After the front door of a home opens, both guest and resident step forward to cross a literal and metaphorical threshold between the outside world and protective sanctuary of a home. The room that serves as the landing place is known as an entry. Regardless of the various shapes and forms these rooms can take, they still convey a lot about the home through the artwork or items hung upon the walls. No other place of the home serves as an introduction to the culture of a home as an entryway. It serves as an initiation into the life of the home within which both guests and residents are now enclosed. 

On a wall in our entry hangs an antique gilt frame containing something easily overlooked. Upon notice, one sees vast networks of paper filigree of beautiful patterns in movement toward the same focal point: an Agnus Dei relic from the first Easter of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII. Tucked within the scrolls of paper are the relics of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Dominic whose life  works pointed toward Christ. I often stand to absorb the simplicity and complexity of the beauty of this reliquary. The filigree of paper is an artistic expression reflecting the beauty of Christ as items from the created world that are used to magnify the Lord, appealing to  the senses and initiating a prayerful response.

Though simple and easily overlooked, the framed Agnus Dei indicates the culture of our home. What adorns the walls of our homes is insightful, as art is a powerful representation of the culture it reflects. Just as the displays of our homes are revealing, art conveys the cultural health of a civilization.

Amongst the plethora of all the footage from the devastation left behind by Hurricane Helene in the Appalachian Mountains, one stood out from the rest. It showed an Appalachian man, a survivor, amid the ruin of his home place. Violin in hand, he used it to express a deep-felt gratitude and love for the volunteers coming to the region’s aid. Having nothing else to give, beauty   was able to express what the intellect fails to convey. Alas, there is no   absurdity to be found in this aftermath of destruction, but immense meaning   and love articulated by strings. This man facilitated a symphony of emotions,   gathering all present into the same experience. These moments serve as a reminder that beauty is the articulation of shared experience through our humanity.

In contrast, one glimpse of any “Arts and Culture” section of a publication betrays the harsh reality that we are in the throes of a beauty crisis. The displays at the Olympic Games’ Opening Ceremonies and a newly debuted sadist opera that profanely mocks the Church point to the rot of modern culture. Art has so decayed that the once-sought reaction of shock is no longer enough. It has devolved, notably with the permissive permission of the culture, into a Trojan horse for the  profane and mockery of the Church. Even putting the recent barrage of blasphemies aside, the crisis would still remain.  

Ours is an emaciated culture, starved of both beauty and meaning. This hunger stems from a famine of formation and purpose. Relativism destroyed long-held standards of beauty and inverted what was (and was not)  considered acceptable subject matter. Any internal stirrings once fostered by  beauty were replaced by shock value to elicit a response and garner attention.  All mediums of art highlight this reality, from movies to music,  painting to fashion in some regard. Do not mistake this to be a critique on the techniques of modernity, but rather on subject matter and tone. Ours has become a society of troubled children whose outlandish behaviors seek to receive attention from disinterested parents, or to punish them, revealing their deep inner angst. 

Few contemporary examples serve as stark of a contrast to the recent displays of mockery than the Appalachian Violinist, which reveals more about the purpose of beauty than the endless sea of “poshly accepted” absurdities. Due to its concrete form, art assists in reflection of  the human condition, contextualizing our lives: its joys and sorrows, its triumphs and failures. Its purpose in expression is to serve as a reflection of the beauty and fragility of life. Parsing through the reality of human loss through beauty gives space for the intellect to process this suffering. So, too, it spreads the infectious and uplifting  nature to be found in joy. 

Beauty forms us despite our cognizance. Its vast range from the ordinary to the extraordinary is highlighted in both the regarded works of Michelangelo and the treasured works of our children.  

Beauty, while it instructs our minds, simultaneously prepares our souls, moving them either toward or away from God. 

The transcendentals of truth, beauty and goodness exist in a symbiosis wherein the discovery of one leads to the other. One cannot be surrounded by an endless sea of naturally occurring beauty in the wilderness and not be stirred to wonder at the Source. As we contemplate the beauty of creation, we  seek to comprehend the One who created and willed both us and the mountains we climb. And then, we long to replicate it. Art has the unique ability to add permanence to what would otherwise be a moment’s fleeting beauty, opening the door to the transcendent. Aptly put, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote in The Spirit of the Liturgy: 

“Through the appearance of the beautiful, we are wounded in our innermost  being, and that wound grips us and takes us beyond ourselves; it stirs longing  into flight and moves us toward the truly beautiful, to the Good in itself.”

Absurdities and obscenities could never achieve the same end as the easily digestible beauty found in a sunrise or within heartfelt words intoned by the human voice. If a lack of formation and purpose is foundational to this crisis, how is it repaired? Through comprehending the source and gravity of our humanity through Christ’s incarnation, we are consequently informed in all that we encounter, whether in a museum, concert hall, or in nature. It is through the Eucharist that we unite our humanity to Christ’s. Making frequent use of the sacraments to properly dispose ourselves to receive his humanity into our own, our perspective becomes rightly ordered. Any quest or creation of beauty, as a form of expression, communicates something of the Divine, whether it is a depiction of the sacred or secular. A Christ-centered worldview will produce works that ultimately point back to our Creator. It is important to develop the concept of beauty through a Eucharistic lens, as the most important created thing is Jesus Christ’s humanity (Catechism of the Catholic  Church, 476). Christ’s humanity and divinity is fully present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Our devotion to the Eucharist molds our understanding  as God himself is beauty.

The greatest mistake of modernity has been the neglect of fostering the domestic church; namely, the outsourcing of catechetical formation of children to the outside world. A healthy Mother Church is a vast network of thriving domestic churches. It is these two together that shape the culture.  

The Catechism of the Catholic Church denotes the importance of the home, which it coined the Ecclesia domestica. It is within the “bosom of the family”  that “the home is the first school of Christian life and school for human enrichment” (1656-57). The neglect of the home’ s role as the primary school of formation and beauty has inevitably led to a void. This vacuum has been filled instead by the influence of popular culture, a culture which is markedly nihilistic.

The home is the primary school of beauty and formation, but is heavily influenced by popular culture. When we cross the threshold from the outside dysfunction of the world into our homes, what do we encounter? If we were to reflect, we would see that the influence should be reversed. As the adage goes, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Parents have the unique capacity to mold the future. It is incumbent upon  parents to instruct their children of the value of beauty as they form them in  the faith. 

It is essential that we become clear-eyed about the  culture. The state of art exists in its present form because of our  permission, passive or not, and the invitation of it within our homes. The first place to reclaim beauty and the culture is in the family, forming the next generation. Take the time to expose those in our orbit to true beauty. It can be found in a lovingly set table with music playing or in well-written  prose or in the Psalms. The misty morning sunrise and birdsong affect all who encounter them. As a family, add to the beauty of the Mass through arranging altar flowers or joining the church choir. Most of all, we must stop permissively assenting to and financially supporting the offensive that denigrates our homes and culture. 

A well-ordered home, rooted in truth, beauty and goodness, is an evangelical powerhouse that transforms all who cross the threshold. In a world preoccupied with the ugly and obscene, the greatest act of rebellion, and also  of hope, is to seek and create beauty.