Psychospiritual Reflections on Beauty as the Divine Connection
"The
uncircumscribed Word of the Father became circumscribed, taking flesh . . .and He has restored the sullied image to
its ancient glory, filling it with the divine beauty. This, our salvation, we
confess in deed and word . . . ." (Kontakion, Sunday of Orthodoxy)
An experimental psychologist (Seligman, 2002) may have
inadvertently come upon a great spiritual insight. What is remarkable about this is that it was
Seligman's express intent to divorce 'beauty' from the Divine; but,
paradoxically and seemingly unknowingly, he endorses beauty's ultimate end: the
Divine. In discussing Transcendence, which he labels a "signature
strength" that individuals can possess and which is one of the components
of "authentic happiness,” Seligman points out that it is a virtue which
allows one to "reach outside and beyond you" to something larger than
oneself. The divine is one such end. Apparently he does not see the irony in
his writing "this term [transcendence] is not popular throughout
history-"spirituality" is the label of choice . . . ." However,
unwittingly, he leads us to God who is at the peak of
"Transcendence." Why? Because what is larger than God Himself? As our Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
proclaims in the Anaphora Prayer: "It is meet and right to hymn Thee, to
bless Thee, to praise Thee, to give thanks unto Thee, and to worship Thee in
every place of Thy dominion: for Thou art God ineffable, inconceivable, invisible,
incomprehensible, ever existing and eternally the same, Thou and Thine
Only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit."
God is Beauty; Beauty points to God
That
true beauty points mankind to God, is, of course, fundamental to Eastern
Christianity. But first it must be pointed out that God is Beauty itself: We
may call it the Divine Beauty. The psalmist prays: " One thing have I
asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord. . . ." (Ps
26: 4).
The prophet Ezekiel, writing about his encounter with
God, tells us: ". . . the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. .
. . the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest. (Ezk.1: 1,3). His very detailed and personal narrative
continues:
...the
hand of the Lord was upon him there. As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came
out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire
flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming
bronze." (Ezk 1: 3,4) Later in the description of his vision Ezekiel
recounts: "...there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like
sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness as it were
of a human form . . . I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was
brightness round about him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud
on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. Such
was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it,
I fell upon my face . . . ." (Ezk 1: 25-28).
St. Macarius of Egypt, in his homily on the vision of
Ezekiel, tells us that this foretells none other than Christ Himself: "And this that the prophet saw, was
true and certain. But the thing it signified, or shadowed forth beforehand, was
a matter mysterious and divine, that very mystery which had been hid from ages
and generations, but was made manifest at the appearing of Christ."i This
is confirmed at the very beginning of the Gospel of St. John: 1: 1-5: "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without
him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the
light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it."
That 'God is beauty' was not lost on St. Basil the
Great who describes God as He who surpasses all beauty. St. Basil, (as quoted
by Alfeyev, 2002) counsels: ". . .
let us recognize the One Who transcends in His beauty all things. . . ."
McGuckin (2001) presents to us St.
Symeon the Theologian's Hymn of Divine Love. St. Symeon prays: "Master how
could I describe the vision of your face? How could I ever speak of the
ineffable contemplation of your Beauty? How could mere words contain One whom
the World could never contain?" Then Saint Symeon answers his questions as
part of his prayer: ". . . suddenly You appeared from on high, shining
greater than the Sun itself, shining brilliantly from the heavens down into my
heart .. . . . What intoxication of the Light! What swirlings of fire!"
The Incarnation: The coming of the Light of the World
Сenturies after the writing of the prophet Ezekiel
(595-572 BC), the writer of the last book of the Old Testament, the Wisdom of
Solomon (30-10 BC - just decades before
the birth of Christ), proclaims God as Wisdom, from which can be seen His glory,
light and beauty
For wisdom
is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she pervades and
penetrates all things. For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure
emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains
entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror
of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. For God loves nothing so
much as the man who lives with wisdom. For she is more beautiful than the sun,
and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is
found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil
does not prevail. (Wis 7: 24-30).
Brilliant radiant beauty, glory resplendence
The light that is the Godhead was spoken of by King
David: "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?"
