Truth, Beauty, Goodness
Can one know what true beauty and goodness are? Is there an
objectivity to these attributes, or are they merely what one perceives
them to be? Let us focus on what God has created women to be and what
society tells them to be. Does the truth lie in women being successful
career women to the exclusion of their own feminine nature; in being
dependent on the admiration of others for their self-worth; or in their
being mere physical objects of pleasure? Or are they called to find the
truth of their dignity in the model of Mary, Virgin Mother of God, who
reflects and participates in the Divine Truth, Beauty, and Goodness of
which all creation is called to reflect and share in?
The question
of truth, beauty, and goodness is one that has intrigued men for
centuries. The pagan philosophers seek to identify that which is True,
Good, and Beautiful. For the Christian, however, there can be no other
answer than that which affirms that the Triune God is the True, the
Beautiful, and the Good. By His very essence God is all three.
Everything else is so only by participation. We can know this because
God has chosen to reveal Himself to us. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church #2500 tells us that "even before revealing Himself to man in
words of truth, God reveals Himself to (man) through the universal
language of creation." All creation reflects its Creator; therefore, we
can see something of Beauty itself in creation. Truth, beauty, and
goodness, which are called "the transcendentals," cannot be separated
from one another because they are a unity as the Trinity is One. Truth
is beautiful in itself. And goodness describes all that God has made.
"God saw all that He had made, and it was very good" (Gen.1:31).
Man
is the summit of the Creator's work, as Scripture expresses by clearly
distinguishing the creation of man from that of other creatures. "God
created man in His own image..." (Gen. 1:27). Thus, man was not only
created good and beautiful, but he was also established in friendship
with his Creator and in harmony with himself and with the creation
around him, in a state that would be surpassed only by the glory of the
new creation in Christ. The inner harmony of the first man, the
harmony between the first man and woman (Adam and Eve), and the harmony
between the first couple and all creation, is called "original justice."
This entire harmony of original justice was lost by the sin of our
first parents. Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be
fully "divinized" by God in glory. But he preferred himself to God and
disobeyed God's command.
Thus, Adam and Eve immediately lost the
grace of original holiness, and the harmony in which they had lived was
destroyed. They were separated from Beauty Itself. God, however did
not abandon mankind, all of whom share in the sin of Adam, since "by one
man's disobedience all were made sinners" (Rom. 5:12). In the fullness
of time God sent His Son to restore that which had been lost. The Son,
who is "beautiful above the sons of men," came to restore us to
beauty.
Thus, we turn now to beauty. Von Balthasar once remarked
that when one is seeking to draw others to God, he should begin with
beauty because beauty attracts. Beauty will then lead to truth and
goodness. Hence, if one is going to begin with beauty then one must
know what beauty is. I will make a distinction between two types of
beauty, although only one of them is beauty in the truest sense of the
definition. There is "seductive" beauty, which is often reflected in
our current culture. This would entail whatever allures us to our
self-destruction (morally or spiritually). It takes us away from what
we were created for, union with Beauty Himself. This type of beauty I
will return to, but first I want to establish a definition and proper
understanding of what "true" beauty is. This is first and foremost
whatever attracts us to our true fulfillment and happiness. In his book
The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty, John Saward, drawing
on the work of St.Thomas Aquinas, defines beauty as: "the gleaming of
the substantial or actual form that is found in the proportioned parts
of a material things." In other words, while one can find beauty in the
outward appearance, one must go deeper to the nature or the essence of
the thing.
"Thus, in a material substance (such as man) there is
beauty when the essence of a thing shines clearly through its outward
appearance." The beauty of one's soul can be said to shine through a
person's countenance. For this to occur, three things are necessary
-wholeness (integrity), due proportion (harmony), and radiance
(clarity). It is important to note that understood in this definition
is the fact that beauty is a reality in itself, it is not something that
we produce by looking at a work of art or some other thing that
attracts us. Rather, beauty radiates out of what we see. It radiates
out because it is participating in Beauty itself. In regards to Jesus,
"Christian Tradition - from Augustine and Hilary to Peter Lombard,
Albert, Thomas, and Bonaventure - holds that beauty can be appropriated
in a special way to the Second Person..."
St. Thomas says that all
three marks of beauty are found in Jesus. Radiance is found in Him
because He is the Word of the Father, and the Word eternally uttered by
the Father completely and perfectly expresses Him. He is the brightness
of the Father's mind. Due proportion is found in the Son of God
because He is the perfect image of the Father. As the perfect image, He
is divine beauty. Jesus has wholeness because He has in Himself the
whole nature of the Father. In begetting the Son, the Father
communicates the whole of His divine essence. Thus, we have a Divine
Person, God the Son, who without ceasing to be true God, has been made
true man for us in the Virgin's womb. When one sees the Virgin and the
Child, one sees a witness to the Trinity. Pope John Paul II explains
that this picture of Mother and Child "constitutes a silent but firm
statement of Mary's virginal motherhood, and for that very reason, of
the Son's divinity."
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