Jorge Mario Bergoglio that I knew of ….

Fr. Joseph Todde, called Peppino, had a close friendship with Pope Francis, who called on the family members whenever he came to Rome, as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. At Peppino’s death on 1^st January, 2015, the familiar Francis said: “He has given so much to the Church”. That same evening, just before dinner, the phone rang at Todde House (brother Francis’). From the other end the voice sounded:  "Good evening, I am Pope Francis, I wanted to hold you close to me in your pain and express my sadness at the death of my dear friend Don Joseph, who gave so much to the Church. My blessing to him and to all of you. I always remember with pleasure the years when I came to Ciampino and his friendliness and his love for the Lord." 

Don Peppino, the pastor, had directed and cared for the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary for forty years at Ciampino, Rome. The priest who was a close friend of Pope Francis died after a long illness. The Pope loved the parishioners, young and old, Peppino’s three brothers, their children and grandchildren. Numerous Italian and Argentine priests, had the privilege of ministering to the parishioners. This author too had the privilege to render pastoral services to this parish Church for two years, during his doctoral studies (2004-2006) at the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS), Rome. As the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francesco Jorge Bergoglio, came to celebrate Mass at the Shrine of Ciampino, administered by the Sardinian Don Peppino Todde.

In one such occasion, during his pastoral visit to this particular Parish, I took the courage to interview Francis Bergoglio.  Prior to the conclave for electing the next Pope after the death of John Paul II he had come to Rome for an important meeting. Cardinal Telesphore Toppo was then already at Vatican for the same purpose. Simple unassuming Francis (Archbishop) and I sat in the office of the Parish Priest. I asked him about who the next Pope is going to be, and about he being the future Pope, as his name was also going around as a prominent candidate. He just ignored such presumptions, and spoke about Asia’s contribution to the Church, especially as regards to the process of inculturation, about Card. Telesphore Toppo, about Asia’s contribution to the universal Church and his close association with the Salesians.

This Kennedy Avenue Parish for years had been a point of reference for Argentine priests/clergy students, whom the national coordinator of the time, in the 90s, Monsignor Jorge Bergoglio, sent to study in Rome and to collaborate with the Parish Priest of Beata Vergine Maria del Rosario Parish, through their pastoral ministry, especially on weekends. Joseph Todde who had come to Ciampino in the 1960s, had been involved for many years in sports at the Institute of Jesus Divine Worker (Igdo), and later became pastor of the Church-Sanctuary of Blessed Virgin Mary of Kennedy Avenue. Don Peppino suffered from chronic Parkinson disease, for many years.

SHRINES UNDER SPIRITUAL SCANNING

-         Pope Francis' decision to appoint Bishops as head of the Marian shrines at Lourdes, Fatima, Medjogueri has caused a stir and appeared to contradict the governance of the local dioceses. Upset by the excessive importance placed on finance and profit in the management of the shrine, local people (pilgrims and businessmen) are now hopeful of a new approach.[1] Andrea Tornielli, editorial director for the Dicastery for Communication, says: "Pope Francis wants the spiritual primacy to be put forward in relation to the temptation to overemphasize aspects related to management or finance." Often for shrines, money seemed to have become 'an obsession'.

In order to meet the expense of the shrines’ maintenance and its expansion, often professional, rigorous, and shrewd management skills and policies are used. The increase in the pilgrims' tax by way of inflating the price-cost of visiting, lodging and buying of souvenirs have been at the forefront of the grievances of people.[2]  Proper actions are needed to clean up the shrine's finances.[3]

Similarly, the Bishop-envoy to Medjugorje “has the aim of acquiring a deeper knowledge of the pastoral situation there and above all, of the needs of the faithful who go there in pilgrimage, and on the basis of this, to suggest possible pastoral initiatives for the future.”  According to Francis, “The real Madonna is the one who generates Jesus in our hearts, a Mother [...] The superstar Virgin Mary, who seeks the limelight, ‘is not Catholic.’”[4] In April 2016, shortly before the publication of the Pope’s apostolic exhortation on the synods, Amoris Laetitia, he warned of a “pseudo-merciful” attitude in the Church today, deriving from a mentality of “political correctness” which avoids uncomfortable truths.