(Ps 26: 1). Isaiah, who prophesized the
Incarnate God, His suffering and final triumph, tell us: "The sun shall be
no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you
by night; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be
your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for
the Lord will be your everlasting light. . . ." (Is 60: 19-20). In the
English language glory is associated with a type of beauty called resplendence,
which is a "brilliant radiant beauty."ii Indeed, St. John the
Evangelist (Jn 8:12) records the words of Jesus: " Again Jesus spoke to them, saying,
"I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life."" And as Jesus told His disciples:
"As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."" (Jn
9: 5).
"Light-Beauty" in the Liturgy of the Church
Even a cursory exposure to the rich Liturgical
practice of the Eastern Church will reveal the glory of the Godhead, and
ourselves as being filled with the splendor of Christ's light as we work toward
becoming "partakers of the Divine Nature" (2 Pt. 1:4)
Holy Baptism
At the baptismal exorcism service the priest prays:
"Open the eyes of his [ or her] understanding that the light of thy Gospel
many shine brightly in him. Yoke unto
his life a radiant Angel, who shall deliver him from every snare of the
adversary . . . ." The profession of the Creed which follows in the
baptismal service (and which is said as well by all at every Divine Liturgy and
in daily personal prayer) proclaims: "I believe in one God, the Father
Almighty. . . .And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God . . . . Light of
Light, Very God of Very God . . . . And I believe in the Holy Spirit . . .
worshipped and glorified . . . ." The prayer of baptism directly ties
baptism with light; it petitions God to "Call Thy servant to Thy Holy
Illumination." In the following petition the priest implores God that the
one to be baptized "may prove himself a child of the Light and an heir of
eternal good things." The baptismal water itself is referred to as that
which will be "the illumination of the soul." Then follows the actual
baptism: the three-fold immersion in the
sanctified water, accompanied by the words "The servant of God is baptized
in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". Following this, the newly baptized illumined servant of God is clothed with a white garment of righteousness while a
beautiful Troparion is sung: "Vouchsafe unto me a robe of light, O thou
who clothest thyself with light as with a garment: Christ our God, plenteous in
mercy."
In discussing the Holy Mystery of Baptism Nicholas Cabasilas (1974)
writes, "the baptismal washing has instilled into men some knowledge and
perception of God, so that they have clearly known Him who is good and have
perceived His beauty and tasted of His goodness [cf Ps 33: 8]." The Chrismation of St. Paul by AnaniasThe
Chrismation of St. Paul by AnaniasCabasilas intimates that this is accomplished
by beauty itself: "When men have a longing so great that it surpasses
human nature and eagerly desire and are able to accomplish things beyond human
thought, it is the Bridegroom who has smitten them with this longing. It is he
who has sent a ray of his beauty into their eyes. The greatness of the wound
already shows the arrow which has struck home, the longing indicates who has
inflicted the wound."
Holy Chrismation
The Chrismation service which follows also refers to
"light." After the anointing
with Holy Chrism: "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit," the
priest prays: "Thou art justified, Thou art illumined. Thou art
sanctified."
Holy Eucharist
The Anaphora prayer of the Divine Liturgy of St.
Basil, beautifully expresses the brightness of Christ, whom we are about to
receive after the Holy Spirit transforms the Bread and Wine "to be itself
the Precious Body of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ; and this Cup [the
wine] to be itself the Precious Blood . . . ." Our Lord Jesus Christ is an
image of the goodness of the Father: ".
. . the Life, Sanctification, Might, the
true Light, through whom the Holy Spirit was manifested . . . ." After the reception of the Eucharist there is
sung one of the most beautiful hymns of the Church: “We have seen the true
light, we have received the heavenly Spirit . . . worshipping the undivided
Trinity: for He hath saved us."
The Theotokos: Ladder to heaven and progenitor of
Christ-Beauty
Akathist of the Theotokos, Mother of LightAkathist of
the Theotokos, Mother of LightMary, the new Eve, the Birthgiver of Christ the
Savior of the world, is linked to Divine Beauty. In his homily on the Nativity of the
Theotokos, St. Andrew of Creteiii preaches:
Now is made
the created temple [The Theotokos] for the Creator of all; and creation is
readied into a new Divine habitation for the Creator. . . -- through the conjoining by His Mother
by birth 'of Him made beautiful by Goodness', man receives beauty in a most
excellent and God-seemly visage. And this creating is done truly by the
creation, and recreation by theosis, and theosis by a return to the original
perfection! Now a barren one is become beyond expectation a mother, and the
Birth-giver hath given birth without knowing man, and she doth sanctify natural
birth. Now is readied the majestied color of the Divine scarlet-purple . . . . Now is begun the renewal of our
nature, and the world responding, assuming a God-seemly form, doth receive the
principle of a second Divine creation.
