What does the Holy Spirit have to do with the idea that beauty, truth, and goodness are all the same thing (being), albeit in different modes? I would posit that the Holy Spirit has almost everything to do with this idea. First we must discuss the Holy Spirit, then we must discuss beauty, truth, and goodness, if we are to connect these two things. We will also look at the lives of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saints Francis and Dominic, and Blessed Mother Teresa, in order to further explicate the connection.
We learn through scripture, tradition, and the Magisterium, that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of life; that the Spirit continues Christ's work of salvation in the present time; that the Spirit makes efficacious the sacramental and spiritual life of the Church; that the Spirit illuminates, moves, and guides men and women of faith to become more like Christ, for the glory of the Father.
Following the ideas from perennial philosophy, goodness is that towards which all things seek, truth is that which is and that which can be known, and beauty is the harmony, balance, and order of things as they are delightful to behold. All of these modes of existence are fully actualized and unified in the Trinitarian personhood of God.
Souls docile to the movements of the Holy Spirit become more like Christ for the glory of the Father. These souls are sanctified and moved by the sevenfold gifts to bear the twelvefold fruits of the Spirit. As these souls progress to be more like Christ, I argue, beauty, truth, and goodness are more evident within themselves, and that they are more able to see, appreciate, and create beauty, truth, and goodness in other people and in the world. Since God is pure goodness, truth, and beauty, the more like God, like Christ, one becomes, the more imbued with these immanent and transcendental qualities one becomes. The more like Christ the soul, the soul is drawn closer to its ultimate end (goodness), the soul more completely shares and participates in existence (truth), and the soul becomes more balanced, ordered, and harmonious (beauty) . The Life-Giver Spirit causes souls to be conformed to the Word/Reason, who is the ineffable Expression of the Father.
But let us look a little closer at beauty, as it is the theme of this publication. What is a beautiful soul? There seems to be a close connection between beauty, happiness, and joy. Happiness seems to be a state of completion, and joy, as a fruit of the Holy Spirit, seems to be an increased and consistent awareness of God. If a soul were to be made more like God, the soul would more readily take delight in God, since, recognizing God within itself and in others, beauty would become more evident. The more beauty is evident, the more complete the soul, and, thus, the happier the soul. The more beauty is evident, the greater the awareness of God, and, hence, the more joyful the soul. This is not physical beauty, but spiritual beauty. If we look at some of the saints, Pope John XXIII, they are not necessarily physically beautiful, but, however, something about the quality of their spiritual life makes their soul beautiful, and, hence, more joy and happiness is evident within them.
But what of beauty and the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, as the Sanctifier, is that person of the Trinity who, through the immediate communication of the love of the Father and the Son, draws souls closer to God through the forgiveness of sins (note the formula for absolution in the Latin Rite) and the plenitudinous giving of grace, which is participation in the very life of God. This forgiveness and giving of grace upon a soul is a direct result of a soul responding to the vocational call to holiness that is the indelible mark of the divine filiation caused by a baptism and confirmation, and sustained by the Eucharist. As the soul draws closer to God through the workings of the Holy Spirit, its life becomes more balanced, ordered, and directed to God. The soul, drawing closer and closer to its divine origin and end, therefore, becomes more beautiful, that is to say, it becomes more delightful to God, and it itself delights all the more in God. We see, therefore, not only what a beautiful soul is like, but we also see that it is only through the salvific action of the Holy Spirit that a soul may become beautiful, blessed, and joyful.
Sharing in the life of the Spirit, sanctified souls not only become more like Christ in truth, beauty, and goodness, but they are able to share in God's self-revelatory act of creation. These souls see, appreciate, and create beauty, truth, and goodness by their cooperation with the Spirit. We will look at the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saints Francis and Dominic, and Blessed Mother Teresa to verify and exemplify these claims.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, during the Visitation, having accepted God's call to perfect motherhood, learns that "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." (Lk 1:35) This child was Jesus, the Christ, the Word made flesh. Mary, cooperating with the will of God, overshadowed, completely docile to the Holy Spirit, brings forth into the world the Word who is God, who is truth, beauty, and goodness. Mary, as the exemplar of Christians, had, therefore, the most beautiful soul. She was fully docile to the Spirit, protected from sin, and was drawn completely towards God. In the fourth century prayer to the Blessed Virgin, Tota Pulchra Es, we see indeed that Mary was completely beautiful, and this beauty reflected her sanctity. I offer this translation:
You, Mary, are all beautiful,
and in you there is not the blemish of original sin.
Your clothes are as white as snow,
your face as radiant as the sun.
You, the glory of Jerusalem!
You, the joy of Israel!
You the honor of our race!
You, Mary, are all beautiful.
We may turn and look at the holy twins, Saint Francis and Saint Dominic, the great saints and patriarchs of mendicancy, as well as Blessed Mother Teresa, the lover of the poor, and see how the sanctified soul becomes holy and bears witness to beauty, truth, and goodness. Saint Francis, moved by the Holy Spirit, not only becomes holy himself, but is granted the ability to see God in the beauty of nature; he sees the beauty in nature that is only evident by a life in the Spirit, and he cannot help but to rejoice in this beauty. Saint Dominic, moved by the Holy Spirit, not only becomes holy himself, but is granted the ability to find God, in truth, through reason; he finds the truth of the cosmos that is only evident by a life in the Spirit, and he cannot help but to tirelessly preach this truth. Mother Teresa, moved by the Holy Spirit, not only becomes holy herself, but is granted the ability to see the goodness in every human being, even though that goodness is painful to behold; she sees this goodness that is only evident by a life in the Spirit, and she cannot help but to lovingly embrace it.
Saints Francis and Dominic, and Blessed Mother Teresa all found beauty, truth, and goodness as a result of their life with the Holy Spirit. They also, additionally, participated in God's creation of beauty, truth, and goodness. When God is praised, preached, or shared with the poor, God's beauty, truth, and goodness are made manifest. We humans cannot do these things ourselves, but only as an immediate result of our docility to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, I argue, is not only the Spirit and illuminator of truth, and the immediate cause of goodness, but is, also, the Spirit of Beauty. Let us pray, therefore, that we may be made docile to the movements of Spirit, and, following the example of all the saints and, especially the Blessed Virgin, may nor only be conformed to the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christ, but may also share in God's creation of these qualities within the world.
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