In the word of Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist, shrines are meant to “bring the world back to God,” from a “cultural world without God.” And as Hans Urs von Balthasar says, there can be danger of ignoring the effect of shrines: “that people will pass it by!”[5] The fruits of pilgrimage to the Shrines are tangible, evident. One observes “graces of conversion, graces of a life of supernatural faith, of vocations, of healings, of a rediscovering of the sacraments, of confession.” They do not mislead. (Medjugorje Gebetsakion, 50; Stella Maris, 343, pp. 19, 20).

In April 1991, the bishops of the former Yugoslavia determined that “on the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations.” On the basis of those findings the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith directed in October 2013 that clerics and the faithful “are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such 'apparitions' would be taken for granted.” expected to complete his role at Medjugorje by the summer.[6]

Marian devotion has flourished in Marian Shrines as in Bandel. Multitudes arrive there. It is therefore, a place where veneration will continue, since Our Lady can be venerated everywhere, especially in those locations where this veneration is so fruitful, as we hear it has been from so many testimonies. For example, every year the shrine is visited by nearly 2 million pilgrims from India and abroad. It has become a charismatic place. The fact that the Marian shrine at Bandel is visited by so many faithful, who are no doubt spiritually enriched here, is something to be borne in mind. We need to guarantee a stable and continuous accompaniment of the parish community, the faithful and others who arrive in pilgrimage, whose demands require special attention.

Here are few ways for growing in faith through pilgrimages to the shrines:
Through the practice of the sacraments, conversions, change of life, Eucharistic celebration, Rosary, Eucharistic adoration, fasting and penance the shrines can encourage the development of faith of the faithful. Besides, regular and pastoral reception of the thousands of pilgrims coming to along with organizing pastoral care, in agreement and harmony with the ecclesiastical hierarchy on the ground, and a call to improve the reception can bring about spiritual growth in them. By supplementing the structure of the hierarchy on the ground, initiatives can be better coordinated and thus make it more effective.

The biggest sacramental contribution can be the Confession, through which thousands of pilgrims can be ‘converted’. There is no magic wand for this; this spiritual-sacramental benefit cannot be denied. The Marian pilgrimage centre, Bandel Church, with millions arriving each year to climb the stairs that ascend to the balcony, where the miraculous statue of Our Lady of Happy Voyage is located, continues to draw people to their faith and grow in it. The charism of each shrine is prayer. Here, the mission is a matter of “people’s needs,” emphasizing on the pastoral life, liturgy, catechesis, sacraments and the experience of devotion. Our mission is the truth - Jesus. Each shrine, therefore, is committed to finding and proclaiming the truth. And we know that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.

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[1] Pope Francis' decision on June 6 to appoint the Auxiliary Bishop of Lille as apostolic delegate for the shrine surprised everyone in Lourdes, including those who contested the change of direction taken by the shrine under Bishop Nicolas Brouwet of Tarbes et Lourdes. Cf. Gauthier Vaillant, Pope's intervention over Lourdes Marian shrine cheers locals, Bishop appointed to oversee pastoral care amid discontent over austere management of finances, https://international.la-croix.com/news/popes-intervention-over-lourdes-marian-shrine-cheers-locals/10774?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_content=06-09-2019&utm_campaign=newsletter_crx_lci&PMID=e0bf16242f5244d5ecc2158ed0e57693, 7.9.2019

[2] A year ago, the shrine of Lourdes took over the candles - only those purchased locally are compatible with the burners installed in front of the pools. It had installed credit card payment terminals for candles.

