Hope: A Beautiful Reality
When we encounter beauty, there is always a moment of pause to relish the attraction that beholds. There is an intense force that awakens the soul to truths that transcends human experience. Looking more deeply in beauty, there are also correlated significance between beauty and hope. Thus, this essay explores how beauty can be a reflection of hope and to observe how beauty can restore hope in the world especially to the Church in view of St. John Paul II and St. Thomas Aquinas. For them, beauty is not merely ornamental but essential in stirring the soul to contemplate and rekindle hope in a fragmented world.
In his Letter to Artists, John Paul II’s notion of beauty is fundamentally rooted in the interconnectedness of truth, goodness, and beauty, as a triad of transcendentals that allows man to glimpse things beyond them. He connects this idea by reflecting on the classical Greek concept of kalokagathia, which combines beauty (kalos) and goodness (agathos) into a complementary conception of the good as the visible form of beauty. This idea of beauty reflects how beauty serves as a doorway to mystery and transcendence as beauty is the reflection of God’s glory. He also connects the famous expression of St, Augustine to describe how beauty stirs that hidden nostalgia for God. Thus, beauty becomes a doorway to engage and contemplate the transcendent that stirs man’s inner yearnings for God.
Through this aesthetic experience, one can awaken a sense of mystery and wonder. Beauty can provoke existential questions that lead to a higher understanding or experience of the transcendent. During the first century of Christianity, art served as a means to evangelize and to instruct the faithful about Church’s doctrine. In this way, the beauty of the art impels them to see, and to search for one’s deepest desire.
In his Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas offers a systematic notion of beauty founded in metaphysical properties of being. There are three key attributes in understanding beauty: integrity, proportion, and clarity. He thought of beauty as something objective that has its standard characteristics. It is not merely a sensory experience rather, an encounter that sets the intellect in motion. In that case, it presupposes that beauty is a part of creation that draws the intellect and senses the aspect of God’s goodness. In beholding beauty, the soul is reminded of the structured and purposeful orderliness of the universe that reflects the harmony embedded in it. This sense of order and purpose fosters hope, affirming that in spite of the chaos, there is at work in the orderliness of the world. Furthermore, Aquinas’ notion of appreciating the world through beauty leads the soul to the Author of beauty. In contemplating the beauty of creation, the mind is drawn to its ultimate source- God Himself, who is the fullness of beauty. By catching the glimpse of order in beauty, one can fuel the hope that beauty will one day be realized in beatific vision, by seeing God face to face. With that, beauty becomes an invitation to seek the good behind the curtains of despair.
For St. Thomas Aquinas, hope is a supernatural virtue that reaches out towards an arduous good, the object is a future good that is arduous but possible to obtain. With this definition, we can understand hope more than a mere wishful thinking but active and dynamic virtue that is attuned to a meaningful goal. Here, Aquinas tells something about arduous good which is something challenging yet attainable and he also tells something about a future good which is specifically directed to God as the summum bonum. In that sense, hope requires perseverance and patience to attain that end. Therefore, hope strengthens an individual against despair by reminding us that the arduous way to attain the good and beautiful is worth pursuing no matter what.
For both Pope John Paul II and St. Thomas Aquinas, beauty serves as a means of transcendence, which has its invitation to look beyond the present moment and anticipate towards something greater. When we experience beauty, it can stir a sense of longing or anticipation for more of that specific experience and ultimately to the source of beauty vis-a-vis God. St. John Paul II’s understanding of beauty’s mystery and transcendence is a call beyond the material world and ultimately to the greatest good that invites people to savor life and dream for the future. Aquinas’ emphasis on the metaphysical properties of beauty provides an intrinsic reflection of goodness and truth of the divine which inspires us that there is hope in the world even though it's hard to see it. Beauty then becomes a steadying force that sustains hope in the middle of life’s complexities.
Beauty emerges as a profound reflection of hope that serves not only as a consolation and wonder but a pathway to a greater understanding of God especially to the Church. This beauty will restore the manifold appealing and aesthetic richness of the Church, in carrying out the Via Pulchritudinis (the way of beauty) we can reflect what the Church gives to us. This can be a way to attract more young people to the Church, by the way of beauty, we can attract more vocations to the priesthood and share the beautiful richness of Christianity in liturgy, architecture, paintings, and music. Through beauty, people are uplifted and hope is rekindled. Thus, beauty remains a powerful signpost to hope, leading people to the ultimate meaning and purpose that lies in Jesus of Nazareth, who makes our hope a beautiful reality.
Bibliography
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. 1920. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province. https://www.newadvent.org/summa/.
Hackett, Stephen. “The Evangelising Power of Christian Art.” National Centre for Evangelisation. https://nce.catholic.org.au/the-bridge/the-bridge/the-evangelising-power-of-christian-art#:~:text=The%20Church%2C%20from%20early%20times,history%20was%20used%20to%20catechise
John Paul II. Letter to Artists. April 23, 1999. Vatican Archives. https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_23041999_artists.html.
