Two items caught my attention this week. Both deal with the effect of art on the mind and soul. One treats of music that can kill the soul. the other challenges us to find the beauty and deepest meaning in art. Painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, all have the power to uplift or debase.
In Madrid, Spain, during World Youth Day, Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota, told young people to scrub "evil" music from their iPods. It is evil because "it distorts the gift of human sexual intimacy, the gift of human life." The kind of music that objectivizes women, makes them mere toys, is evil. Scrub the music with four letter words and debasing ideas from iPods, iPhones, iPads. It can play constantly in one's head. It infects the brain and the soul, whether the hearer thinks so or not. There are angry, screaming voices and pounding beats in some music that can only be described as satanic. It is ugly, assaulting the soul, driving out peace and a calm mind.
We have lost much beauty, not only in music, but in all art forms. A crucifix in urine is not art. Modern church architecture is lacking any outward appearance of a house of God. Paintings are unintelligible, if one is honest. Splashes of color, haphazard and garish, point to the chaos of our time and the ugliness and chaos in our innermost thoughts. Any sensible critique of such works is deemed naive and unenlightened. Too many plays, TV shows, movies, cartoons, are violent, full of sex and crude language.
Last Wednesday, Pope Benedict challenged us to recover the deepest meaning of art, particularly as the path of beauty which leads to God.
He said, ..."perhaps sometimes, before a scupture, a painting, a few verses of a poem or a song, you have experienced deep within an intimate emotion, a sense of joy, that is, you have clearly perceived that in front of you there was not only mere matter, a piece of marble or bronze, a painted canvas, a series of letters or a combination of sounds, but something bigger, something that speaks, capable of touching the heart, or communicating a message; of elevating the soul."
There is little of that which we see around us today. It takes searching - going out of our way to find that which is beautiful and which touches the heart and soul.
The Pope went on to mention examples and included this. "Paul Claudel, a poet, playwright and French diplomat, in the Basilica of Notre Dame in Paris, in 1886, while he was listening to the singing of the Magnificat at Christmas Mass, felt God's presence." He had entered the church to search for arguments against Christians, and instead "the grace of God worked in his heart."
Whether it's a beautiful church, a piece of music, a concert of Bach, these are things that make us want to praise the God who gave such talent to people to share with the world. Modern popular music can be as uplifting, as have been our patriotic songs and beautiful love songs of the past.
Since each of us in our lives is meant to strive daily for holiness and closeness with the Almighty, to aim for a happy eternity, we must realize that how we live our lives and what is important in the long run, is not the crass, common and crude, but what lifts us up, mentally and spiritually. These things can also improve our physical well-being, as reputable psychologists might tell us.
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The important thing to remember is that we are "in the world, but not of the world." Our destiny is eternal happiness in a place of indescribable beauty. Why do we plant our feet in the mud, when we are capable of reaching the stars?
9/2/11
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