According to Vanauken, Beauty hurts. I would have to agree that that wonderful feeling that scatters across my being when I see the glorious creation of my Lord is pain in it's most exquisite form.
But why does Beauty hurt?
I bought two books today, well, now yesterday. One is A Severe Mercy, the other is The Problem of Pain. I've read the latter. It took me the better part of a year, but I've read it. Now, halfway through the prior, I was firmly stuck in the midst of that question: why does the experience of Beauty hurt?
As I was sitting in my car, not five minutes ago, it occurred to me. Lewis talks about pain being one of the ways we know we exist. Beauty, (as a form, mind) is purely Good. As we, broken and sinful (therefore flawed, twisted, and not altogether whole) beings experience a reflection of something that is "sinless," we gain something of our being back from that experience. And the feeling, the experience of it, the pain, returns.
When your leg falls asleep it tingles and "hurts" while the circulation is restored. Duh.
I believe in Purgatory.
3 comments:
i've heard it articulated elsewhere that great beauty and great sorrow cut us more deeply than any other earthly experience. your explaination lent enlightenment to this as well: the greatest beauty and the greatest sorrow remind us each (beauty positively, sorrow in the lack) of something our soul yearns for, and finds only imperfectly here. when we see something glorious, or loose something great, we feel starkly the difference between the way it is now and the way it ought to be. beauty is alwasy to brief, but we know it shouldn't be; grief is at a separation or brokenness that shouldn't be at all.
have you read 'a severe mercy' yet?! 'the problem of pain' is a rich work, written by a wise man who had experience with it; speaking of which, have you read 'a grief observed'? a must in this discussion...:)
Amy, A Severe Mercy is what sparked this. I'm halfway through. It's debilitatingly well written, and speaks to me far more fluently than I've ever experienced before. Frankly, it scares me. But it's good.
So beauty has a "purging" element? Hmmm...interesting. :)
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