An Epidemic of Illusion: A Lost Sense of Beauty

By Jillian Cooke, MTh, MAPM
Fr. Kolbe Missionary of the Immaculata

Beauty may be simple.
photo: Jillian Cooke

There is an epidemic of illusion and, at times, delusion wreaking havoc on the United States and perhaps the western world, even the whole world: We have robbed beauty of its objective beauty!

We have watered down the term in order to say "everyone is beautiful." Unfortunately, in doing so, we essentially detract from its meaning and cheapen the gift of God given beauty. Everyone is not beautiful, and
some people are more beautiful than others. Of course, I'm being purposely blunt here, and I hope you will forgive me. You see, my mind reels when we unknowingly adopt the mentality that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. How can beauty be in the eye of the beholder, and at the same time, everyone be beautiful? To whom? The world responds: (*crickets chirp*).

The world has robbed the word of its meaning, as it has two other critical words: truth and goodness.  The difference is that goodness and truth don't exist to the world, but because beauty is so very pleasing to the senses (by its very definition, a strange place where St. Thomas and Webster agree!) the world is still trying to claim it. On the one hand, "beauty" has come to mean "unique" in an attempt to falsely boon the self-esteems of young (and not so young) girls. You see, the world has insisted that you must be beautiful to be worthy, and so in an attempt for charity, which is impossible without God, it tells everyone they are beautiful.

Beauty may be incredibly complex/photo: wikipedia.org

This quandary is the fault of relativism. The world must deny objective reality of the good and the true, as well as the objective reality of the beautiful, in order to deny the objective reality of God. At the same time, as with that which is good and true, they cannot consistently deny it - because it is written in the very fibers of our hearts and woven in the fabric of being. Sometimes, as fallen human beings, we can be terribly wrong about what we see, such as when even perverse modern "art" is considered beautiful. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, rather, the beholder recognizes the God given beauty that lies within the admired creation.

The nearer we are to God, the more ordered our senses, and the more accurate our sense of beauty. The nearer we are to God, the more we are moved by beautiful music, awed by a beautiful sight, and inspired by beautiful scents. We fight "tooth and nail" for the good and the true, but is is equally ours to reclaim and defend the beautiful. St. Maximilian, lover of balance and order and the most beautiful of all creatures, will certainly intercede!