Beauty

Hmm. There it is. There he is. There she is.
You can't really help yourself, you must keep looking.
You understand what it means to be held captive, to be riveted, to be spellbound.
The colors, the movements, the shape, the lines, the sound, the fabric, the many facets that are remarkable to your senses - they all collide and converge to trap you, right there, as you are, and you are helpless to be free.
Moreover, you have no desire to be free. No, you are a happy and willing captive, for the conquerer is living within your own heart.

This, my friends, is what I believe we experience when we encounter the beautiful.

Please, allow me to preface with the usual form of disclaimer: I am NOT Hans Urs von Balthasar, Joseph Ratzinger, Karol Wojtyla or any other person of consequence who has something to say about beauty.
That being said, I do have eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, fingers, and a heart, and I do live in this world.
That does not make me an expert, but it does give me all the cause in the world to speak of the beautiful, for it is all around us and taken up in the world.

Some questions, pehaps, ought to be considered.
What is beauty?
What is "objectively beautiful"?
Is there such a thing?
Is beauty truly in the "eye of the beholder," or is there something more to this idea?
Is beauty simply an idea, or is it some type of reality?

Now, to be fair, I don't think these questions can be fully treated on this blog. However, I want them to be present in your mind when we speak of "beauty" because I believe the answers to be fundamental to our understanding of this concept and this reality.
To begin with, I would say that there is indeed an objective beauty, or at least an objective way to define what is beautiful. I mean "objective" here as "true" or "inherent" or "real." I would also say that our individual affinities and what we find familiar certainly do affect what is beautiful to each person, so that there is of course the subjective sense of beauty as well. However, I would also argue that overall, the objective truth of something beautiful is prior to, or has priority over, what is found subjectively beautiful. And I believe beauty is both an idea and a reality. This is because, above all else, beauty is personal. As something which is both an idea and a reality, beauty is something that we encounter. It is both the tangible reality which we see or feel or know in some way through our senses and the draw and desire that takes hold within us and makes its home in our mind and heart.

Consider something that you do find beautiful, whether it be a seashell or a woman or a symphony, etc... What is it that moves you? That captures you? Do you walk over to the orchestra and say, "you are beautiful!" before they have begun to play? Or is it rather that once the music reaches you and you enounter the movements, then you know it to be beautiful. To say that something like an idea is personal is to personify it in some sense. It is different than the personification of a spoon or some inanimate object, because this personality is more specific to the relation it has with you.

Perhaps I am drawn more to dark hair and you to light hair, as far as what we find beautiful or attractive. Both can be said to be good. Yet one reaches into my heart in a different way than it does to yours. What is important is that both of us can be aware that there is something outside of us or beyond us that is drawing us to it. What is also important is that we recognize that although our responses to this object are different based on the subjective desires we have, the goodness of the thing itself is the starting point and presence of the beauty that is inherent in the object.

It is vital that what is beautiful is good, because what is beautiful is something that displays "what it is meant to be," and fulfills to some extent the goodness that was always present within it. For example, let us take a table. I have a little side table in the living room which was made rather simply, out of something close to cardstock, and because it was made without real wood, it has little appeal as something of beauty. However, I also have a little side table in my bedroom, and this table is made out of wood. You can see the pattern of the wood throughout the table, and it has been stained so that there is a rich color to it. Both of these tables serve the same purpose. Yet one seems to "be" more of what a side table "ought to be," while the other seems to display little value in the sense of fulfilling its potential.

Another example could be when something is old or broken. When placed next to a new version, the object will typically show how limited it is in revealing what it was meant to be, and the fullness of its particular potential. Now, this must be qualified both in terms of what attracts an individual and in terms of what we mean by potential. For example, I may have a strong affinity for old and comfortable things, and find them most comforting and desirable when they are worn in and remind me of home. Therefore, an old couch might actually seemt to fulfill its "goodness" to me over and above a new one, because a couch is meant to be sat on and used. Yet, another could argue that the new couch is beautiful while the old one is threadbare and ugly.

So we cannot outright define something as "beautiful" simply if it is the "best it can be," but of course we can understand how there is some truth in the point.

We also need to consider what attraction or affinity mean. To be drawn to something means to recognize a good that we believe would be good for us, such as something that would make us happy, improve us, or be helpful. However, the highest attraction to things is when we can see the good in them for themselves, or of themselves, rather than something for us. In this case, we want to be with it or in it or participate with it - not only because it will make us happy (although that will probably be a nice side-effect), but simply because it is a good in and of itself. For instance, when the sunlight shines into a room and we can see all the dust particles in the air. Children will often try to catch them or at least stand in the sun to be part of this "magical" phenomenon. This is not because the child thinks that they are going to be able to hold onto the particles or that this experience is going to make them happier or better... it is simply because they see what they understand as good and beautiful and they want to be part of it.

Again, consider a beautiful scene, perhaps a sandy isolated beach or a far reaching field at the base of a mountain. These are typically things that stir in us a desire to participate. We don't want to put the sand in a bottle and think that we've taken what is beautiful for ourselves. We want to lay in it. We want to dig our toes in and feel the warm sand on top and the cooler sand below. We want to lay in that field and smell the flowers and hear the bees and feel the tickle of the tall grass. We want to accept the beauty around us into our hearts and into our memories. Certainly, we may want to try to take a souvenir with us, but we understand that to be a tangible memory of a beautiful experience, or the experience of the beautiful, rather than the containment of the beauty itself.

