We learned from the Greeks, and then it was passed down through the centuries, that all beings, no matter how different they may be, have three transcendental characteristics (they are always present, regardless of situation, place and time): they are, unum, verum et bonum, that is, the being enjoys an internal unity that maintains its existence; it is truthful, because it presents itself as it is in reality, and it is good, because it is well adapted for its role alongside other beings, helping them exist and coexist.
The Medieval Franciscan masters, such as Alexandre de Hales and especially Saint Bonaventure, were those who, carrying on a tradition that came from Dionysius Aeropagita and Saint Augustine, ascribed another transcendental characteristic to the being: pulchrum, that is, beauty. Surely based in personal experience, Saint Francis, who was a poet and a aesthetic of exceptional quality, who “in the beauty of the creatures would see the Most Beautiful,” enriched our understanding of the being through the dimension of beauty. All beings, even those that appear repugnant to us, viewed with affection, in their details and in their whole, offer, each in its own way, a unique beauty, if not in its form, in the way the whole is articulated with surprising equilibrium and harmony.
One of the greatest connoisseurs of beauty was Fyodor Dostoyevski. Beauty was so central to his life, as we are told by the Benedictine monk and great spiritualist Anselm Grün, in his last book, Beauty: a new spirituality of the joy of living, (Belleza: una nueva espiritualidad de la alegría de vivir, Vier Türme Verlag, 2014), that the great Russian novelist would go every year to Dresde to contemplate Raphael’s beautiful Madonna Sixtina. He would remain for long periods contemplating that splendid work. This fact is surprising, because his novels delved into the most obscure and even perverse areas of the human soul. But in fact what moved him was the search for beauty. He gave us this famous phrase: “Beauty will save the world”, in his novel, The Idiot.
In the The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevski deepens the question. An atheist, Ippolit, asks prince Mischkin: “How could ‘beauty save the world’?” The prince says nothing but goes to an 18 year old young man in agony. And he stays with him, filled with compassion and love, until the young man dies. With that the prince wanted to express that beauty is what takes us to love, shared with suffering; the world will be saved now and always so long as that gesture exists. And how we miss it now!
For Dostoyevski, the contemplation of Raphael’s Madonna was his personal therapy. Without it he would have despaired for mankind and for himself, with all the problems he saw. In his writings he described evil and destructive people, and others who were close to the abyss of desperation. But his vision, that rhymed love with shared suffering, managed to see beauty in the soul of the most perverse characters. For Dostoyevski, the opposite of the beautiful was not the ugly, but the utilitarian; the spirit of using others, and thereby stealing their dignity.
“We surely cannot live without bread, but it is also impossible to exist without beauty”, Dostoyevski would repeat. Beauty is more than aesthetics, it possesses an ethical and religious dimension. He saw in Jesus one who sowed beauty. “He was an example of beauty and He planted it in people’s souls, so that through beauty they all would become brothers to each other”. Dostoyevski does not refer to loving the other. To the contrary: it is beauty that elicits love and makes us see in the other someone to be loved.
Our culture, dominated by marketing, sees beauty as a bodily construction, and not as the totality of the person. Consequently plastic surgery, botox and other methods appear to make people more “beautiful”. As an artificial beauty, it has no soul. And if we look closely, this fabricated beauty results in a cold beauty, with an aura of artificiality that lacks radiance. This evokes vanity, not love, because beauty has to do with love and communication. In The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevski observes that a face is beautiful when one can perceive that in it, God and the Devil litigate about good and evil. When one perceives that good is victorious, there arises an expressive beauty, soft, natural and radiant. Which beauty is better: the beauty of the cold face of a top model, or the wrinkled and radiant face of Sister Dulce from Salvador de Bahia, or of Mother Teresa from Calcuta? Beauty is a radiance of the being. In the two Sisters that radiance is manifest, in the top model, it has no strength.
Pope Francis has given special importance in the transmission of the Christian faith to the via pulchritudinis (the path of beauty). That the message is good and just is not enough. It has to be beautiful, because only that way can it touch people’s hearts and elicit the love that attracts, (Exhortation The joy of the Gospel, n 167). The Church does not seek proselytizing, but the attraction that comes from beauty and the love whose characteristic is splendor.
Beauty has value in itself. It is not utilitarian. It is like the flower that flowers just to flower. It does not matter if it is seen or not, as the mystic Angelus Silesius says. But, who is not fascinated by a flower that gratuitously smiles to the universe? Thus we must live beauty in the midst of a world of interests, exchanges and merchandise. Then beauty makes real its Sanskrit origin, Bet-El-Za, meaning “the place where God shines”. It shines for everything and also makes us shine for the beautiful.
Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, [email protected],
done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.
Sem palavras. PAra refletir.
“In the The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevski deepens the question. An atheist, Ippolit, asks prince Mischkin: “How could ‘beauty save the world’?” – Isn’t it from the novel The Idiot instead of The Brothers Karamazov?
Beethoven also thought beauty would transform the world. May I suggest, along w Silone and Gransci- u need some politics- LEFT politics. Grazi
Fr. David Eberhardt, [email protected]
Log (lob?) line Sex and NON violence: For All the Saints a 120 page voyage into the heart of the 60’s. After 21 months in federal prison at Lewisburg for pouring blood on draft files to protest the Vietnam War with Father Philip Berrigan in 1967, and a career aiding prisoners at the Baltimore City Jail, a child of the 60’s offers a poetic exploration of a life spent in revolutionary movements, an exploration of the tactics of non-violence, and a narrative of over 30 years in and out of prison- first as a felon, scond as a career.
What is it like to try and overthrow the state? The tumultuous 70’s, 80’s and 90’s (not just the “far out” 60’s) are brought to life in this poetic treatment, entitled For All the Saints. The author describes 21 months in prison for pouring blood on draft files,and other similar actions (and participants – the “Saints”) are detailed. The anti draft actions are the subject of a documentary movie “Hit and Stay”, released in 2013.
Then, he follows up: how do divorce or depression affect a life spent in service to prisoners? If events don’t kill you, do they drive you insane or make you stronger (or both) ? Becoming a person because of the movements set in motion by the 60’s (civil rights, women’s liberation, green, lgbt, therapy) , is the main theme- but also, how effective were these non-violent movements? How do they form identity, how does memory affect it. How does one identify his/her talents for a career and a paying job? How does one support oneself and take radical action? The character of saintly Father Phil Berrigan is explored as well as other anti draft activists, now the subject of a 2013 documentary “Hit and Stay” Eberhardt, born in 1941, brings to life the amazing stories of his 33 year career at the Baltimore City Jail with all its intrigues and colorful characters. His titillating and tragic-comic love life is included. He tries to deal with the “shades of grey” .Eberhardt has published three books of poetry.
Bio: David Eberhardt (a “romantic communist” like Nazim Hikmet) was born March 26, 1941. As a peace protester, he was incarcerated at Lewisburg Federal Prison in 1970 for 21 months for pouring blood on draft files with Father Philip Berrigan and two others to protest the Vietnam War. He is retired after 33 years of work in the criminal injustice system as a Director of Offender Aid and Restoration at the Baltimore City Jail. He has published three books of poetry: The Tree Calendar, Blue Running Lights, and Poems from the Website, Poetry in Baltimore. He is at work on a memoir: For All the Saints , influenced by Thoreau, Nabokov, Mailer, Agee, Matthiessen, Lecky, Thomas, and Cousteau..
Web site is http://davideberhardt.webs.com
“The beauty don’t ask to be seen” – The secret life of Walter Mitty