Don’t Give Up Beauty for Lent

As Christians of the world move through Lent, many followers in Orange County turn their thoughts from new cars and bigger houses to more spiritual goals. Most try to pray more often, refrain from eating certain foods and increase charitable works.

At its best, Lent is a time for repentance and renewal, a time for cleansing and joyful rebirth. This is the true goal of Lenten practices. At its worst, however, Lent can become a time of guilt and irritability--a time of rumbling bellies coupled with a depressing focus on our own, and the world’s, imperfections.

We sometimes forget that the destination of the Lenten path is Easter, a celebration of divine forgiveness and new life. For me, Lent exacerbates a year-round struggle to find a balance between asceticism and aestheticism-- between a spiritual discipline and the natural desire to pursue beauty.

I often find myself seesawing guiltily between these two goals. I set aside religious discipline to pursue a pleasant search for beautiful art, music and ideas, and then attempt to counter that with short-lived efforts to focus on purely religious pursuits.

Lately, I have decided the pursuit of beauty need not exist in opposition to spiritual discipline. Perhaps it’s best to join the two as partners in a spiritual quest. A disciplined aestheticism seeks to discover the truly beautiful (not simply sensual beauty), and to find universal laws of beauty. This could lead to a greater appreciation and understanding of God.

Christianity has sometimes set the material and spiritual worlds in opposition and has even, at times, defined the body and the soul as conflicting entities. The censorship of art by Christianity and other religions--an issue that has arisen frequently over the ages--is a product of this.

Yet, even the stern St. Augustine was a lover of art, and he suggested that our creative impulse was a reflection of God’s creativity, a lasting memory of humanity’s initial molding by divine hands.

Many religions see danger in beautiful things, and especially in beautiful people. This is why so many faiths require hair coverings, veils and robes. We tend to become distracted by beauty and sometimes tie physical beauty to carnality.

A Russian priest, John of Kronstadt, addressed this problem almost 100 years ago. John was sometimes criticized for his enjoyment of fine clothes and good cigars, but he also was a stirring preacher and a deeply spiritual teacher. He advised:

“When you see a beautiful girl or woman, or a handsome youth or man, lift up your thoughts at once to the supreme most holy beauty, the author of every heavenly and earthly beauty, God himself; glorify him for having created such beauty out of mere earth; marvel at the beauty of God’s image in man.”

The enjoyment of material beauty can lead to deeper appreciation of the ultimate creator of that beauty. Most religions seek to create beautiful worship environments to inspire their faithful. The world’s exquisite temples, mosques and cathedrals demonstrate that we humans see a close connection between God and beauty.

Aristotle advised that the goal of human existence should be to “take possession of the beautiful.” He wasn’t looking at an ancient Greek version of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition when he said this. He was talking about the classical concept of beauty, beauty that is always paired with truth.

Purification of the soul does not require a rejection of physical or material beauty. However, it does require us to carefully define what we consider beautiful. Strangely, this is an area where even radical feminists and religious fundamentalists can find a sliver of common ground.

Both groups mourn the fact that the news media have helped narrow our definition of beauty and have tied it to commercialism. Real beauty raises our minds to thoughts of goodness and truth, no purchase necessary.

So this year at Lent, I’ll certainly make an effort to improve my spiritual discipline, but there will be no effort to inhibit my natural human enjoyment of the material world’s beauty. Instead, I’ll try to use that beauty to lift my thoughts to the divine artist of creation.

On Faith is a forum for Orange County clergy and others to offer their views on religious topics of general interest. Submissions, which will be published at the discretion of The Times and are subject to editing, should be delivered to Orange County religion page editor William Lobdell.