Could we expect anything else than that the Prince of
Beauty, Christ Himself, would be born from her who is described by King Solomon
as ". . . she is more beautiful
than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light
she is found to be superior . . . ." (Wis 7: 29). As is proclaimed in the
Orthros Service of the Church: "The Theotokos and Mother of Light, let us
honor with song and magnify."
The Transfiguration: The prototype of the Beauty of
the Divine Light to come
The significance of the Transfiguration was not lost by the Fathers of the Church. In his Homily on the Transfiguration St. John Chrysostom tells us: ". . . let us journey in thought to the mountain where Christ was Transfigured: let us behold him shining as He shone there . . . . For as concerning the king it is not even possible to say what he is like: so completely do his beauty, his grace, his splendor, his glory, his grandeur and magnificence elude speech and thought . . . . He who is the sovereign and God of all, even as the Psalmist also when discoursing concerning this beauty, said "And the king shall have desire of thy beauty."iv
Of this splendor St. Hilary of Poitiers comments:
" For though the splendor of His eternal glory overtax our mind's best
powers, it cannot fail to see that He is beautiful. We must in truth confess
that God is most beautiful, and that with a beauty which, though it transcend
our comprehension, forces itself upon our perception."v The Divine Light
that shone at Tabor was made explicit by St. Gregory Palamas:
None the
less, in accordance with the Savior's promise they did see the kingdom of God,
that Divine and inexpressible light. St. Gregory of Nazianzos and St. Basil
call this light ‘divinity’ saying that ‘the light is the divinity manifested to
the disciples on the Mount’, and that it is ‘the beauty of Him who is almighty,
and His noetic and contemplatable Divinity’. St. Basil the Great also says that
this light is the beauty of God contemplated by the saints alone in the power
of the Divine Spirit; and again he writes, ‘On the mountain Peter and the sons
of thunder saw His beauty shining more brightly than the sun; and they were
privileged to receive with their eyes a foretaste of His advent.' (Philokalia
IV)
In the spirit of St. Gregory of Nyssa (Musurillo,
1979) we could ponder the saint's words:
"having approached Light itself, the soul is transfigured into
light."
Holy Pascha
The Paschal service emphasizes light. The first
reference in the Paschal Liturgy to Christ, who is 'the Light,' is made in the
5th Ode of the Pascha Midnight Office: "When Isaiah, O Christ, saw thy
light that setteth not, the light of thy Divine appearance coming to us in
pity, he arouse up early crying "The dead shall rise , and they who are in
the tombs shall awake, and all those on the earth shall rejoice." (c.f. Is
26: 19). The contemporary Resurrection Service starts at Midnight with the
priest exiting the Sanctuary holding the
lighted Paschal Candle while all the assembly come forward and light their
candles from the Paschal Candle. All this while the assembly chants the
hauntingly beautiful hymn: "Come ye, take light from the Light, that is
never overtaken by night. Come, glorify the Christ, risen from the dead."
The Paschal Service emphasizes "light." This can easily be glimpsed
in these verses from the Orthros Paschal Canon:
Today is the
day of Resurrection! O nations, let us shine forth; for the Pascha is the
Pascha of the Lord . . .Glory to thy Holy Resurrection, O Lord! Let us cleanse
our senses that we may behold Christ shining like lightening with the
unapproachable light of Resurrection . .
. .Verily, all creatures have been filled with light, the heaven and the earth,
and all that is below the earth. . . . In truth, how noble is this radiant and
all-festal night of salvation; for it precedeth the proclamation of the
light-bearing day of Resurrection, in which the timeless Light did shone forth
bodily from the grave.
The penultimate hymn of the Paschal Agape Vespers (and
all Vesper Services) is the Hymn of Light, the Phos Hilaron:
O Gladsome
light of the holy glory of the immortal Father, the heavenly, the holy blessed,
Jesus Christ. Now that we are come to the setting of the sun, and behold the
light of evening, we hymn thee: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God. It is meet and right that at all times thou
shouldst be magnified by voices of praise, O Son of God, the Giver of Life.
Therefore, the whole world doth glorify thee.
