On November 21, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI met with 250 world renowned artists in the beautiful Sistine Chapel, a place where art v i b r a n t l y communicates truth. Pope Benedict’s entire message points clearly to the universality of the relationship between faith and art.
He quoted Pope Paul VI speaking to one of the greatest needs of the world, the quest for beauty within the lives of all people. Addressing artists, he said:
"We need you. We need your collaboration in order to carry out our ministry, which consists, as you know, in preaching and rendering accessible and comprehensible to the minds and hearts of our people the things of the spirit, the invisible, the ineffable, the things of God himself. And in this activity ... You are masters. It is your task, your mission, and your art consists in grasping treasures from the heavenly realm of the spirit and clothing them in words, colours, forms making them accessible."
Pope Benedict quoted him further: “This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart, and is that precious fruit which resists the erosion of time, which unites generations and enables them to be one in admiration. And all this through the work of your hands.. Remember that you are the custodians of beauty in the world."
In his own words, Pope Benedict spoke to the same thirst for beauty among humanity:
“What is capable of restoring enthusiasm and confidence, what can encourage the human spirit to rediscover its path, to raise its eyes to the horizon, to dream of a life worthy of its vocation if not beauty?
Dear friends, as artists you know well that the experience of beauty, beauty that is authentic, not merely transient or artificial, is by no means a supplementary or secondary factor in our search for meaning and happiness; the experience of beauty does not remove us from reality, on the contrary, it leads to a direct encounter with the daily reality of our lives, liberating it from darkness, transfiguring it, making it radiant and beautiful.”
In this age, we have often heard the argument that art needs to be graphic and aggressive in order to touch man’s inner core. Art communicated in this manner loses so much of its subtle message that in effect, it becomes too overwhelming to be comprehensible. However, Pope Benedict pointed out that when properly expressed, true and beautiful art contains a power within itself more commanding than is possible with explicit content. He stated:
“Indeed, an essential function of genuine beauty, as emphasized by Plato, is that it gives man a healthy "shock", it draws him out of himself, wrenches him away from resignation and from being content with the humdrum it even makes him suffer, piercing him like a dart, but in so doing it "reawakens" him, opening afresh the eyes of his heart and mind, giving him wings, carrying him aloft. Dostoevsky's words that I am about to quote are bold and paradoxical, but they invite reflection. He says this: ‘Man can live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty he could no longer live, because there would no longer be anything to do to the world. The whole secret is here, the whole of history is here.’
The painter Georges Braque echoes this sentiment: ‘Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.’ Beauty pulls us up short, but in so doing it reminds us of our final destiny, it sets us back on our path, fills us with new hope, gives us the courage to live to the full the unique gift of life.
The quest for beauty that I am describing here is clearly not about escaping into the irrational or into mere aestheticism…. Authentic beauty… unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.”
For full article see: ‘The Current’ Vol 4 Iss 1Jan/March 2010
http://www.livingwatercollege.com/thecurrent/The%20Current.Vol.4-Iss.1.pdf
Living Water College of the Arts
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