Beauty & Divine Revelation
Divine Revelation extends far beyond the words of the Bible, but rather occurs in the particularities and details of our everyday lives, and the beauties we encounter, both natural and human crafted. There is an indisputable union between divine revelation and beauty, as Balthasar so clearly illustrates: “the beautiful is mere idle talk when divorced from the sense of divine summons to change one’s life” (Balthasar 107). Neither concept can be experienced in entirety without the other. Beauty is the mechanism through which divine revelation occurs and is manifested.
In order to fully understand this intertwining, we must first acknowledge what revelation and beauty are independent of one another. Revelation is “interpenetrated with this kind of contemplative vision” (Balthasar 114). Balthasar is emphasizing the necessity of the participant to be engaged, in order for something to truly be revealed. It is in this action of contemplation that the revelation, which is by no means a single entity, overwhelms the contemplator, until “he is left with no alternative except a return to simple discipleship” (Balthasar 115). What I mean by saying that revelation is more than a single entity is the idea that because revelation is the manifestation of total love of Christ, there is almost an infinite horizon of possibility to be discovered. This infinite horizon is often broken down and explored through instances of beauty. Beauty can be misinterpreted in the sense of aesthete, which is appreciating “pretty things for their own sakes” and finding “delight in the resulting good feeling” (O’Malley Lecture). Although it is not wrong for something to be aesthetically beautiful in this sense, the true nature of beauty calls us further into contemplation. It is through this contemplation that divine love and revelation transcend human understanding and bring you back to a desire for discipleship, and therefore is akin to an entrance as opposed to a mode of escapism.
The most profound example of divine revelation through beauty is the life and death of Jesus Christ. Christ is God’s greatest work of art (Balthasar 117). It is in this event that the human notion of beauty has come to change. No longer are things simply pleasing to the eye, but, as a result of the beauty of the passion and resurrection of Christ, all beauty now points to him. Beauty is no longer viewed subjectively, but rather objective in that all beauty is strategic as a means to bring one closer to God and to strengthen relationship.
The senses which precieve the physical beauty of the world are in no way different than what Balthasar unravels as our spiritual senses, “for it is the same senses which first are earthly and then become heavenly through the infusion of (Christ’s) grace” (Balthasar 370). It is commonly misunderstood that senses take in, and turn things into spiritual concepts. But this is not the case. Our senses are “an inspirited frame, a world which opens out to the world” (Balthasar 385). They are the means through which a human being expresses their spiritual life and spirituality. So many aspects of our spiritual lives would not be fully grasped in God’s intended way “in a purely spiritual sense” (Balthasar 384). It is through the physical senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch that we are able to become “attuned” to God, and his unconditional love. “Experiences of wonder through the arts can help us distinguish between the lie of invulnerability and the truth of our dependence on God” (Gonzalez-Andrieu 44). As Gonzalez illustrates, we become more and more aware of our reliance on God as a result of our ability to recognize the beautiful, and ultimately, its origin in the power of God’s love for humanity. Many aspects of Catholicism are difficult to grasp conceptually, but through the senses we become attuned to the mysteries.
The community of the church is thus called to come together to celebrate Christ, and in a sense become a part of this beauty, especially through the sacraments. It is through both mundane human interaction, as well as the physical practices of the sacraments that we can become beautiful together. In Garcia-Rivera’s “The Community of the Beautiful”, we learn of the power of the ‘difference’ of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and how their community overcame the struggles they faced in dealing with the inequality of the Encomienda. The beauty of this community came at a large scale, as a result of overcoming differences, and accepting. The “difference that divided two peoples became an act of union which was, at its heart, redemptive” (Garcia-Rivera 44). Though this sense of becoming beautiful as a community happened at a rather large scale, the same can be seen in the sacraments.
The most vivid example of a community coming together in beauty is exhibited through the sacrament of marriage. The idea of marriage can of course be pleasing in the aesthete, as well as “cult of the pretty” that we discussed in lecture, in the shine of the rings, or the basilica’s architecture. But the beautiful is not truly present, unless it is contemplated as a part of the sacrament itself. The rings have no meaning or power until they are blessed. It is once we become attune to this that the true beauty is revealed as being “intrinsically related” to Christ and his love.
Simply put, beauty cannot exist outside the realms of divine revelation, and in some way is always connected back to the manifestation of love in even the smallest particularities of this earthly life.
