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The Place of Beauty in Catechesis

July 25, 2024

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The place of beauty in catechesis received a timely boost in 2013 with the publication by Pope Francis of The Joy of the Gospel. While previous popes such as St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI urged Christians to be attentive to “epiphanies of beauty” and referred to artists as “custodians of beauty,” Pope Francis went a step further in placing beauty at the service of catechesis and the transmission of the faith:

Every form of catechesis would do well to attend to the way of beauty (via pulchritudinis). . . . Every expression of true beauty can be acknowledged as a path leading to an encounter with the Lord Jesus. . . . So a formation in the via pulchritudinis ought to be part of our effort to pass on the faith.

The Joy of the Gospel, 167

Here I explore how expressions of beauty in creation, music, art, and the lives of the saints are opportunities to encounter Christ and accompany others towards faith in him. 

Beauty in Creation

“The heavens declare the glory of God,” exclaimed the psalmist as he contemplated the beauty of the skies that reflected the beauty of the Creator (Ps 19:1). The contemplation of creation directs our gaze outwards—to look up more on what God has made and look down less on what we have made, to see the beauty we often miss. At the time this psalm was composed, what the author saw was limited to the naked eye. Today, with the capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope and the discoveries of the Hubble Telescope before that, there is no shortage of new epiphanies of beauty on which the human soul can feast. 

Rather than science being a threat to faith, it is an invaluable source of contemplation of God’s handiwork that leads us back to him. Whether it involves the study of the planets, the stars, or the micro-world of cellular biology, we are continually discovering new truths about creation, its beauty and the order that marks it. These are the expressions of beauty that lead us closer to faith in the source of beauty who is God himself.

Beauty in Music

Beautiful music has the power to touch the heart and reach the soul. In the words of St. John Henry Newman, beautiful musical represents “the outpourings of eternal harmony in the medium of created sound.” For centuries, the Church has been the promoter of liturgical music that leads to the right worship of God. Music has wonderfully captured the Psalms and other Scriptural texts in countless hymns and songs, proclaiming the Word of God in creative and effective ways. 

Leading people along the way of beautiful music is an opportunity to present the Gospel in the language of attunement, harmony, and the combination of voices and lives in the Church. The Spirit of Christ moves us back into tune and onto God’s wavelength. We could say that this was the aim of Jesus’ parables and teaching. He was inviting his audience across the ages to tune into a new frequency, a new wisdom, a new understanding, a new logic of love and mercy.

There is no shortage of new epiphanies of beauty on which the human soul can feast. 

For us in the family of the Church, the metaphor of music also speaks of the collective witness we give. In the words of St. Ephrem the Syrian, each of our lives can be described as “lyres of the Holy Spirit” that produce notes. Each of those notes unite in the Church to produce a beautiful hymn from the harmony of those sounds. If the Church is a type of choir then the participation of each of us is crucial. As each of us are called to holiness and communion with each other, so each of us are called to attune our lives anew to the life of God, increasing the beauty of the song we sing.

Beauty in Art

The Church possesses a treasure trove of art whose beauty waits to be discovered. These works are not just beautiful in themselves but serve to retell the Gospel story of salvation, mediating that gift to present generations. We think here of the marvelous mosaics in Ravenna, the frescoes of Giotto, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, and the masterpieces by Caravaggio and Raphael. The works of many of these artists don’t just communicate the Gospel message but also show how the viewer is an active participant in the drama that the artistic work portrays. Examples include the frescoes of Fra Angelico found in St Mark’s in Florence featuring a Dominican friar painted in the Gospel scene. The intended viewer was a Dominican confrere who was invited to see himself as involved in the unfolding drama of the scene depicted. Such is the potential that beautiful Christian art retains to engage people through the senses and draw them into active participation in the divine life.

The Beauty of Holiness

The Book of the Apocalypse describes the beauty of the new Jerusalem: “The city did not need the sun or the moon for light, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God, and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it. The nations will come to its light and the kings of the earth will bring it their treasures” (Rev. 21:23-24). This light that Scripture speaks of is the divine light that radiates from a community of Christians united to Christ, “the light of the world.” These are the saints whose lives exhibit what a beautiful life looks like—lives that show the beauty of holiness. Examples include Mary the Mother of the Redeemer known as tota pulchra (completely beautiful), because of God’s grace that beautifies her humanity. 

“We are God’s work of art,” declared St. Paul to the Ephesians (2:10) as he described the progressive conformity of our human nature to that of Christ who is the perfect icon of human beauty, “the beauty of all things beautiful” as St. Augustine described him (Confessions 3.6).

We think of those who shared Christ’s beauty: St. Francis of Assisi, who was enraptured by the beauty of the natural world while he himself lived a beautiful life of charity and solidarity with the poor. St. Teresa of Avila’s fellow sisters spoke of the radiance on her face after receiving the Eucharist, while the beauty of an upright conscience displayed by Saints John Fisher and Thomas More remains a beacon of light for political and Church leaders today. 

In more recent times, the twentieth century produced more martyrs for the faith than all previous centuries combined. From these lives radiate the beauty of charity, courage, and a love that lays down one’s life for others after the example of the Master. The Paschal candle lighting the starvation bunker in Auschwitz where Maximilian Kolbe died is symbolic of his supreme act of mercy in volunteering to take the place of another person sentenced to death. Or the example of soon-to-be canonized Blessed Carlo Acutis, the first millennial saint whose devotion to the Eucharist and witness to hope in the face of illness and death is inspiring a new generation.

The lives of the saints are windows through which we behold the beauty of God that triumphs over every form of ugliness, darkness, and despair. In the words of Dostoevsky, it is beauty that will save the world. The light of these holy lives awakens the love that every soul longs for, the lives that “shine out; as sparks run through the stubble” (Wis. 3:7). Contemplating the beauty of holy lives takes us closer to the same faith that animated theirs.

Conclusion

In the vision of Pope Francis, the role of evangelizers and catechists is critical in leading people along the way of beauty that leads to faith. May the whole Church witness to the beauty of God that radiates from creation, music, art, and the lives of the saints. May we become the Church Christ intended—to be “Lumen Gentium”—showing the light of God’s beauty to the nations. Let people see this light and be smitten. And may they come to believe in the God of beauty too.