Recently Pope Benedict invited 500 artists of various disciplines to the Vatican to talk about art and its role in the lives of the Faithful. The meeting was held in the Sistine Chapel under the ceiling painted by Michelangelo, not a bad example of transcendent art. In his address the Pope said, "Beauty ... can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate mystery, toward God." He further stated that much of what is called art today is illusory and deceitful... I could not agree with him more.
Like many kids who went to Catholic school --- 12 years for me --- I rebelled against “all that nonsense” for a long time and dabbled in various disciplines from Buddhism to New Age stuff until, when a few years ago, I realized that I am a Catholic and will always be one. I'm not always a good one, but, like a lot of Catholics, I rely heavily on God's mercy and forgiveness.
However, through all my years of trying other ways of getting to God, I always knew --- and often resented --- that the Catholic Church had 2 things going for it I couldn't come close to finding anywhere else: the communion of Saints and art. I've always loved the Saints. I don't have a special saint but there are so many that I love because their stories have served as models throughout my life as something beautiful and rare and worthy. I know that other religions have the equivalent of saints, bodhisattvas come to mind, but, because I grew up with Catholic saints, they are sort of like old friends to me --- much in the way that favorite TV characters are to kids who grew up in the TV generations. We didn't have TV until I was 7 so I made do with saints and, while that my seem irreverent, it is nonetheless true.
And then there is art. Some of my earliest memories are of kneeling in Church during Mass or Benediction, surrounded by candlelight and light streaming through stained glass windows, statues and murals on the walls and ceilings, wonderful music, flowers, incense, the light sparkling off my rosary beads and genuinely feeling lifted out of my life and into a place where all goodness and beauty lived. To me that was God. I remember the first time I went to services with a roommate who was a Lutheran. Sitting in that plain little church listening to preachy hymns and boring readings I couldn't help but wonder where the heck God was in their way of worship.
Some years back I got interested in the phenomenon known as peak experiences. One of the things I learned during that time is that there are many paths to that type of experience: physical exertion, service to others, sexuality, spirituality, and art being among them. When I read that the Pope said that art can be a path to the transcendent I remembered why the Catholic Church has always been so irreplaceable in my life. I don't know if it is just the programming of my youth or the way my psyche is made but I long for that transcendence. I pursue practices (like writing) that let me enter into that sublime space. And whether it is a function of brain chemistry or communion with the Divine (and, frankly, I see no reason it can't be both), that transcendence is a vital part of my life and of my Faith.
When I was writing Each Angel Burns, I was dealing with three characters all of whom were somewhere along that path. Peter, as a priest, is very much a mystic and, because of circumstances in the story, has lost his proximity to transcendence and is miserable without it. Maggie, as a sculptor and because of the strangeness of her childhood, lives in a different world and has difficulty leaving it. And Gabe, the good father, the good husband, the good friend, the salt-of-the-earth, has ignored his need for the transcendent for too long and is so grateful when it returns. That book owns a big chunk of my heart as well as my soul.
So I am grateful to Pope Benedict for his remarks. They reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite heroes, John Gardner, “True art is moral. It seeks to edify not to debase. To hold off for a little while the twilight of the gods --- and of us.”
Thanks for reading.
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