So we are dealing with a concept that requires our physical presence and the presence of something else which draws us, but also with the reality of things which in and of themselves are good, and possess a truth and therefore a beauty which we desire to be a part of and to know in more depth. This is ultimately the beauty we encounter in other people. When we come to know and love our family, friends and spouses, it is because we have first seen or experienced some amount of the beauty proper to the person, and have therefore been drawn more deeply into knowing the truth of their personal goodness. It is very hard to be a friend to someone who you cannot find this experience of the good in. It is hard not to be a friend to someone whose beauty profoundly moves you.

There is so much more to say about this, so perhaps I will attempt a bit of a series on the concept. For now, let us consider what it means to encounter the beauty of God. Is the love of our parents something we know as beautiful? What about the common prayer of the Church? Perhaps the family in their community? Are we left dumbstruck by the Eucharist? Do we sense the sacramentality of the world around us in its very nature as beautiful? Even driving through a busy city where there is far more concrete than there is grass, am I not still caught up in gratitude and longing when I see a sunset or a storm roll in? What does it even mean for man to yearn to be with the beautiful?

Let us consider St. Augustine's beautiful quote:
"Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."

Sweet Lord

Let me tell you something I believe with all of my heart:


People do not know how beautiful they are. Beautiful in their own right, beautiful to others, beautiful before God, just full of beauty!


Let me tell you a little story.


One day I was at mass and the family in front of me had a charming little boy of around four years old. I was catching his eye at every possible moment because he was flirting right back (as all wide eyed, long-lashed little boys are so good at doing), and I was smiling so much throughout mass (try not to think how I probably should have been paying attention, lol). We knelt down to pray after mass had ended and their family moved towards the door. The little boy paused in front of me, and then pulled on his mother's pants. She bent down and talked to him quickly, and then he turned around again and looked straight at me. I had no clue what was coming, but I was so excited that he was going to talk to me! So adorable!
He seemed to take a moment to muster up the courage and then he announced to me, "You're really beautiful."
He turned and fled into his mother's legs, who proceeded to give me that parent smile of "don't be weirded out, he's only four." I smiled back the "don't worry, I'm not," smile, and that was that.
I just kept kneeling, thinking about what had happened. Let's be serious here, I'll take a four year old's opinion any day over an adult! I was so humbled, and so thankful. It made me think a lot about this topic.


I don't know if you've had some similar experience, and perhaps yours was actually through someone who loves you uniquely, but I wanted to get the point across - we just can't know how much good there is to us.


When we are created in the image and likeness of God, who are we to sit around muddying up our complexions? Don't get me wrong, I am seriously aware of our sinful natures. That's part of the point as well. I shouldn't be sinning in the first place, and then I really shouldn't be taking time to live in dejection, disappointment, despair and pity because I screwed up. Well, you know, we're kids. We're babies in the "being-perfect-as-your-heavenly-Father-is-perfect" game. We aren't supposed to have it all figured out. We never will! There will always be more to unlearn, better habits to adapt, more fulfilling prayers to pray, more peace to bring to our families, more forgiveness for those around us, more hope for the future... the growing process never ends. So we will fail, and fall, and then we will get back up again. We'll go say we're sorry, go confess and repent, and then we're going to let it go. We aren't supposed to forget our loveliness!!!


Sin damages our relationship with God, with the world, with those around us, and with ourselves. Sin does not remove the good nature we were given in the gift of existence! We are still His creatures, whether we accept it or not. We have the freedom to refuse his mercy and love but that light of his life that dwells within us is ever present and awaiting our invitation. We cannot allow our failures to keep us blind to the beauty that his mercy brings when we seek healing.


One of my favorite lines of all of Scripture is from Hosea 11:3
"but they did not know that I healed them." (RSV)
or
"they did not know that I was their healer." (NAB)


The whole context is this -
"When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son.
The more I called them, the farther they went from me, Sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer." (NAB, 1-4)


Think about this though! When we grow up a little, all the things our parents have done for us, all the sacrifices we were so unaware of as children - they begin to be revealed and we find our hearts filled with gratitude. As the same responsibilities fall on our shoulders, we understand that they have always loved us so selflessly. Yet, when we are little, we cannot see or understand their working for us or their intention to keep us safe and happy, or to heal us when we are broken. 


Thus the Lord works in mysterious ways to move and change us, to aid us in our brokenness, to remake us into his image time and again. He never grows weary of us! He never tires of our same failures and our same vices. He never stops wanting to form us anew again. He has been our healer when we did not know him, and he will be so again. 

So if this is the case, is it so hard to believe we are beautiful, moreso than we understand or perhaps want to believe? I never thought I'd say it, but have faith that you are full of value, desirable, love-able, beautiful! 


This is a song that the Missionaries of Charity (Bl. Mother Teresa's order) pray everyday. I don't think you can get much more beautiful than they are:

"Sweet Lord, thy thirst for souls I satiate with my burning love all for Thee.

My chalice will be ever-full, sacrifices made all for Thee. 
Ever more I will quench Thy thirst. Ever more I will quench Thy thirst, Lord, for souls. 
In union with Mary our Queen, I will quench Thy thirst."