Contemplation and Beauty: Reclaiming Sensuality for the New Evangelization

“The aesthetic value of creation cannot be overlooked. Our very contact with nature has a deep restorative power; contemplation of its magnificence imparts peace and serenity. The Bible speaks again and again of the goodness and beauty of creation, which is called to glorify God” ~ St. Pope John Paul II

Often when one hears of sensuality, it is tied to the idea of some sort of stimulating erotic experience. However, the term “sensual” or “sensuality” is not something that is exclusively tied to the realm of sexuality. One can say that expressing one’s sexuality is sensual but one cannot say that being sensual is the same as being sexual. In the middle of the twentieth century, with the rise of modernism and post-modernism, there was an ever-growing equivocation between sensuality and sexuality; the two were practically synonymous. This misdirection of the term has led to it being seen as something that has no place in the world of the sacred. This, however, could not be farther from the truth.

Classically understood, sensual means something which is perceived by the senses. Whether it be the sight of color, the sound of music, the taste of food, or the sweet smell of a rose, all that which is encountered by man is sensual. When understood properly, sensuality is something which can be of great use in the New Evangelization. Through sacred art, music and, architecture, we are able to use our senses in a manner which can allow our minds to assent to God. For the one who is on the outside, by appealing to their sensibilities through the beauty of the Church, we can draw them in and help them discover the beauty of a Christian life. As indicated in the quote above, nature appeals to our senses and leads us to the beauty and goodness of God. So too can we, as imitators of the Divine Creator, use our abilities to draw men and women into relationship with the one true God.

Beauty

From ancient times to modern, Beauty is something which has been the object of many debates, stories, poems and songs. What is it that is so captivating about Beauty? Is beauty something merely aesthetical or does it have power to affect us on an ontological level? To answer this, we must first understand what it is that makes something beautiful. In his analysis on St. Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Artists, James Wilson, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas, writes, “Beauty includes three conditions, integrity or perfection, since those things that are impaired are by the very fact ugly; due proportion or harmony; and lastly brightness or clarity whence things are called beautiful which have bright color.”¹ When these three conditions are met, then the object in which they are fulfilled is beautiful.

While this may seem like a dry understanding of Beauty, looking at a real-life example can give us better understanding. In music there are different tones in which an artist has the option to choose from. A singular note makes a single sound; this note when played in a sequence with other notes makes a melody; when the notes are stacked on top of each other, this is what is known as a harmony. A harmony includes two or more notes played at the same time but are all different tones. While the idea of playing different notes all at the same time may sound unappealing, the resulting sound is something which is delightful to hear.

However, the harmony is not the end of a song and neither is the melody. The completion of a song comes when the melody and harmony come together in an ordered manner which is clear and again pleasing to its listener. While this is not an in-depth explanation, the analogy gives an idea of what is meant by wholeness, harmony, and clarity. While this analysis of beauty helps give a better understanding of what “makes” something beautiful, there is still the question: can beauty affect us on an ontological level and therefore draw us into relationship with Christ?

The Artist and God

God’s creative power is something which is made known to us in the creation of nature and the world around us, “the beauty of the created world is a reflection of the beauty of the Creator: as one of the ways in which God reveals himself to humanity, it testifies to God’s providential love as the source of life.”² Beauty created by man, through art, music, and literature, reflects the divine intellect in imitating its creator. Within the artwork of man, something of God is revealed and conveyed to those who encounter the work of art. “In shaping his masterpiece, the artist not only summons his work into being but also in some way, reveals his own personality by means of it . . . [Thus through] his works the artist speaks to others and communicates with them.”³

Similar to the creative work of God, mankind is able to bring something into being and communicate himself through his art, much like God communicates himself through us and his creation. Art, especially sacred art, is meant to communicate something transcendental. When a work of art has integrity, harmony, and clarity, it enchants those who encounter it. It is in this captivation and enchantment that one may enter into contemplation of the higher reality which is conveyed, the reality of the Beautiful itself. The beauty which enchants us, stirs something within our souls, it “moves” us to action. This movement and stirring of the soul is what is referred to as Eros, or desirous love. Like sensuality, eros too is something which in today’s culture has been exclusively described in term of sexuality. However, when properly understood Eros is something which is not only a key part of evangelization but also an integral part of the Christian life.

Beauty and Desire

“Oh no, it was not the airplanes. It was Beauty that killed the Beast.” ~ King Kong (1933)

It is a scene which has been repeated over and over again. King Kong, the great ape of Skull Island, scales the top of the Empire State Building. In his hand is the beautiful Ann Darrow, who has captivated the savage beast. In his attempt to keep her safe from the harm of the airplanes and the military, Kong tries desperately to destroy the airplanes which are firing their machine guns at him only in a vain attempt to survive. Finally, the beast falls and lands on the ground, dead. The great Kong saw within Ann Darrow something which he could not understand, something which not just drew him in but also called to him.

