‘We are here to appreciate beauty.’ Tree lake – Lake Wanaka. Photo: Unsplash
WelCom February/March 2025
James B Lyons
‘We are here to appreciate beauty.’
I read this in a novel over the Christmas break. While I can’t recall how it fitted into the plot, the image has stayed with me. It’s a great answer to the question each of us has to ask at some time on our life’s journey.
Why am I here? Why are any of us here?
If the answer is to appreciate beauty, what is this ‘beauty’?
I believe it is the gift of life itself. The gift of the natural world, the sun, moon and stars and the vast universe that surrounds us.
It is the gift of my individual life and the life of every person. It is the gift of friendship, companionship and the gift of motion, colour and contrast.
We are awestruck by what is beautiful – a sunset, a smile, a flower garden, the night sky, new life….
For Christians, the realisation that God so loved the world as to enter our space and share life with us, is the most beautiful gift of all.
We recently hailed this gift with the Christmas festival and entered a New Year, celebrating family life and its potential for greatness.
The months ahead open us to the Jubilee Year as Pilgrims of Hope, walking with Pope Francis to create a world-wide atmosphere where reconciliation, harmony and peace can find a permanent home.
These are indeed the fruits of appreciating beauty.
Failure in this appreciation will inevitably lead to disharmony, a selfish approach to life and a warped sense of privilege.
It is easy to forget that I am not a totally independent being. If all I have is gift, I can claim no right to it. Yet, by acknowledging and accepting the gift, I should want to do my best to honour it, to use it well and to recognise how it fits in relationship to all life around me.
Forgetting to appreciate beauty, by taking it for granted, ignoring it or assuming it’s mine by right, is to close myself in to a life where possessions and power count for everything and compassion, caring and forgiveness become signs of weakness.
Appreciating beauty enables me to wonder at the marvel of creation and the hope this inspires for all life.
Noticing even the simplest of beautiful things or actions can lift the veil of worry or doubt, rekindling an awareness of being part of something greater than myself and the value of having others in my life.
In his latest encyclical letter, He Loved Us, Pope Francis reminds us that we ‘cannot attain our fulfilment as human beings unless we open our hearts to others; only through love do we become fully ourselves. The deepest part of us, created for love, will fulfil God’s plan only if we learn to love.’ [Dilexit Nos, He Loved us, 0ctober 2024, n.59.]
We are certainly here to appreciate beauty. This appreciation is the gateway to wonder, which opens a path to faith, provides an essential ingredient for hope and becomes a teacher of love.