I've been done in by the beauty;
I've been done in by the truth.
Now there's nothing left but goodness;
Goodness knows that's true in sooth.
Through the door the sunlight breaks,
Lighting up the grass:
"Enter," says the Angel voice,
"Our table's set for Mass."
#451
Those Three
I make no claim to Beauty;
Those who read see why.
Truth does oft elude me;
Frustration writes his sigh.
Goodness is so far from me
(Though Goodness knows I try),
That light years fall between us
Like star-light in the sky.
See verse #224. I am forgetful.
#1. An image has identity.
#2. An image points to a reality beyond itself.
#3. An image participates in the reality to which it points.
See the first chapter of Charles Williams' book, The Figure of Beatrice and Dorothy Sayers' notes to her translation of the Divine Comedy, especially the Purgatorio.
Beatrice was a real Florentine woman (her identity), an image of beauty.
#300
Beatrice is beautiful,
A woman fair of face.
In Dante's poem, an image
Of beauty, faith, and grace.
Beatrice is thus an image of at least 3 qualities: beauty, faith, grace. More women than Beatrice are beautiful; more people than Beatrice have faith; more people than Beatrice reveal the meaning of grace (she leaves Heaven, in the poem, to come down into Limbo to alert Virgil and ask him to go awaken Dante who is in danger of eternal damnation). Virgil the Roman poet (his identity) is also an image of human reason, thus his place in Limbo; he is the best the human self can do on its own, as are all the other people in Limbo images of that aspect of the human self: reason, morality, goodness, virtue. In Dante's world and in orthodox Christian theology, only God, who came down from Heaven, can save the human self. Grace is God's gift of faith to the human soul, faith grounded in the one who came down from Heaven. Reason and virtue are real goods and necessary to the human self, but the best they can do in the end is make you proud and not humble.
The meaning of image requires a supernatural view of the cosmos, finally.
This entry goes with earlier thoughts on beauty and art, goodness and truth. In Magnificat's Roman Missal Companion, I came across a brief Editorial by Father Peter John Cameron, O.P., the editor-in-chief of Magnificat, concerning the new translation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition. Father Cameron packs a great deal of wisdom into 3 pages: "The way we say things matters. It changes how we think and how we feel. In a world of myriad synonyms, finding 'the right word' remains a considerably more intricate and involved process than one may imagine. It entails hitting upon a certain rhythm and sound that renders a certain special sense. We know it when we hear it."
His concern in the editorial is primarily about the meaning and substance of the new translation, in essence its purpose or final cause. He writes that first "The Church has made a new translation of the Mass in order to give us a more sublime sense of the liturgy"; he uses a passage from philosopher Paul Ricoeur to develop his idea: "'To understand a text is to follow its movement from sense to reference, from what it says to what it talks about.' In other words, good communication happens when the sense--the concrete and intentional phrasing of a text--leads us to something beyond the words: to the reality the words are talking about." Talking like that always gets my attention, especially when his concern is with Mystery.
In the next section he defines a second reason for the new translation: "The Church wants to restore to her worship a heightened sense of the sacred." Here he quotes Wolfhart Pannenberg's article "How to Think about Secularism" (1996). "'The absolutely worst way to respond to the challenge of secularism is to adapt to secular standards in language, thought, and way of life.'" Amen. "'Religion that is "more of the same" is not likely to be very interesting.'" Indeed.
The idea that most delighted me in the editorial occurs after the lengthy quote in a section entitled "Souls Communicating." And here we go: "The Church's response to such secularist trends is to present a new translation of the Mass that is aesthetically rich. For nothing transforms us like beauty. The philosopher Jacques Maritain wrote that 'the moment one touches a transcendental [like the beautiful], one touches being itself, a likeness of God,...that which ennobles and delights our life...Only in this way do [people] escape from the individuality in which matter encloses them...They observe each other without seeing each other, each one of them infinitely alone...But let one touch the good and love the true...the beautiful..., then contact is made, souls communicate."
Father Cameron ends the editorial with a quote from the "Blessed John Paul II": "'Ultimately, the mystery of language brings us back to the inscrutable mystery of God himself."
#114
Orion Nebula
Why would God make
Such a glorious sight,
Bright blazing suns
Lighting dust in our night,
But hiding the glory
Light years from our cries,
Unveiling the beauty
To alien skies?