The Theotokos and Mother of LightThe Theotokos and
Mother of LightThe Paschal Megalynarion, repeated many times in the services,
encapsulates the Paschal theme of light:
"Shine thou, O New Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord hath risen upon
thee. Rejoice thou now and exalt, O Zion. And thou, O pure one, Theotokos,
rejoice thou at the Resurrection of thy Son.” This hymn recalls the words of
Isaiah the Prophet: "Arise, shine;
for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For
behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the
Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you." (Is 60:
1,2).
Christ, in His triumphal Resurrection, is the ultimate
Beauty who has illumined the whole cosmos. As we pray in the Paschal Vesperal
Aposticha: "Thy Resurrection, O Christ Savior, hath illumined thy
creation, O Lord Almighty. Glory to thee."
Our response to beauty
St. Macarius of Egypt tells us: "[those who have]
love for Christ, [are] bound fast to that beauty and unspeakable glory, and the
inconceivable riches of the true and eternal King."vi In this same homily
St. Macarius points out that the soul which receives Christ exudes the
inexpressible beauty of the glory of the light of the Divinity. He tells us:
For the soul
that is thought worthy to partake of the spirit of his light, and is irradiated
by the beauty of his ineffable glory (he having by that spirit prepared her for
his own seat and habitation), becomes all light, all face, and all eye: neither
is there any one part in her but what is full of these spiritual eyes of light;
that is, there is no part in her darkened: but she is all entirely wrought into
light and spirit, and is all over full of eyes, having no hinder part, or
anything behind; but appears to be altogether face, by reason of the
inexpressible beauty of the glory of the light of Christ, that rides and sits
upon her.
Beauty leads to love of God and neighbor
St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662), writes:
Nothing so
much as love brings together those who have been sundered and produces in them
an effective union of will and purpose. Love is distinguished by the beauty of
recognizing the equal value of all men. Love is born in a man when his soul's
powers - that is, his intelligence, incensive power and desire - are
concentrated and unified around the divine. Those who by grace have come to
recognized the equal value of all men in God's sight and who engrave His beauty
on their memory, possess an ineradicable longing for divine love, for such love
is always imprinting this beauty on their intellect. (Philokalia, II).
St. John Chrysostom asks: ". . . when the soul is
refulgent with it [beauty] what can match beauty and grace of this kind?vii
St. Maximus the Confessor also pointed out the
connection between the good and the beautiful:
The
beautiful is identical with the good, for all things seek the beautiful and
good at every opportunity, and there is no being which does not participate in
them. They extend to all that is, being what is truly admirable, sought for,
desired pleasing, chosen and loved. Observe how the divine force of love -- the
erotic power preexisting in the good - has given birth to the same blessed
force within us, through which we long for the beautiful and good in accordance
with the words, "I became a lover of her beauty" (Wisdom. 8:2), and
"Love her and she will sustain you; fortify her and she will exalt you
(Proverbs. 4:6, 8). (Philokalia II).
As the author of the book of Wisdom tells us, it is
through beauty that we can glimpse the Divinity: "If through delight in
the beauty of these things men assumed them to be gods, let them know how much
better than these is their Lord, for the author of beauty created them."
(Wis 13: 3). "For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a
corresponding perception of their Creator." (Wis 13: 5)
Holiness our reward for responding to beauty
Paul Evdokimov (1990) points to the spiritual effects
mankind receives in responding to the grace of perceiving the Divine Beauty. It
is that we become beauty ourselves:
Beauty: God is Good and God is love
Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, true God
of true God, the light of the world, from His own mouth informed His apostles
and us: "No one is good but God alone." (Mk 10: 18). His beloved Apostle tells us: “He who does
not love does not know God; for God is love. So we know and believe the love
God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God
abides in him.” (1 Jn 4: 8, 16). St. Basil the Great informs us that this
spiritual perception (Morelli, 2010a) is achieved by contemplation.
A lesson from the Prophet Isaiah: Two that are beautiful
The Prophet Isaiah (Is. 53: 2-3) tells, in foretelling
the appearance of the ugliness of Christ
during His Passion and Crucifixion,
This passage is read at both the Sixth Hour and at
Great Vespers on Great and Holy Friday in the Eastern Church. How do we reconcile Isaiah's prophesy with
the prophetic description of Christ given by King David in Psalm 44: 1-2, in which
he lauds Christ's beauty: "My heart overflows with a goodly theme; I
address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. You
are the fairest of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore
God has blessed you forever?” Evdokimov (1990) suggests an answer. There are
two beauties. Natural and Divine. Divine beauty not only surpasses natural
beauty, but may be hidden, be unseen, be unappreciated and even, paradoxically,
appear ugly to the human eye. He tells us: "Natural beauty is real but
fragile. This is why the natural beauty of a saint is at the summit of being.