This is what we experience when we encounter something objectively beautiful. When we encounter the beautiful we act in order that we may somehow possess it. This wanting of the beautiful is what Plato refers to as Eros, a desiring love. “When the light of the mind falls upon something beautiful, it brings into act the light of another mind . . . the Creator who is beauty. Beauty is a transcendental, and, the moment one touches a transcendental, one touches being itself, a likeness of God, an absolute, that which ennobles and delights our life.”⁴

It is no wonder, then, that the great and powerful Kong died in his attempt to grasp and posses the beautiful. But his death stands to us as a warning. Eros is good; it is after all love and God who is Love gives us Eros as a form of love which pulls on the human heart. However, Eros when left to its own device can become something evil. When we try to privatize Eros, we run the risk of allowing that initial spark of love to burn wild and destroy everything that is around us.

However, this does not mean Eros is something to be feared or shunned. Understood properly, the object of Eros is beauty.⁵ When we experience Beauty we are drawn into it because of its relation to Eros. Eros is a love out of desire and when something is desired, it is so because whatever the thing is which desires is in some capacity lacking that which is desired. We desire the Beautiful. We yearn for it in the deepest recesses of our soul. We are searching for an encounter with the beautiful, not a fleeting encounter or perhaps multiple encounters at different points in time, but an eternal, infinite encounter with the Beautiful, an encounter which can only be fulfilled by the Word Incarnate.

Eros then is not something which is to be feared or repressed within the Christian life, but directed and expressed, Eros is the call of the maiden who cries out, “I will seek the one I love. So, I sought him but did not find him. The watchmen who make the rounds in the city found me, And I said, ‘Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”⁶ Eros, the desire for the Beautiful, is the spark which ignites the flame of the Holy Spirit. It is the sound of Christ on the cross crying, “I thirst,” desiring the salvation of humanity and the souls of those whom he loves. And it is through prayer by which we, the beloved, respond to Christ’s thirst.

Beauty and Contemplation

Art, Eros, and Beauty are necessary in the reclaiming of sensuality for the New Evangelization, but one cannot simply stop there. Eros is desirous love; therefore, when we desire that which is essential to our being, we must respond to it. The question is how do we respond to Eros? The answer lies in our continual relationship with the Beautiful. This relationship is cultivated and maintained through the active prayer life of the Christian. “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.”⁷

In “raising one’s mind to God” we are engaging in a relational dialogue with Divine Creator, Beauty itself. If there is anything which shakes man out of complacency and apathy, it is an encounter with Beauty. When we encounter beauty in sacred art, we are taken out of ourselves and placed before the Almighty. This is the essence of what contemplative prayer is. Contemplative prayer forces man to empty himself and allow God to fill him up. Contemplative prayer is often thought of as only being practiced by nuns, monks, and religious. However, this could not be farther from the truth. Quoting Thomas Merton’s Inner Experience, Francis Tuoti writes:

“Contemplation . . . is a life by which everything else in us moves and lives, so that it becomes a living awareness itself. This awareness is not so much something that we have but is something that we are. It is a new indefinable quality of our living being.”⁸

For those who are not living the solitary life of a nun or monk, it may be difficult to find the time that is required to develop a contemplative life. However, this does not mean that it is a life completely cut off to the ordinary lay person. In fact, anytime a person encounters or acknowledges something as beautiful, it is a moment in which he is making himself aware to the movements of God. “We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make prayer spring up from us. Jesus’ teaching about praying to our Father is in the same vein as his teaching about providence: time is in the Father’s hands; it is in the present that we encounter him, not yesterday nor tomorrow, but today.”⁹ Contemplative prayer moves us to encounter God in the present, in the now.

For many, especially those who struggle with prayer or outright deny the idea of a transcendent beauty, something material is necessary on which a person can focus their attention, something that aids in raising the mind to thoughts of the transcendent beauty which stirs up desirous love within the human soul. This is why it is necessary that parishes and homes should look to sacred art and architecture to aid the mind in focusing on the truly transcendent. With the rise of post-modernism and the poor implementation of Vatican II, many parishes today have been stripped of icons and crucifixes in order to seem more relevant and less “antiquated”; however, in doing this, the parishes have thrown out what makes the Church unique. Instead of standing like a rock amid the shifting sands of modernity, some churches allowed themselves to be overtaken and even substitute their sturdy foundation for something lesser and unstable. As the Catechism states, churches “are not simply gathering places, but they make visible the dwelling of God with men reconciled and united with Christ.”¹⁰ Therefore, a Church ought to give the worshiper a sense of what it is like to live with God.

