Why Beauty lingers on–
I’ve been thinking about the recent fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral and people’s reaction to it. Along the way, I have encountered a wide range of responses, from an almost gleeful celebration at its destruction (serves those Catholics right for their obsession with pagan sentimentalities), to an emotional and collective despair over the potential loss of relics and statues. Suffice it to say that most of the precious artifacts were spared and plans are already underway to rebuild the cathedral’s charred appendages. Whatever Notre Dame May mean to you, it’s reconstruction is almost certain as a result of the donations that pour in at an almost dizzying pace.
But I have a deeper reason for bringing it up. The fire at Notre Dame is a powerful reminder that the pursuit of beauty still matters and it should matter to believers particularly. We stand back from such an event of this magnitude and sorrow over the loss to history and the loss of art contained in this edifice- art that speaks to the history of a time worth remembering especially as it informs our understanding of history. Peggy Noonan, the longtime speech writer to President Regan and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal talked about the “destroyed beauty” associated with the fire as a “spiritual event.”
She writes, “somebody… is watching at this moment and having a conversion experience. He will write of how the size of his grief, of his shock, opened the door in his head and heart and his faith came rushing in.”
Whether you agree with this sentiment is not central to my point.
But consider this, beauty is something to be treasured, something to be pursued and a quality to which we should foster a loyalty. Back to Noonan, who quotes a friend in the art world, who says, “ all of us [are] more loyal to the idea of beauty than we mean to be or know we are… Beauty still affects people… they know they are custodians of it.”
Part of the responsibility attached to Classical education is its pursuit of beauty — its desire to connect its students to the arts, where strong literature and timeless music can shape the mind and move the heart towards godliness and holy greatness. Libertas is at work preparing the mind and sharpening the intellect of its students by exposing them to the best selections of literature from antiquity and the modern works that have stood the test of time and can connect them with their culture. And equally important is the music that our students encounter; material that is building into our students the discipline of practice and the logical progression that makes music a rational expression of the beauty yet possible within our culture.
And, guess what, you’re in luck— you can catch this pursuit locally and on display this week at Grace Community Church where our students will perform on May 6 and May 9 as part of the Libertas Spring Showcase. The concerts begin at 7:00. Better yet, you can sustain this kind of effort as you contribute to our teachers, to the school, or best yet, if you are moved to build a legacy from within your own tribe that impacts a bigger world with the beauty of a Christian witness. That’s what the Legacy Partners are all about. Truth is— our students are on Fire! Come and see.
*Peggy Noonan, WSJ, Declarations, Out of the Ashes of Notre Dame, Saturday/ Sunday, April 20-21, 2019.
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