What Is Beauty?
Three experiences this week prompted me to think about beauty. First, I watched a video in which Dustin Hoffman explained why the movie Tootsie wasn’t a comedy for him. After the makeup artist had finished transforming him into a woman, Dustin asked if he could be made more beautiful. The response was “That’s as good as it gets.” But I’m an interesting person, Dustin thought. Then he reflected on times he had bypassed women because they weren’t beautiful. He realized that he had missed meeting some interesting people. The actor comments that our culture had brainwashed him. On the video he begins to cry. Second, a friend told me how upset she was by a televised beauty contest for little girls who were barely out of their diapers. Third, I happened to see a “Dear Abby” kind of television program. The hostess read a letter from a woman which said that because of her disability, men she was interested in shied away from a relationship with her.
Adages warn us about treating people based on their appearances: “You can’t judge a book by its cover”; “All that glitters is not gold”; and “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Yet, studies show that attractive people win better jobs, and experience shows that they are more popular. A woman in rollerskating competitions explained that she dyed her hair blond because blonds got more points! But what is beauty? Cultures have different standards, and a culture’s standards change. Japanese women had their feet bound, and some African woman elongated their necks. In the United States it was fashionable for women to have an hourglass figure, and then a boy-like figure, and then Twiggy came along. Today girls have rings in their noses and eyebrows and tattoos on various body parts…trends abhorrent to the older generation.
We humans yearn for the good, the true, and the beautiful. God is ultimate beauty. St. Bonaventure said of Francis of Assisi, “In beautiful things Saint Francis saw Beauty itself.” And in Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis wrote, “The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing…to find the place where all the beauty came from.”
I wonder what Jesus really looked like. We have no images of him because of the Jewish ban on idols and images. Artists make him and his mother attractive by our standards. But based on what is known about first-century Jewish men, forensic anthropologists created an image of Jesus. It is quite different from our conception of him. (Search “forensic reconstruction of Jesus” on the Internet to see it.)
We try to conform to what is considered ideal beauty through plastic surgery, cosmetics, and clothing. Wouldn’t it be great if we would concentrate more on developing our inner beauty?
When has beauty or the lack of it influenced your attitude or the attitude of someone you know?
Saints Among Us
As editor of the Christ Our Life series, I once spent almost three months living in the Shelter of God’s Love in Chicago. This was a home for people with disabilities who have no other safe place to go. The home was the realized dream of Rosemary Koenig, a fiesty, petite, white-haired woman. Rosemary’s husband had left her to raise four children alone. After the children were grown and Rosemary retired, she wanted to do something to thank God for the many people who had helped her. So with hardly any money, she pursued the project of forming a community of needy people. A pastor, who Rosemary liked to say was as crazy as she, agreed to lease St. Andrew Parish’s convent to her. It included a chapel. Rosemary commented, “The nuns left, but Jesus stayed.” Proudly, Rosemary told me that my newly-carpeted room was the one where Cardinal Bernardin had vested when he came for the dedication of the Shelter.
When I arrived, the family comprised two women with cerebral palsy, two with spina bifida, one with multiple sclerosis, and one young blind woman. The members were an assorted group. Pam was a freckled Irish girl, while Diane was Black. “Tinkerbell” was about twenty-three, and Evelyn had had six children. Each night after supper the community prayed for their benefactors and for the intentions people had placed in the Shelter’s large Baby Jesus crib in the dining room. Rosemary’s faith in Divine Providence was unfailing and was always rewarded. She said that whatever she needed for her work, God supplied. A fundraiser yielded money to pay for an elevator to the penny. A piano was donated. When Rosemary needed to learn computer, a young woman showed up volunteering to live in the home for a year. She was computer literate.
After I left the Shelter, Rosemary began a second community in another house, one for elderly people. Then Rosemary took up a new ministry, mailing her friends and relatives a “Letter from Jesus” from time to time. I continued to receive the Shelter’s newsletter and a letter from Jesus until Rosemary’s death. I look forward to meeting her again someday.
When has Providence placed an extraordinary person like Rosemary along your path?
St. Peter’s Wife: A Historical Romance
I’ve written a novel, The Fisherman’s Wife: The Gospel According to St. Peter’s Spouse. You might call this a novel experience for me because all of my other books are nonfiction! A few months ago I was reading Philippa Gregory’s novels The White Princess and The Red Queen when it occurred to me that I could write a similar book about a person in the Bible. I chose St. Peter’s wife. We know that he had a wife because the Bible tells how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. But we don’t know anything else about this woman who was married to the chief apostle and presumably bore his children. This lack of facts gave my imagination free rein in telling her story. (more…)
St. Joseph, Head of the Holy Family
This week Pope Francis called for St. Joseph’s name to be inserted in the Eucharistic Prayers. It only took 2,000 years! Today people desperate to sell their houses, bury Joseph’s statue upside-down in the ground. (I hope they know that after the house sells they are supposed to set the statue in a place of honor in their new home.) Some people turn Joseph’s statue to face the wall when they want a favor. Joseph probably just smiles at the simple faith of these people. He probably also smiles at our portrayal of him as an old man (an attempt by artists to protect Mary’s virginity). Yet, Joseph is known as the greatest saint after his wife, Mary. (more…)
Coincidences or Divine Intervention
Recently I became aware of Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity. This is the unexpected occurrence of two things happening together. I recall a few times when I experienced such a surprising event. When I entered the convent, I was assigned a four-digit “religious number,” which served to identify my articles of clothing and me. The first summer that I was admitted to the dormitory at the University of Minnesota, I was given my room’s phone number. It was my religious number! (more…)