[3] The investigation of the certain doctrinal and disciplinary aspects of the alleged Marian apparitions at Medjugorje that continue regularly, according to the shrine’s six “seers”, is still “under study”. In fact, the local hierarchy has sought to discourage the “Medjugorje phenomenon” which prompted the Vatican to carry out its own investigation.

[4] Edward Pentin, Pope Francis Appoints Polish Archbishop to Be Special Envoy to Medjugorje, http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-francis-appoints-polish-archbishop-to-be-special-envoy-to-medjugorje, 26.9.2019.

[5] Pope Francis Appoints Special Envoy to Medjugorje, Archbishop Henryk Hoser, http://medjugorjeca.org/interview-of-cardinal-schonborn-of-vienna/ 26.9.2019 

[6] Vatican appoints pastoral envoy to Medjugorje, February 11, 2017, http://www.catholicworldreport.com/...-appoints-pastoral-envoy-to-medjugorje-99955/, 27.9.2019

Bandel Shrine: Popular with People of All Faith Communities

Devotees in millions travel from all over India and abroad to Our Lady of Bandel each year. A popular pilgrims’ centre, Our Lady of Bandel draws Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Catholics and Hindus alike. Nasifa Bibi saddened by a stroke that left her husband paralyzed three years ago paid a visit here as a pilgrim and found Mary’s help, the woman of dialogue and unity among Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc.  People irrespective of caste and religion, young and old travel to the shrine on foot, by bicycle or in vehicles to pray and intercede with the Blessed Mother for special favours. They light candles, incense sticks and pay homage to the statue of the Mary on the Balcony, with gifts (sarees, ornaments, candles) in keeping with traditions. Thousands of Muslims express their personal devotion to Mary, whom the Quran honours as the mother of Jesus and is revered in the Muslim Scripture.  So do the Hindus. "All religions teach peace and love." Many come and share the miracles in their life with the priests they meet and during the testimony sessions at annual retreats.Some childless couples, with their prayers heard, beget children after many years of their marriage.

Many devotees believe that the miraculous statue of OLB at this sacred location motivates them to come to this religious shrine to honour her. The Annual observance of the Feast of OLB started many years ago is a moment of special grace for many. The festive atmosphere, with other ritual practices popularize their ‘pilgrimage’ to Bandel. The pilgrimage by all sort of people is more than a devotional moment. People from all walks of life reach here amid hot and humid weather to show their gratitude and feel one with the rest of the pilgrims. Many young people, belonging to different religious communities, cycle annually or arrive on foot despite the summer heat from their homes, a journey that may often take them several hours (as far as Krishnagar, Nadia). Several organizations, religious associations reach here during the year (Blue Army, 1^st Sunday of Lenten Procession, Anglo-Indian and Chinese communities pilgrimage, May and November feast of OLB etc.)

With a minimum fee, the Shrine offers board and lodging to Christians who come here with the Parish Priest/Pastor’s letter. Presently, it accommodates about hundred persons at a time in the old monastery rooms attached to the Church on special occasions. Besides, families come on weekend and spend a day or two in prayers. New centre of the pilgrims is being built with enough rooms and halls to cater to these pilgrims in the coming years.

Other events include: daily adoration, pilgrims’ mass, healing prayers, gospel singing, counselling and healing by priests, sharing of testimonies and rosary recitations, retreats (annual and monthly). There are nearly 40 Christian volunteers to manage the pilgrims on special occasions. 

Dialogue among all faiths demands tolerance and it opens new ways. Hopefully in future all Catholics, Hindus, Jain, Sikh, Buddhist and Muslim devotees will join together to celebrate the Marian feasts here at Bandel. God grant all pilgrims from all walks of life, blessings and miracles!

 Boosts of Business or Pilgrimage?

Just outside the Church campus, there are number of stalls selling candles, rosaries, photos of the Holy Family, cross pendants and Christian wooden bracelets to pilgrims. There is a souvenir shop attached to the Church. In front of the Shrine, beside the road, there are other stationary and grocery shops and restaurants as well.  The selection of goods and services include Christian gifts, souvenirs, gospel CDs, toys, clothing, food, beverages and even saloon and tattoo parlour.

