As much as I would like to write about St. Patrick, with his feast day on March 17, I realize that I wrote about him last year in this column. Instead I will take this opportunity to discuss briefly the veneration of images, and related to that, the important role of beauty in worship. The church of Sacred Heart here in Chariton has, among other personalities, a statue of St. Patrick. Catholics for the most part don’t think twice about having images of saints and praying before them. Indeed, properly understood there is no conflict between worshipping God and venerating images of the saints. The retention of sacred images for worship and devotion goes back to the earliest days of the Church. The practice is much like the pictures we keep of loved ones. We don’t worship the images themselves, but merely keep them around to remind us of the persons they represent. We love the saints not so much for their own sakes, but for their connection to God. We keep their images around because they are people like us who have faithfully walked the Christian life and lead us by example.
Of course if we are going to have images of the saints, it is important that they be truly worthy, as all things directed to God should be. This brings us to the greater issue of the importance of beauty in worship. There are persons who don’t think that this is important or even appropriate, that all that is needed to worship God is a sincere heart. Yes, a sincere heart is necessary and if that is all we have to offer, surely God is pleased with that, but we often do have more to offer. Our worship should not be restricted to a sincere heart if we are capable of giving more. We should not hold back our talents and gifts from God since it is from Him that we received them. If we don’t have much to give, God will understand but if we do have much, we should give much. Remember how Jesus praised the poor widow (Mark 12:41-44), who gave only two small coins into the treasury when this was all she had and condemned those rich persons who only gave from their surplus.
Beauty is important in the design and appointment of churches and the celebration of the sacred liturgy because the liturgy itself is fundamentally beautiful and points to a beautiful reality. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as a reflection of the heavenly banquet that goes on throughout all time, is a foretaste of what we will experience in heaven. As such it behooves us to do our best, according to our resources, to raise up the beauty and dignity of the church building and its appointments to facilitate that reality. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (the book used by the priest in the celebration of mass) states, "Sacred buildings and requisites for divine worship should, moreover, be truly worthy and beautiful and be signs and symbols of heavenly realities (288)." On a prudential level, of course, operating expenses of a parish do take precedence. It is good practice to beautify churches with monies specifically given or set aside for such purposes as well as making use of the talents of the parish in order to reduce costs. That being said, it is still appropriate to spend church monies when available since the purposes are in keeping with the mission of the Church.
Beauty is inherently a good thing since it is part of God’s creation. Beauty exists naturally such as in the appearance of persons or the beauty of nature, but there is also beauty in the arts such as painting, sculpture, carving, metalwork, architecture and music. Though made by man, the fine arts are made with God given talents which, when rooted in the understanding of God as our origins and ends, reflect the beauty of God who is truth. True beauty, therefore, is a reflection of the truth. It is the mission of the Church entrusted with the fullness of revealed truth, to spread that truth not just in word but also in deed. Unfortunately, in recent decades many persons have misread the second Vatican Council of the 1960’s in the light of a modernist, minimalist, reductionist and very pragmatic approach to life. This has been reflected in both the secular art and architecture of the past half century of which the Church has not been immune to its influences. Though people may view art as merely a reflection of taste, contemporary approaches to art and architecture often are rooted in and reflect philosophies which are at odds with the Gospel. This has been responsible for much of the stripping of sacred art from our churches (something not called for and expressly prohibited by the Church) and the move away from art rooted in the beauty of God's creation and toward art informed by a mankind who seeks to find meaning in himself rather than God.
Many persons will also claim that we should put all our resources into social justice causes and that this is what will please God most. While recognizing the admonition to help the poor and downtrodden, this is not an either or issue. Both are possible and both are indeed desirable. One is reminded of the anointing at Bethany (Matthew 26:6-13) when Jesus’ disciples chastised the woman who anointed the head of Jesus with costly oil claiming that it could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus replied, “Why do you make trouble for the woman? She has done a good thing for me. The poor you will always have with you.” While we should indeed help those less fortunate, we should do it not for the sake of humanity itself, but for the reason that people are created in God's image and because we see the suffering face of Christ in them. Likewise, the Mass is the greatest prayer offered up to God, and so we should likewise present our best to God in both our hearts and for those things that we build and construct for His glory. Our encounter with God in a church built for a liturgy to celebrate His glory is an encounter with beauty that we may not have in our daily lives. Indeed, it should be an experience beyond what we have in our daily lives because it is about something greater than us, the glory and majesty of God.
