Beguiled by Beauty

Julian of Norwich offers an extended discussion of the relationship between our “sensuality” and our “substance,” that is, our lived experience in the world and our eternal union with the divine. Mother Christ, Holy Wisdom “wishes us to be aware that humanity’s dearworthy soul was preciously knit to Him in the creation and this knot is subtle and s

When we realize something other than ourselves is really real, that it suffers like we do and sings out its name like we do, compassion and justice naturally arise. “The poet produces beauty by fixing his [sic] attention on something real.

Awakening to this “without a why” of creation has no purpose other than itself. It is to recognize and participate in what is—not to change it, interpret it, care for it, or adjust it. Being awake is to participate in the flow of what is as it exists for itself. As Sug says to Celie, “God must be pissed off if we pass the color purple in a field wi

justification. “For that I came.” As our self-centeredness diminishes, the world appears in ever more intense colors, sounds, scents, movements, shapes, interactions, and changes. There is nothing static in beauty. It is ever changing, moment by moment. Nothing is the same as itself even for an instant. Moving through time and ever-changing relatio

The beauty of nature and of all beautiful things lets us experience the world without a why. It has no reason other than itself. “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice . . . . Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy. . . .” (1 Chr. 16:31–33). This

But beauty is a spiritual matter, and as such it is no respecter of social status. Beauty opens onto the world beyond our private concerns.

Poverty is being deprived of basic goods that human bodies and minds need to thrive. Lacking a beach front house may not be a form of oppression, but the absence of beauty is a socially produced impoverishment of the spirit.

Beauty is not a luxury, any more than food is.11 “Give us bread, but give us roses, too” as the women strikers demanded.

To be defrauded of beauty is like being deprived of education or medicine.