Love Is Beautiful

The beauty of Divine Revelation experienced in the Catholic Faith

"Wait." The 6th grader said. "You mean that Jesus loves me?"

I will never forget the look on that student's face as my Confirmation co-teacher and I stood at the front of the class explaining the reason why Jesus came. These students had been in CCD since 1st grade, yet the look on his face told me that Jesus' profound and unique love for him and each of his classmates was a completely new concept.

In parishes void of beauty and vital community life, we often ignore this basic truth. Most average, suburban parishioners have never stopped to reflect on why it is they hold the faith they do. It is compartmentalized into just a thing they do for an hour on Sundays. They never stop to think about what being Catholic actually means, and just like my Confirmation students, have never let the truth of Jesus' love for them actually sink in.

But that is where an encounter with the beauty of Divine Revelation can change things completely. Divine Revelation, the experience and record of God's activity in the world, is beautiful because it is essentially an encounter with the free gift of the intense gaze of Divine Love, the eros of God that we were made for. Divine Revelation is attractive because we were created to be attracted to love.

Free gift

As creatures, all we have is gift. God did not have to make us or make the world we live in. Beauty is the evidence for this free gift. We must ask ourselves, why would God do all this? Why would God make a beautiful world, let alone make anything at all? The only explanation that makes sense, taking into account the fact that all creation is a free gift, is that God loves us. Love is only true when it is given freely. Love must be gratuitous for it to be truly a gift of self. We can never fully anticipate it or account for it. Encountering love is like encountering a piece of art as Hans Urs Von Balthasar illustrates in Love Alone Is Credible using the finale of Mozart's Jupiter symphony as an example. We cannot know that it exists or know fully what it is until we have encountered it, and when we do, it is a breathtaking, powerful experience.

So, how then do we see this in Divine Revelation? The fact that Revelation exists at all is proof. God has spoken first. He has announced His love through creation and numerous deeds in human history culminating in coming Himself. God the Son, who became one of us and died that we might be united to God. This is the apex of Divine Revelation, that God Himself loved us so much that he desired to be near to us, to live in solidarity with His own creation. And not only just that, but also to offer Himself upon the Cross, thus entering into every and all human suffering. He did not have to do this. It was a free gift of love. The sheer gratuity and immensity of the gift takes our breath away. This manifestation of the Divine eros is beautiful and powerful. We cannot anticipate it or account for it. All we can do is receive it and respond to it.

Gaze of Love

I want to return to the Cross because it is here that we see most viscerally the love of God for us. One image Roberto Goizueta uses in Christ Our Companion is the gaze of Christ. This is one of my favorite things to meditate on because it is there that you encounter the love of God in an extremely tangible way. How did Jesus look at the disciples when he first called them? Was it that intense, penetrating, and loving gaze what made Peter, Andrew, James, and John leave their nets and Matthew his customs post? What did the gaze of Christ feel like when it feel upon those He healed? Did the woman with the hemorrhage feel seen, known, and loved for the first time in years? What about the leper who returned giving thanks to God? Did the gaze of Christ make the Pharisees uncomfortable? How did Christ look at the women who wept for Him as He carried His cross to Calvary? Was it this gaze that gave Veronica the courage to approach and wipe His face? How did He look at Mary Magdalene and the Apostles when He appeared to them after the Resurrection?

I have found this to be a very fruitful prayer practice, not only as a way to meditate on Scripture, but also as a way to contemplate the gaze with which Christ looks at me. One piece of art that I think shows this gaze of love clearly is Titian's Christ Carrying the Cross (below). The viewer is brought up close and personal with the suffering Christ. You can see the blood covering each of the thorns on His crown and watch it trickle down His face. His eyes are raw and red from pain and tears. There is even one tear falling down His cheek. Christ looks out at the viewer, His face full of sorrow, yet His eyes are intense and unwavering, boring right into your soul.

Christ Carrying the Cross, Titian 1508

This is an image of intense suffering, yet it is beautiful. Not just because it is well painted with vivid colors, but because it shows the depths and extent of God's love for us. His gaze penetrates us and reminds us that God suffered and suffered greatly for us. His love went all the way to the end. He emptied Himself completely, holding nothing back so that He could take away our guilt. No human being loves like that. One may lay down one's life for someone they love, but it is only a drop compared with the ocean of love that Christ has for us because "while we were still sinners Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8) It is the incredibility, the breath-taking quality of this love that my 6th grade student was reacting to. It is the love that is beautiful, mysterious, crazy, and ultimately attractive.