Bandel Church, founded and built by the Augustinian priests, had 777 bighas of land offered by the Muslim Emperor Shahajahan for Christians to live and work after seeing a priest Joan da Cruz being miraculously saved before an elephant in Agra ordeal. There is a mela, a religious fair centered around the shrine, that are vibrant during the festive occasions.

The pilgrimage, which is a desired, determined and dedicated journey of ‘souls’ for spiritual growth, is more than a business opportunity. Business continues round the clock in the shops. The pilgrimage benefits everyone.

Beefed-up Security and Challenges

Besides appointing of few policemen for security on certain occasions who collaborate to protect the pilgrims, there are hired guards and volunteers managed by the internal governance of the Shrine. CCTV cameras are installed all around along with floodlights at prominent places. Yet, security remains the biggest challenge. On Christmas Day and New Year, on request there is deployment of additional police around the shrine and it is kept closed for public. Probably, few walk-through gates are needed to be installed at the entrance. Additionally, a mobile phone jammer can be installed in the church compound. Parishes around are offered special instructions for the pilgrimage. Private-owned TV channels have been airing documentaries, instructions and Church events since few years.

Shrines: Place of Prayer, Mercy and Hospitality

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People  must have wondered why hundreds of men and women, young and old visit the Basilica of the Holy Rosary at Bandel or other shrines in India. Many do so in order to fulfil a vow made in the past, others come to pray, still others to see. The sacred promise to go on a pilgrimage to the Basilica is a way of telling God how desperate, how earnest they are in praying for protection and good life. How well do the shrines come to help in the daily journey of Christians? In them one expresses with simplicity one’s faith, which is enriched by many initiatives: retreats, courses, ritual offerings, moments of prayers and recollection etc. that lead them, in turn, to a lived charity. For this reason it is important that pilgrims, arriving at a shrine, feel at home and can pray in silence before the Lord and experience God's mercy in the confessional.

Shrines and New Evangelization

"The Shrine doors open for new evangelization": this was the theme of the International Conference for Rectors of Sanctuaries (27-29 Nov 2018) held in Rome in the presence of about 600 rectors of shrines from all over the world, including Loreto, Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe, etc. With the apostolic letter of Pope Francis, Sanctuary in Ecclesia, Pope Francis transferred the powers related to the shrines directly to the Pontifical Council for the promotion of the new evangelization, highlighting the missionary dimension of the Church.

As a testimony of charity the Shrines are asked to keep “popular piety” (changed from ‘popular religiosity’, cf. EN 48) alive which “is the immune system of the Church” as one speaker held. (Cf. Gianantonio, Santuari: preghiera, misericordia, cordialità, in “ La Madonna di Castelmonte”, Feb 2019, n.2, p. 12.). Welcoming attitude is, in the first place, the important mindset reserved for pilgrims. We know that more and more often our shrines are not welcoming places. Hospitality is important for the Church's journey and for the pastoral ministry of shrines: pedagogy of evangelization, proclamation of faith, silent guardian of faith, and of mystery and beauty. The Marian shrines should respond well to the Church’s directions and suggestions. In the daily journey that the Church takes, the shrines become the places where our people most willingly gather to express their faith in simplicity and in accordance with the various traditions, practices, religious rituals and cultural expressions of the place and people. They are moments of faith, witnessing the same love and live the same hope. Many shrines have arisen precisely because of the request for prayer that the Virgin Mary has addressed to the visionary, so that the Church may never forget the words of the Lord Jesus to pray without ceasing (Lk 18:1) and to remain vigilant while waiting for his return (cf. Mk 14:28).

