Truth, Goodness, and Beauty
I believe I’ve heard them referred to as the secondary trinity. Solzhenitsyn called them the “three transcendentals”.
Here I’ll quote generously from what Robert Royal recently wrote in the Catholic Thing Beauty Will Save the World: “[P]erhaps that ancient trinity of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty is not simply an empty, faded formula as we thought in the days of our self-confident, materialistic youth? If the tops of these three trees converge, as the scholars maintained, but the too blatant, too direct stems of Truth and Goodness are crushed, cut down, not allowed through – then perhaps the fantastic, unpredictable, unexpected stems of Beauty will push through and soar TO THAT VERY SAME PLACE, and in so doing will fulfil the work of all three?
That’s a very hopeful way to look at things today. We know that Truth and Goodness are as confused now as they have ever been. And that while the slow process of reason recovers them both, some way around the impasse has to be found in the meantime. And yet, beauty (small “b”) is also often deceptive and seems more likely to wreck the world, absent faith and reason.
Can Beauty of another sort, a transcendent Beauty among the other transcendentals, actually save for us at least a bit of what made and continues to hold us and our entire civilization together?
St. Augustine famously wrote in Book X of Confessions, ‘Late have I loved Thee, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved thee.’ (Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te amavi! ) He meant, of course, the divine beauty and in the same passage even decries his attachment to ordinary kinds of beauty in the world: ‘these beauties kept me far enough from thee: even those, which unless they were in thee, should not be at all.’”
Thankfully, these three transcendentals find their source in our gracious God. We have hope for today and for the days to come in this God Who has redeemed us to Himself through the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It is around this that we worship daily in our homes and weekly on the Lord’s Day.
With that in mind, St. Paul’s encouragement is needed now as much as ever: 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9)
Uncertainties and Certainties
Traveling home from a conference in St. Louis I was listening to a podcast. Dr. Ellen Langer from Harvard was talking about “being mindful.” One of her emphases of being mindful is living with the idea that you really do not know what is to come. You may think you’ve got it figured out, but really you don’t. Life is always in a state of change.
Dr. Langer’s illustration caught me off guard. She will often start a certain class she is leading with the question “What is 1 + 1?” Of course, the expected answer is “2.” But then she asks, “What is one load of laundry plus one load of laundry?” The answer would be “One”; albeit a bigger load, but still one. “What is one wad of gum plus one wad of gum?” “One.” And “what is one cloud plus one cloud?” Again, “one.”
Her point is that the mathematical facts on which we have all been drilled often don’t correlate to real life experience. We should always be aware of the unexpected – and that is a way of being mindful.
As children of our heavenly Father, we know that this world afflicted with sin will with frequency throw something unexpected our way. There will be the cancer diagnosis, the collision when driving, and other things all the way down to the spilling of milk.
Our confidence, our way of living in hope comes from the fact that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8. God has kept His promises in the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of all sin. God’s promise of the new heaven and the new earth when Jesus returns is, likewise, utterly dependable. On this certainty we rely, day in and day out. Thus, we can trust that God’s other promises for this life are also completely true. God bless your mindfulness of His truths!
Sharing the Word
“Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
I ran across this quote this morning. I’m not sure where it is recorded, but it’s good advice for us in such a contentious time as this.
As we go about sharing God’s Word with those around us, I appreciate St. Paul’s advice to Timothy. Granted, it’s aimed at the pastoral office, but are we not all witnesses to grace of God in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus to forgive the sins of the world?
2 Timothy 4: I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Still, I must remember that there will be persecution in these latter days. Jesus forewarned His disciples about this. John 15: 18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” The book of Revelation, too, tries to strengthen us before persecution falls upon us.
Until that time is abundantly clear, I’ll go with Emerson’s sage reminder. Contradiction does not equal persecution. With respect to God’s Word, it merely means there is an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to change someone’s eternal well-being!