Sacred Sensuality

There is a parish not too far from where I live and I remember talking to my older brother about attending Christmas Mass there one year. He chuckled when I told him the name of the parish and he said, “I know that parish, that is the one that replaced a crucifix at the altar with a ‘surfing Jesus’.” From that moment I never saw the statue of what was supposed to be the ascended Lord the same ever again. While this anecdote may seem a bit crude, it brings to light a very important principle. The parish, more specifically the sanctuary in which Mass is celebrated, must be a sacred place.

The idea of having a statue of the ascending Christ was to make those who came in feel more comfortable, as opposed to seeing a crucifix and coming face to face with a bloodied image of our Lord. It seems less frightening. However, after Vatican II the emphasis on the sacrificial aspect of the Mass was substituted for a Mass which emphasized a communal meal. Thus, instead of seeing a long aisle with pews on either side leading up to the altar, one often sees pews arranged around the altar to place an emphasis on the meal aspect of the Liturgy. While there is something very noble about the family coming together for a meal, I would hardly say that what is expressed at the dinner table is indicative of reverence.

The point of the architecture, stained glass, and holy icons is to “urge us onwards from the material to the immaterial.”¹¹ The Church is rich in iconic history and the use of the sensual to draw people into a deeper experience of the Liturgy. It is symbolic of the truth that Jesus Christ was not just God but God made flesh, the human and divine natures coming together in one instance to save mankind. This union of the divine and the human is made evident in the physical symbols which Christ has given us. These physical signs of divine truth are what we call the Sacraments. The Churches which we celebrate these sacraments ought to reflect the duality of the divine and the human, not in a way that is competitive but in a way that invigorates and transfigures.

A church must always lead one’s mind and heart into the mystery of the Liturgy. When we celebrate the Mass, we are indeed transported out of time and space and brought to a re-presentation of the Paschal Sacrifice. To those who are not Catholic but seeking, the art and architecture of the church should bring them face to face with mystery. William Mahrt explains the journey on which church art and architecture takes a person:

“Each time we enter a church we are reminded of this entrance [Jesus’s entrance into Jerusalem] and thus, the church becomes Jerusalem, which is in turn a type of heaven. The presence of saints on the windows, statuaries, mosaics and paintings places us in the midst of holy ones, elevating our attention to holy things, confirming that we are entering into the place of communion of saints.”¹²

There is nothing more powerful than being overwhelmed by the beauty and majesty of God. Great care and attention ought to be made when considering the layout of a church because the building itself acts as a beacon of the Beautiful to call those around it to come in and contemplate its sacred mysteries.

Sensuality and Contemplation

We as human beings are sensual creatures and the Church has the ability to appeal to our senses. The incense reminds us of the sweetness of God’s grace as well as how our prayers rise up to God. The sound of chant brings to mind the choir of angels and saints singing praises to God at his throne. The use of Latin, the universal language of the Church, brings to mind the unity of God’s people which transcends national borders and earth as well. The sacred art allows us to “picture” the realities of faith which we are to experience. The art and architecture of the Church takes on an objective value which is grounded in the transcendent Beauty. Through the contemplation aided by images one can deepen their prayer life. By the cultivation of prayer, one is able to live out one’s Christian mission to its fullest. Through contemplative prayer and recollection, we unite ourselves to God and allow him to guide us on our path to holiness as well as illuminate us so that we may be a light to others.

Conclusion

The Church stands in the midst of modernity as a beacon which draws people from all around the earth to her heart. At the center of her heart is Christ. The world gives us an idea of sensuality, one that is portrayed in popular culture as something which merely stimulates the human body and is a means for sexual pleasure. The Church, however, transforms the idea of sensuality. The Church in all her wisdom, in her buildings, artwork, and music, takes the senses and, instead of using them for something transient, elevates them to the plane of the eternal. The Church, as she always does, does not stifle the senses but invigorates and transfigures them with images of the divine. When members of the Church encounter these, they are brought face to face with the Beautiful and the desire for God’s love is satiated. For those outside of the Church, encountering the sensuality of Catholicism offers something which leads to contemplation of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and offers them that which they seek. It is the response to their heart calling out “Have you seen him whom my heart longs for?” with Jesus’s cry “I thirst” for you. When sacredness permeates all of the material aspects of the Church, one cannot help but sit, look, listen and say, “This is what heaven must be like.”