Silence for the Sacred

In addition, shrines are called to facilitate the individual pilgrim’s prayer in the silence of his/her heart. With the words of the heart, with silence, with his formulas learned from memory as a child, with his gestures of piety, each one must be helped to express his/her personal prayer. There are many who come to the shrine because they need to receive a grace and then return to thank for having received it, often for having received strength and peace in the trial. This prayer makes the shrines fertile places, because of the piety of the pilgrims or autonomous groups, who set out on a journey to reach these holy places. It is sad when it happens that, upon their arrival, there is no one to give them a word of welcome and to welcome them as pilgrims who have often made a long journey to reach the shrine. And worse still, is when they find the door closed! And priests are not available.  We cannot give more attention to material and financial needs, forgetting that the most important subjects of pilgrimage are the pilgrims. They're the ones who matter. More than food and lodging, each one of them must be made to feel ‘at home’, as if a long-awaited family member finally has arrived. It must also be considered that many people visit the shrine because it is a local tradition; sometimes the works of art attract the people, or because it is located in a natural environment of great beauty.

Place of Prayer

The shrine is above all a place of prayer. Most of our shrines are dedicated to Marian piety. Here, the Virgin Mary opens the arms of her maternal love to listen to everyone's prayer and intercede. The feelings of every pilgrim felt in the deepest of his/her heart are those experiences that are felt by Mary. Here she smiles, giving consolation; she sheds tears with those who cry. She presents to each the Son of God in her arms as the most precious possession that every mother possesses. Mary makes herself a companion of every person who raises his/her eyes to her, asking for a grace, certain to be fulfilled. The Virgin responds with sensitivity to all with the intensity of her gaze, which the artists have figured on her face. For the pilgrims the Virgin Mary is alive in the miraculous statue. She guides her devotees to contemplation and encourages them to Church prayers and sacraments. Shrines would do well to encourage the pilgrims to pray the prayers of Church (Lauds, offices, vespers, etc.); that they always be nourished and grow in the knowledge of God's love.

Experience of Mercy

No one in our shrines should feel like a stranger, especially when one comes to meet a priest with the weight of sin. The sanctuary is a privileged place to experience mercy that knows no boundaries. This is one of the reasons that led to designate the "Door of Mercy" (main entrance) even in the shrines during the extraordinary jubilee year of Mercy. In fact, mercy, when it is lived, becomes a form of real evangelization, because it transforms those who receive mercy into witnesses of mercy. First, the sacrament of reconciliation, which is so often celebrated in shrines, needs well-formed priests, holy, merciful and capable of making true encounter with the Lord who forgives.

Finally, the works of mercy are to be lived in a particular way in shrines, because in them generosity and charity are carried out in a natural and spontaneous way as acts of obedience and love to the Lord Jesus and the Virgin Mary. This is a great pastoral responsibility that has been entrusted to the priests – the ‘care-takers’ of the Shrines. According to Pope Francis, the shrine is a place of the pilgrim's encounter not only with God, but also of the encounter of pastors with their people. The Lord goes to the shrine to meet his people which is so essential, to go out to meet his people, to understand the people of God, without prejudice (cf. Liturgy of 2nd February); the people endowed with that ‘sense’ of faith (sensus fidei, LG 12).  This meeting is essential.

Popular Piety and Rituals

Here we touch on an aspect of evangelization that cannot leave us insensitive. We want to talk about that reality which is often referred to today as ‘popular religiosity’. Both in the regions where the Church has been implanted for centuries and where it is in the way of being implanted, there are special expressions of the search for God and faith among the people. For a long time this was considered less pure, sometimes despised. Today, these same expressions form everywhere the object of a rediscovery. The bishops had deepened its significance during the synod (1974), with the theme: "Evangelization in the modern world", with remarkable pastoral realism and zeal. Popular religiosity, certainly has its limits.

