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!

How do we know God exists?

You can't touch him. You can't see him. You can't feel him. You can't smell him. Yet, you know
him. For many of us, this is the proof that he exists. Our faith is proof that he exists. But, what about our God given reason? Are we just suppose to abandon it to the conviction of faith?

Not at all. God created us to use our intellect - as my dad often said to me  "Use your God given brain" or "God gave you a brain. Use it." While I was usually in trouble when I heard these phrases, I imagine the Heavenly Father saying the same thing. "Look around and think!" "Open your eyes."

All around we see proof of the existence of God.

1. Nothing moves without something pushing it. There had to be a "first mover" that got everything started, and was never started itself.

2. Something doesn't come from nothing. Everything comes from something, but this can't go on forever. There must be something that always exists (existence itself) from which everything else comes.

3. Order does not come from disorder. Yet, we see order everywhere in the universe. Therefore, there must be something intelligent that gives order to everything.

Compare to 1,2, and 5 of Thomas Aquinas proofs of God's existence.

Numbers 4 relies on the acceptance that there are objective truths. In other words, something can actually be more or less good because it is closer or further from the true, objective good. The example St. Thomas gives is that an object is more or less hot depending on its distance from fire (considered to be the source of all heat.) So, man's being and perfections (goodness, beauty, etc) must come from his proximity to some source of being, goodness, and beauty.

Number 3 is an argument, simply put, that if there was a time that nothing existed then (as in number 1) we wouldn't exist now. Therefore, something had to always exist.

Therefore, using our God given brains and looking around the world around us, we can see that God exists. He is the first mover, the cause of all that exists, the intelligent being that gives order and purpose to our world, the source of all goodness, beauty and perfection, and eternal.

All powerful. All good. All knowing. All present. God.