THE MEANING OF THE BEAUTIFUL

What is the drive that propels the human being to create the Beautiful? Whence the form, the color,the proportion, the shape, the grandeur, the massive sweep,and the originality of the

What force drove someone to create the overwhelming beauty of the altar Mosaic of the basilica of Maria Maggiore? The facade of the Cathedral of Siena? The sweep of St. Paul's outside the walls? The loveliness of Santa Ignese in the Piazza Navona?

Who can look at the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and the painting of the Last Judgment, called the most beautiful wall painting in the world and not GASP in astonishment? Who can view these marvels and not doubt his own eyes? Is it all an illusion? This coculd not be created by human beings, could it? Yet-- there is it--before me--- and more and more and more.

Is it sheerly an artistic urge which cannot be denied? Is it a force within certain gifted people which simpl,y MUST come out? This is probably true---up to a point!

Is it something impoverished artists did for money? To satisfy wealthy and powerful patrons--like Popes,Kingss and landowners? This is probably true---up to a point!

But there is another factor which is probably unacceptable to a secular mind and likewise uncomfortable to the modern spirit. There is an inherent drive in the human soul to reach out for and to touch the DIVINE. There is in all of us an underlying sense of The Something Else! The Blessed apostle Paul noted this factor in Athens as he observed their altar to the UNKNOWN GOD!

In ancient Rome, in the preChristian ascendency, there was ( and is ) a magnificent edifice called the "Pantheon" which was a temple erected by the pagan Romans to ALL the gods.

If underveloped,there was a belief that the divine had an influence on human affairs. Later the great St.Augustine of Hippo made his own famous statement in his " Confessions"

( understood as testimonies). " Thou hast made us for Thyself,O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee."

Interestingly, the Pantheon,previously a temple to polytheism, remains as beautiful and awesome as ever, but as a Christian Catholic church in which the sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated daily. The divine is touched by the human each day enclosed by this physical beauty.

by the pagan monuments in the Roman Scavi. For example, one sarcophogus has on one earlier side intricate carvings showing pagan belief while on the other and later side there are carvings indicating the Christian notion of life after death. It was as if there was a building and development from the pagan custom of sliding down to the cadavers supplies of bread and wine to the Christian notion of the eternal feast with Christ in heaven.

However, we were taught in Rome that the incredible Michaelangelo was not only the great art genius of ALL time but that he was basically a theologian! When one views his work, such a statement seems like bringing coals to Newcastle. When one marvels and meditates and soaks in the magnificence which is the Sistine chapel, it is obvious that no one could do THAT without a profound sense of and belief in God. This man touched God. Wilhelm Ropke once wrote that ".......the ultimate source of our civilization's disease is..... the desperate attempt to get along without God"

There would be no Sistine chapel or Siena facade or Burial of the Count if these artisans had not touched or been touched by God.

"Hound of Heaven" in which he describes --with beauty-- the search of the human being for the BEAUTY. No matter what the mode, the drive to the beautiful ( hidden as it may be) is a God search and reaching to touch the effable-- to give glory to God. This is why even the lowliest peasant, anywhere,wishes to be part of the Glory--even if that means only that he throws his few lire or rupees or pennies into the " box" for the " maintenance of the Bascilica."

No wonder we are awed by the Moses and the David and the Pieta! They tune us in to our REAL frequency--------the Lord, the One Who is !