Every religion has its own rituals that serve us in many ways e.g. grace before meals, various prayers said at different times of the day, etc.  They add meaning and joy to our routine activities. Pilgrimage to the shrine as an expression of popular piety with certain rituals boost the participants’ spirit. For example, rituals that students (getting our parents’ blessing before exams), sportsmen (while entering the field) resort to, give us strength when they face situations that are beyond their control. It improves their confidence and focus. A community pilgrimage to the Shrines gives a sense of belonging and solidarity. The various rituals performed at the shrine hold person strong, keep steady, and help praying regularly even when not felt like praying. Many socio-religious rituals hold people in love, affection, graciousness, civility, and good manners. They too sustain love, marriage, family, friendship, neighbourliness and our relationships beyond feelings. Therefore, we need to understand the power of popular piety, pilgrimages and meaningful rituals.

On a cautious note, popular religiosity with various ritualistic expressions often leads to many deformations of religion, many superstitions. It often remains at the level of cult manifestations, without committing a genuine adherence to faith. It can also lead to the formation of sects, and endanger the true Church community. The apostolic exhortation, Evangelii nuntiandi, issued by Pope Paul VI states:

“But if it is well oriented, above all by a pedagogy of evangelization, it is rich in values. It manifests a thirst for God which only the simple and poor can know. It makes people capable of generosity and sacrifice even to the point of heroism, when it is a question of manifesting belief. It involves an acute awareness of profound attributes of God: fatherhood, providence, loving and constant presence. It engenders interior attitudes rarely observed to the same degree elsewhere: patience, the sense of the cross in daily life, detachment, openness to others, devotion. By reason of these aspects, we readily call it "popular piety," that is, religion of the people, rather than religiosity. Pastoral charity must dictate to all those whom the Lord has placed as leaders of the ecclesial communities the proper attitude in regard to this reality, which is at the same time so rich and so vulnerable. Above all one must be sensitive to it, know how to perceive its interior dimensions and undeniable values, be ready to help it to overcome its risks of deviation. When it is well oriented, this popular religiosity call be more and more for multitudes of our people a true encounter with God in Jesus Christ” (EN 48).

BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD

Beauty will save the world. This is a bold statement and yet beauty as love will change our culture of death, of values and of life itself. What beauty is going to save the world? Here we speak of beauty as the light and splendour residing at the heart of man and woman. When it is seen it draws the beholder to itself. The beauty that will save the world is the love of someone showered on a suffering and dying person. It is the beauty transformed into infinite compassion out of love. It can transport the beholder to mystical heights. Beauty seen as love and truth are transcendental because they spill over to encompass every level of being. I was inspired by Cardinal Carlo M. Martini’s pastoral letter, 1999-2000, to write on the saving attribute of beauty. Recently I had been to a country village on the hills with sloping fields, evergreen fields and flowers that have bloomed with a gardener’s hand in it. It was beautiful. In my room I enjoy music, painting and literature. I cannot express to what extent such aesthetic experiences ennobled me. I can only say that I enjoy them all.

This theme of beauty is not something new in our culture and in the eastern spirituality. It is so much present in its splendor in our worship and art. With Urs von Balthasar we can say that God is not only Being, Truth, Goodness, but also the Supreme Beauty. The mystics and the artists know it better. The loss of admiration and appraisal of beauty with the coming of mechanical portrayal of figures and sceneries have impoverished our art. How is it so that thousands flock daily to the numerous temples beautifully carved, that stand as magnificent witness to splendor and beauty? One can think of the Taj Mahal. The while marvel, the carved stones and the structure! Beauty crowns the creation with what is good and true and witnesses to their mutual rapport.

Today the disinterested beauty has been trampled over feet by the modern world of affairs and business bringing it to a sad end. The earth is groaning! The ‘ecological immorality’ has tarnished its beauty. Beauty can never be ostracized and separated from the truth and the goodness. They are two sisters. One who considers beauty to be a thing of the past can never pray, can never love. The world illumined from God becomes only an illusion, dreams, romanticism. But when the dream dissolves it turns into ‘immagine’ that calls for desire to know and admire. Certain modern cultural practices have already began to reduce this aesthetic sense but it is only a culture that is in despair in its isolation.

