Beautiful

As of late I've been obsessed with Owl City's new album, "All Things Bright and Beautiful." The music is light-hearted, whimsical and uplifting. Adam Young has a gift of being able to just paint such vivid mental images. The album's title is so fitting as each and every song is so bright and, well, beautiful. There is such a need for true beauty in our society today and we have become so numb that we have a hard time discovering and recognizing true beauty.

I took a course in college on Logic and Nature in philosophy. My professor for that class was a snide, self-righteous man who always seemed to have an answer for everything. Once in class he posed a question: "Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?" The general compulsion of the class was to answer, "Well, yes, what some may see as beautiful, others may not." He shook his head and was utterly disappointed in us. "What about music, is there an intrinsically better type of music out there than others?" he asked. People began to become indignant, "No, absolutely not, it's all up to taste." He once again shook his head and said, "So, beauty, taste, it all just boils down to the interpretation of the individual?" We seemed happy with that philosophical conclusion and my professor moved on, very visibly disappointed in our conclusions.

For the longest time I was so confused by that, what did it matter? So I don't like country, I don't say that it's an inferior form of music because it's not Beethoven. It wasn't until recently that the gravity of that little conversation in class finally impacted me, and it made sense.

Beauty comes from fulfilling and meeting the intended ends of any given nature or thing. If there is a true order to the world, then there must be true ends. For humanity, our true end is virtue, both natural and supernatural. The reason my professor was so disappointed with our response to the simple question of whether beauty is in the eye of the beholder or not boils down to whether or not we understood that there is such a thing as absolute truth. We all have a view of the world, the point my professor was driving at was that there has to be a greater truth, above and beyond our own confined views, a truth which is perfect. Within the light of this truth, beauty finds itself waltzing hand-in-hand with fulfilling true ends. When we hear music for example, it has to follow a certain rhythm, a certain coordination of notes, instruments, voices and emotion in order to be recognizable and truly beautiful. Scratching keys on a car is not music. Kicking against a trash can haphazardly causing a ruckus does not make it music. There has to be meaning to beauty, it has to reach a specific end. Our beauty doesn't lie in our outward appearances, our eloquent words, it lies instead in whether or not our lives are lived virtuously.

How does this tie back to Owl City? It ties back like this: there is a crisis of beauty in our world today, and we need to recapture it. I appreciate Owl City's music because it, in its own way, is beautiful. The melodies are perfectly placed, the notes correspond and dance rhythmically creating a wondrous feast for the ears. Our souls are hard-wired to be drawn to the beautiful, because beauty is simply an echo and reminder of the much deeper reality of Who Truth is. In and through his music, Adam Young is participating in beauty and by writing good, beautiful music, he is in turn reflecting and sharing the beauty of God. We too are called to this beauty! Whatever we find ourselves in, being a student, being a part of the workforce, being a mother, being a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, be beautiful and virtuous in those callings! That is where we will find our beauty, that is where God can truly work to draw others to Himself through the beauty we participate in with Him.

True beauty in this world, whether we find it in well-written books, melodious music or even in nature surrounding us is meant to point us back to the author of all beauty, of all truth, God Himself. St. Paul knew the importance of recognizing the true, the good and the beautiful as a Christian, consider his letter to the Philippians, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." We are surrounded by it, but how often do we truly stop, breathe it in and revel in the beauty that surrounds our daily lives? Seek beauty.

Roads

When I was a sophomore in college, this song was one of the songs I returned to repeatedly to help me make sense of the circumstances around me. That year was a year of a lot of growing pains for me, academically, socially, spiritually and even romantically. With all of these changes, I often found myself confused, doubtful and hurt more often than clear-sighted, certain and peaceful. Prayer was the foundation and cornerstone of everything that year, from discerning paper topics to questions about dating, everything, I placed in the hands of the Lord and eagerly awaited some response, some whisper from Him. Sometimes I would get a response, other times I would feel ignored. How could I truly know God's will? I wanted to follow it so vehemently, and yet I was always second-guessing my every move, my every decision. Yet, despite all of my muddled attempts at discovering a sure-fire way to discern God's will, it was that year that I came to realize something that changed my perspective on the way everything worked for good.

What is love? A topic as broad and as deep as love I'm not going to be able to claim to answer in a short blog post, but there are certain attributes to love that I do feel confident are integral to understanding what love truly is. In my Christian Moral Life class that year in college, we talked about virtues, grace, freedom and of course love. Dr. Rziha, our professor, continually pounded into our heads a few key phrases, "Knowledge leads to love which leads to unity," and, "love is making the needs and wants of the beloved your own." Simple enough, but infinitely difficult to truly master in practicality.

If you consider all things occurring in your life and you were to just take a snapshot, what would we see? Where does your love lead you? We are always following our loves, and the things we love are the things we know the best (knowledge leads to love which leads to unity). Which begs the question, how well do we really know God? That omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent Being that He is, can we truly know Him, and His will? Yes, we can, in knowing the Person, Jesus Christ, we come to truly know God Himself. He meets us in the ways our senses can understand, through the sacraments, especially through the sacrament of the Eucharist, where we truly touch and taste Him and become one with Him in His entirety. Love makes the wants and needs of the beloved their own, if we are to truly love God, how can we be sure we are doing God's will? Surely that would prove to God that we truly loved Him if we followed His will, so why does He hide it from us so well it seems? Things are not as complex as we sometimes like to make them out to be.

We have a tendency as good-intentioned Catholic Christians to get so caught up in this obtuse sense of "God's will" that we forget that God's will isn't the "out there" it's the "in here" the close, the tangible workings of day-to-day life. Every moment, God has placed you in any given situation to give you the opportunity to be the holiest you can be in that moment. God's will isn't distant, hidden because it's immediate, surrounding us. This is not a written excuse to do whatever we so desire, it's an invitation to make the wants and needs of God our own at every moment. What are His needs and wants? He lacks nothing, He needs nothing, He has it all. His only want, His only desire, is quite simply our happiness, our true happiness. Happiness can only be found in doing the good, the true good, and this world is so full of good.

So, how can we be assured that the roads we take in life are the true goods God desires for us? Consider this: do you think that any of your decisions can trump the Creator's plan for the unfolding of the universe and your life? We have a tendency to think of God's will in terms of a map with a certain line that must be followed, when, more often than not, if we are truly loving God, truly seeking Him (which in turn, frees us and makes us happy) then it's not really a line that must be followed, it's more like an open book with the author saying, "choose my beloved." That's what love does, it's reciprocal, we seek Him with our hearts and keep a simple love for Him as the main drive for everything we do, then no matter what we do, we are assured that it is part of His will. Thomas Merton expressed it best in his "prayer of abandonment."

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain
where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,
and that I think I am following your will
does not mean I am actually doing so.

But I believe
the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire
in all I am doing.

I hope
I will never do anything
apart from that desire.
And I know if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.

I will trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear,
for you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.

That's it. We may feel like sometimes we're going in blind, but ultimately, if love of God is our true guide and compass, all the roads lead back to Him. Love is making the needs and wants of the beloved your own, and quite simply, God's desire for us is to be happy with Him in heaven at the end of all things. Let love win in your life.