The saint, as 'microcosm' and 'microtheos' thus becomes nature’s center, but
grounded in a person. Nature trembles and waits to be saved by man become
holy." Later Evdokimov goes on to write: "The great saints discover
divine thoughts in the world, present but transparent, and look to the very
center of the cosmic shell where they find the world's true meaning." This
is why the spark of Divine Beauty is hidden, but capable of spiritual perception. Beauty can be found in those in the world who are wounded by mere
human standards. The greatest beauty can lie within those physically and/or
mentally challenged.
Secular psychology misses the Divine connection
I started this essay by pointing out that Positive
Psychology unwittingly points us to the Divine, but surely this is not its aim.
Seligman's aim is to remove reference to the personal God whom Christians can
know by responding to God's grace and cultivating spiritual perception. Seligman writes: "But I hope [his
comments on God in his book, Authentic Happiness] it is relevant for how to
lead a meaningful life to the nonreligious community, the skeptical, evidence-minded
community that believes only in nature."
He ends up by creating his own god, a god embedded in nature itself.
Seligman continues:
“Toward a [g]od who is not supernatural, a [g]od who
ultimately acquires [emphasis mine] omnipotence, omniscience, and goodness
through the natural process [emphasis mine] of win-win.”
He goes on to explain:
Biological
systems are forced -- designed without a designer -- by Darwinian selection
into complexity and more win-win scenarios. A cell that incorporates
mitochondria symbiotically wins out over cells that cannot. Complex
intelligence is almost an inevitable result, given enough time, of natural
selection and differential reproductive success.
Seligman is actually basing his comments on a model of
the cosmos developed by Robert Wright (2000) called Nonzero: The Logic of Human
Destiny. Wright considers that all, from the minutest particle of matter to
mankind, has an intrinsic mechanism of complexity, based on 'a win-win game'
theory, a non-zero-sum, which means all involved will win out by 'combining,'
so to speak. Wright states:
The
underlying reason that non-zero-sum games wind up being played well is the same
in biological evolution as in cultural evolution. Whether you are a bunch of genes or a bunch
of memes, if you're all in the same boat you'll tend to perish unless you are
conducive to productive coordination. For genes, the boat tends to be a cell or
a multicelled organism or occasionally . . . a family; for memes, the boat is
often a larger social group----a village, a chiefdom, a state, a religious
denomination, Boy Scouts of America, whatever. Genetic evolution thus tends to
create smoothly integrated organisms, and cultural evolution tends to create
smoothly integrated groups of organisms.
Unfortunately, Seligman falls into the same
intellectual trap as false evolutionists, as discussed in Morelli, 2010. He makes nature, which is finite, no matter
how infinitesimal or complex it may be, or how many dimensions it may have, or
no matter that it may operate according to the rule of quantum physics which
states that particles do not have single definite histories, the principle of
its own infinite existence. His
explanation of the initial point of creation, of even the minutest particle of
matter, is missing. It is a logical inconsistency. How can nothing create
something? Interestingly, this is the
same trap that cosmologist Stephen Hawking falls into, as his recent
publication, The Grand Design (2010) indicates; he falls into the identical logical
conundrum. It is possible that a non-zero-sum
interaction is the way God created the cosmos, including mankind. But spiritual
perception demands that we see the work of God not only in the initial creation
of something out of nothing, but in the way in which that something works, its
beauty and that the “something” ultimately glorifies Him.
The God of Revelation
On the other hand, the God of Judeo-Christianity is a
personal God of Love, Truth Goodness and Beauty. As I state in Morelli, 2010b:
"God is above and beyond all creation." God, to quote once more from
the Anaphora prayer of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom as used in the
Eastern Orthodox Church, is: "ineffable, inconceivable, invisible,
incomprehensible, ever existing and eternally the same."
". . .
.every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights . . .
." (Jas 1: 17)
By Fr. George Morelli
Source: http://antiochian.org/node/23896
