“Beauty” is a word that points to something unmeasurable that is beyond us. It can be quite difficult to define, but we tend to use it as a word to define things that we see as desirable, be they physical features, good friends, or just something that we find to be truly awesome. In Catholic circles, our deep love for Mary is often described as one of the most beautiful parts of the faith. And in finding beauty in Mary and her journey to being the Mother of God, we can attempt to understand more of something else that is beyond our understanding: the greater presence of Christ.
You can attempt to comprehend the immeasurability of this “beyond” by imagining a sunset. When walking outside during the evening, you have no choice but to take in its form. The colors may vary from sunburst reds to tangerines to golds to periwinkles; yet all of these shades mix, creating vast shadows within the clouds or colorful designs in the empty skies, stunning the viewer into observing something they cannot measure. I challenge you to set your phone down one evening and go outside when the sun is setting. Do not think of the sunset as something typical, but rather as something beyond you that you cannot reach. Stare at it for as long as you would like, but I can tell you that you will never be able to capture every single detail. And if you want, go back there the next day. After doing this, you’ll begin to see that no two sunsets are the same. You can’t control the way the colors mix, or the time it first comes and then disappears. This experience should force you to realize that beauty is something far beyond you, something you must respond to, something you cannot call yours.
There is likely a slight feeling of fear in not being able to control or grasp it, but there should also be peace in gazing upon its detail. Hopefully, when you think of the sunset, you realize that someone – or something – put it there that is beyond you. But who is that someone? Who is it that beauty points to? Who is it that makes your heart wonder with a perplexing combination of fear and peace?
Another one of the most impactful ways we can see beauty is in the message of art. In the painting of the Coronation of Mary by Diego Velázquez that precedes this article, for example, we see the artist’s desire to mimic the austere beauty of Heaven etched in oil on canvas. As the viewer, we are naturally drawn to the beautiful woman at the center. Her hair is dark, and her skin is a fine blend of shades of pink and cream. She wears a veil, along with a long tunic of crimson and dark blue. Beneath her are soft clouds where small angels with blonde hair and dark wings move. On her right is a man, old in age, with a tunic of the same dark red, his hand clasping one side of a crown that a younger man also holds. This other man on her left is in the same attire, but he has long brown hair. Above her, we see a mystical white dove, spurring forth a light of gold and white. This woman is surrounded by overt symbols of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they are crowning her with roses.
This woman, of course, is Mary, the Mother of God. Velázquez chose to depict the surreal beauty of her coronation, her crowning as Queen of Heaven and Earth, honoring her holiness. It may seem as if this painting is simply a depiction of a woman being crowned by two men, but believers see her as their holy Mother who conceived Christ without sin and who bore the Son of God incarnate. Velázquez likely spent months, or even years, putting together the various shades, intricately placing every detail with each brushstroke. The painstaking attention to detail is clear. When zooming closer, we can see the seemingly endless layers on the canvas that are nearly impossible to recreate for any artist, no matter how skilled.
Now, let’s take a moment to reexamine the painting with the same gaze I challenged you to think about with the sunset. Look at the artwork and gaze towards the beyond with that need to question, that need to know the origin of the beauty that is present. We could stare at this painting for hours or write novels describing every inch of the canvas in intricate detail, but we could never fully describe it. This infinitely beautiful artwork is even more astounding when we realize it was painted by a person – Velázquez – who was yet another form of art. The human body consists of millions of cells, vessels, bones, and more that work to function in a way that even science cannot completely explain. This is an astounding yet simple realization.
In this way, everything points to a greater infinity. This realization allows us to come to another groundbreaking revelation. We, as infinite souls, can create art that points to a greater depth, and thence towards the infinite Artist Himself: God. This has been done all throughout history. Architects have built magnificent cathedrals with soaring towers that point towards the sky – all to direct the viewer to God’s glory in the heavens. Artists have made both secular and religious art that depicts color, value, hard work, meaning, and mystery. Writers have produced stories of worlds or themes that have underlying meanings for the reader to interpret. Singers and musicians use their voices and other instruments to convey emotion and depth within sound. The list is endless. The truth is that everything points to God and his immeasurability, as long as we have the gaze to discern it. The truth is that we can use our skills to create beautiful things that draw people closer to God, the infinite Creator, even if they do not know that it is happening. I challenge you to search for that inner gaze, and in doing so, to recognize the absolute glory of Creation.
God is the ultimate Artist and Poet that is immeasurable. His is the beauty we are so drawn to. Every time we see something beautiful, we are forced to realize that it is something different, a new experience of something that might seem commonplace. So why don’t we question its origin? If we do, then we find a way to follow the immeasurable, and thence, Christ. We must change our gaze to ponder that which is infinite in everything. Doing so allows us to draw closer to Him.
In a way, we must view life the way a poet would. When a poet writes their poem, they weave together words, taking ordinary objects and ideas, and transforming them with greater language. These words are like the way a person views another when they are in love. To be in love is to disregard surface level ideas, to give up a part of oneself, and to let one’s heart explore the infinite. Ultimately, all beauty in this world points us to Christ. So fall in love with the things that you want to make beautiful. Mary, as the Mother of God, was the first person to be given the gift of mastering this great love, the first person with a gaze that truly saw things deeper, as if they were devices in the poem of all of God’s Creation.
Even as we pine for the beauty of Heaven, Christ reciprocates our calling to beauty here on Earth. He sees a beauty in humanity, in suffering, and his heart yearns to meet us in the immeasurable. His Passion and the carrying of His cross, painful as they were, were moments of great beauty. This mystery is a focal point of the Catholic faith, an understanding that there is something greater than what meets the eye. His brutal Passion was a sanctifying remedy for sins. The Romans did not understand that, and even some of the apostles ran away in fear. But those who pondered this mystery and depth, such as St. John and Mother Mary, found the secret beauty in His Passion, an infinite sacrifice made pure.
We can see themes of mystery and beauty all throughout the Church. The Eucharist is a piece of bread beheld to the eye but holds a deeper mystery once we question its origin. Baptism is a pouring of water that points to union with the Church and with Christ. You can think of almost anything in the world and realize that it points to something more. Even in everyday life, your breath points to your heart beating, or even to the fact that you came to this Earth outside of your own control. Your coffee cup points to the ten minutes you took to brew it, mixing it with water and milk and sugar. Everything points to a deeper infinity.
Even the Coronation of Mary, even something as glorious and mysterious as this event, eventually points back to the infinity that is God. Mary could not have become the Mother of God without His desire for her to fulfill this role. She could not have experienced the natural beauty of carrying God-made-flesh within her unless God so desired. And she could not become Queen of Heaven and Earth without God’s say-so. Everything that Mary experienced in her life is beautiful, and her seat as Queen of Heaven is a reminder of the beautiful God-fearing woman that she is. So much beauty envelopes Mary, and yet it all points back to God, the unwavering Artist of all that will long outlast us.
We often fail to understand just how beautiful everything around us is. It can even be hard to comprehend the concept of beauty itself. But seeing beautiful things such as the Coronation of Mary portrayed in art or the natural art of the sun setting can be proof that beauty can be found all around us. Let this beauty, created and inspired by the actions of God, be the ultimate reminder of what waits for us in the next life – that although some things, such as beautiful paintings and all of our life’s work, are just as fleeting as they are beautiful, the beauty of God’s Creation will never cease to exist.