Beauty involves two moments: to behold the beauty one has to be enraptured and to do so one has to perceive. One gets caught up in wonder at the form as the eyes grasps its splendour. In a world where moral ugliness screams from the headlines of reason and utility, getting raptured by beauty can make us more human. The love and the beauty of the creation converge to the supreme reality- God. In our daily love given and taken what really links one to another is the selfless love that is beautiful.

Beauty as Love              

It is always risky to start a joint venture of beauty and love because they are essential to living in harmony. We have lot of proofs in the advertising world and the mass media. How the film and theatre today equate love with sex and romance! Beauty and love are interrelated. You cannot have one without the other. Both are reciprocal. Dostoyevsky in his novel, The Brothers Karamazov writes, “Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it.” In The Idiot he writes, “Beauty is power. It will save the world.” The object we love is always wonderful and we overlook their defects because first and foremost they are beautiful. Mother Teresa, the bent woman, may not have been beautiful physically but she was beautiful from the inside. She has the “Christed beauty of her face” ever shone for many to be enraptured. Beauty, therefore, has everything to do with what starts in the heart and shines out.

Love and beauty are distinct though inseparable. Beauty and love are expressed in concrete form. They make things and persons lovely and lovable. They are sensual and enfleshed. Beauty emerges when love is generous and gives of itself. They together invite the beholder and bring about pleasure, delight, joy, union, ecstasy and transformation. This sense of beauty matures through being trained by the mind and will. It demands a deliberate choice to see the beauty which cannot function without the sense, however spiritual it is. To internalize this beauty as love, then it to participate in God’s life and become his artefice. What then we to do? Find beauty in what is seen, heard, smelled, tasted and touched. Chose the beautiful in the arts, in sports and in entertainment. Discern the beautiful in one’s own life. Invent all you have for this beauty-full-ness and say, “Late have I loved thee, O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new.” Let the searching for the beauty be our common quest.

 Beauty and Contemplation

Introducing this theme into the third millenium that is marked by a culture of technology highly sofisticated and rationalized, has the risk of being reduced to a mere ambiguous erotic and consumeristic outlet: the beauty of the top model, of the Miss Universe etc. Today the world especially in the West is tired of the rational dryness. The Easter spirituality is sensible to beauty and less so to the production-fever. Beauty joins with contemplation - the word that makes people sick, stressed and is empty of significance. It is not the seductive beauty that we are speaking about, that distances from the very objective for which our hearts remain restless. Instead something that is old and something new.

Is Beauty anarchic and away from the Real?

Is this theme far from today’s preoccupation and tension? I don’t think so. Even to this day the question of beauty strongly stimulates the mind and heart of people: which beauty is going to save the world?  It is not enough to denounce and condemn the evil of the world. Neither is it enough to speak of justice, duties and of common good in a world that is un-enchanted by beauty. It needs to speak with a heart filled with compassionate love, with that charity that offers with joy and enforces enthusiasm. It calls for radiating that beauty which is true and just in life, because only this beauty that enraptures truly the hearts and directs them to God. But how can the humble beauty of the crucified who is risen, bring about liberation to a human race that is so cynical, crude and corrupt?

In the present history of India where so much of misrule, threats, lies, lynching and corruptions are going on, killing innocent men and women who dedicate their lives for the common welfare of all, can we think of beauty as the path to salvation? In the fatigue and tired mood even the promoters of beauty do not find reason for conviction and enthusiasm to hope for beauty, goodness and truth. In discouragement that prompts all to direct themselves to a fatal destiny daily in midst of various forms of brutality, with incapacity to read the designs of the time-mongers, is it worth to invest in something that is of higher value?

True beauty is denied where there is no more joy, where the heart seems to be arrested due to the lack of enthusiasm. At this juncture we are pulled literally to the enrapturing beauty that invites us to go out of ourselves, to forget ourselves and taste the beauty of the gift of God in creation. The light of salvation will certainly attract many to The Beauty that will save the world.