Truth, beauty and goodness are the hallmarks of the culture of the kingdom of God. These are what I call the cultural trinity. Just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are separate persons yet one God, so truth, beauty and goodness are not the same, but they cannot be separated. To do good is beautiful. Creating beauty is good. Exposing broken children to beauty, for example, is part of the healing of their lives.
Here is a wonderful story to illustrate the relationship between beauty and goodness in the lives of shattered people from the Lake District of Northern Italy. It is told by David Brooks of the New York Times:
Thirty-five years ago, the two Figini brothers, Erasmo and Innocente, were living in Como with their wives, Serena and Marina. Erasmo was a famous fabric designer. Innocente was a prominent eye surgeon. They were successful, but along with their wives, spiritually unfulfilled, unable to understand the meaning of the suffering they saw and felt.
Erasmo went to see a renowned priest, Father Luigi Giussani, who saw faith not as an intellectual system, but as an encounter with beauty, a love story. Erasmo returned to his wife and reported: “God exists. I have met someone who is a witness to his reality.” Serena was intrigued: Erasmo was the last person you’d call religious. But eventually both couples met with Giussani and all found faith.
One day in 1986, Innocente reported that there was an H.I.V.-infected baby at the hospital whose mother was dying. Erasmo and Serena had vowed to each other that they would never have children, but they felt a swelling of gratitude and said they would foster the baby.
Go here to read the rest of the story.
If you are tired of all the negative news, this story will lighten your heart.
- Darrow Miller
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