I do have moments of joy precipitated by an awareness of God’s palpable presence. Many others can say the same. Still, I was unprepared when my spiritual director told me those moments of joy are my acts of obedience to God.

Dare we ever describe obedience in such a fashion? We can be tempted to think of obedience as the reluctant bowing to another’s will. However, God wills that we be full of joy, and God enjoys our enjoyment of him. Perhaps we can think of all the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – as beautiful acts of obedience to the Divine will. Doing so would erode the stereotype of Christians as a dour group of rule followers, intent on destroying the joy of others.

These fruits are more than emotions. They are God’s gifts acting in the hearts and souls of the faithful. They are signs that Christian ethics arises from the Spirit within. This is what the Christian faith has to offer, not a spirit of guilt and gloom but one of happiness in the presence of the infinitely loving God. The true “rapture” is not that of a chosen few being swept up to Heaven but of our being enraptured by the glory of God amidst the tasks of daily life.

Modern philosophy has reduced the understanding of the nature of the human person to that of an isolated atom of existence. Ideas have consequences even if it takes centuries for those consequences to be realized. Today, we pay the price with epidemics of loneliness, drug abuse, violence, a lack of social solidarity and other woes. Isolating the individual makes it easy for powerful forces to dominate and exploit.

Advertisement

A more human world is one in which persons are defined by their relation to others, both human and Divine. Beauty is that which draws us into relationships. Beauty represents nothing short of the salvation of humanity. By transporting us out of our isolated selves, it leads us to faith and solidarity. Beauty refreshes our lives with holy desire. It holds forth the possibility of joy, peace and kindness.

As always, Christianity can offer the world what it most lacks. In this instance, it is liberation from isolated, mechanical living into a new era of compassion, justice and human fulfilment.