28 September 2002 Johannesburg – Prof. Stewart Bate

Liturgy from Vatican II to the present  -

Art, creation and beauty

In a 1999 letter to them, Pope John Paul calls the artist "the image of God the creator" who on becoming conscious of this truth is able to "raise to God a hymn of praise" (Artists 1). These words express the intimate link between praise and worship of God and artistic endeavor, a link, which is expressed in a powerful way in the Church's liturgy. Beauty mediates the goodness of God raising the soul to the heights. And for this reason, the Pope goes on to say that the beauty of art "is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence" (Artists 16). Art is, of its very nature, a creative process in which transcendence becomes accessible to those entering into the artwork. "The divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power"(Artists 1). For this reason Sacrosanctum Concilium (122) calls art "among the noblest activities of man's genius".  

Artists make use of materials like stone, wood, paint and canvas to bring to life an experience of beauty which touches heart and soul and which makes present something that was not there before. Other forms of art make use of instruments to create music, or the human body to create dance but the process is always the emergence of something new which touches and moves people because it has the power both to speak to their human condition and raise them to spiritual heights. 

It is clear that art, understood in this sense, has a powerful religious dimension to it and can play an effective role in the ministry of the Church. "Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God" (Artists 12). In sacred music, sacred furnishings, and sacred gesture, artists play a vital role in making the liturgy of the Church an experience of beauty and of goodness for the participants. Indeed art is an essential aspect of liturgy since liturgy is ritual and ritual always has a symbolic dimension to it. Art and beauty should guide the construction of sacred buildings which must be "suitable for the celebration of liturgical services" (SC 124). Works of art used in sacred furnishings "should nourish faith and piety and be in harmony with the meaning and purpose for which they are intended" (GIRM 254). 

The focus of the liturgy should not be lost in overstated artistic display, which becomes the center of attention itself. The purpose of the liturgy is to bring the worshiping community into God's presence; a presence which is found in hearing his word, meeting him in prayer and receiving him in sacrament. Artistic endeavor, whether in music, dance or furnishing can run the risk of substituting itself for the real center of the liturgy and in that way obscuring truth and beauty rather than revealing it. "Nothing of what we do in the liturgy can appear more important than what in an unseen but real manner Christ accomplishes by the power of his Spirit" (VQA:10). 

The diverse manifestations of art.

The Church has never adopted one particular style of art as her own (SC 123). To do so would be to fail to recognize that beauty and goodness are transcendental of their very nature and can never be contained in one particular form or style. Different societies in history and culture reflect different aspects of beauty and goodness in the diversity of their art forms. The Church has always adopted works from this diversity in accordance with its goals (GIRM 254). Local Churches are called to adopt expressions of goodness and beauty into the construction of sacred spaces and the articulation of scared rituals (GIRM 254; VQA 16).