The message that Cardinal Parolin sent to meeting of Rimini, on behalf of Pope Francis (5-VIII-2020), underlines the possibility of wonder to discover, also in the midst of the dramatic experiences of the pandemic, with the eyes of a child (cf. Mt 18:3) the value of human existence, of the existence of other beings and of love, and also the gift of faith. This wonder is now translated - can and must be translated - into compassion and service to the needs of those around us.

Indeed. The admiration, astonishment or amazement has to do with the ability to look. The switchman tells the Little Prince (chapter XXII) that in trains, travelers do not look for or pursue anything, they usually sleep or yawn; "only children crush their noses against the windows.... only they know what they are looking for...".

If the principle of Philosophy is attention to reality and life, then wonder - an exclusively human capacity - is also a condition for grasping the Mystery that is at the root and foundation of all things and especially of everything that has to do with people, longing and yearning for the infinite. Connected with this is the path of beauty, the fullness of which is found in Christ, who reveals the wonder of life when we discover a love that saves.

"Various people - we read in that message - have rushed in search of answers or even just questions about the meaning of life, to which we all aspire, even if we are not aware: instead of quenching that deeper thirst, confinement has rekindled in some the capacity to marvel at people and facts that were previously taken for granted. Such a dramatic circumstance has restored, at least a little, a more genuine way of appreciating existence, without the complexity of distractions and preconceptions that stain our gaze, blur things, empty our wonder and deprive us of asking ourselves who we are".
 

Astonishment and beauty

In the midst of the health emergency, the Pope received a letter signed by several artists thanking him for having prayed for them. "Artists - said the Pope during morning Mass on May 7 - make us understand what beauty is and without the beautiful the Gospel cannot be understood".

Certainly, beauty is, above all, a way to reach other profound dimensions of being, such as truth and goodness. In our time, truth has often been manipulated by ideologies and obscured by relativism; and goodness has been reduced to its social and merely human dimension.

In a 2006 document, the Pontifical Council for Culture committee stressed the anthropological and evangelizing value of beauty:

"The Way of Beauty, starting from the simple experience of meeting with beauty that arouses admiration, can open the way to the search for God and dispose the heart and mind to meeting with Christ, Beauty of incarnate holiness, offered by God to men for their salvation. This beauty continues today to invite the Augustinians of our time, tireless seekers of love, truth and beauty, to rise from sensible beauty to the eternal Beauty and to discover with fervor the holy God, maker of all beauty" ( Via Pulchritudinis, Way of Evangelization and Dialogue, II, 1).

There it was recognized that not all cultures are equally open to the transcendentals and ready to welcome Christian revelation, but they can be open to authentic beauty, that which is related to truth and goodness; and not that which is carried away by a consumerist or utilitarian aestheticism. At the same time, the beautiful says more than the true or the good. The beautiful arouses astonishment -as the classics appreciated-, before capturing the clarity that comes with the perfection of the authentic work of art.

Returning to Cardinal Parolin's message, quotation these words of Urs von Balthasar:

"In a world without beauty (...), good has also lost its attractive force, the evidence of its duty to be realized; man is perplexed before it and wonders why he should do good and not evil. After all, it is another possibility, and even more exciting; (...) In a world that no longer believes itself capable of affirming beauty, the demonstrative arguments of truth have also lost their forcefulness, their force of logical conclusion (...) the process that leads to the conclusion is a mechanism that nobody is interested in, and the conclusion itself does not even conclude anything"(Gloria, I, Madrid 1985, p. 23).

On the other hand, "beauty," observes the document to which we referred at reference letter, "like truth, brings joy to the hearts of men and women, and is a precious fruit that stands the test of time, that unites generations and brings them together in admiration. Contemplated with a pure spirit, beauty speaks directly to the heart, elevates the interior from astonishment to wonder, from happiness to contemplation. Therefore, it creates fertile ground for listening and dialogue with man and for reaching him in his integrity, mind and heart, intelligence and reason, creative capacity and imagination. Beauty does not leave one indifferent: it awakens emotions, it sets in motion a dynamism of profound interior transformation that generates joy, a feeling of fullness, a desire to participate freely in beauty itself, to appropriate it by interiorizing it and inserting it into one's own concrete existence" ( Via Pulchritudinis,II, 3).
 

Path of beauty and Christian witness

Today the way of beauty is recognized especially in the fields of Education and communication. Also as a way of evangelization, which is Education and communication of faith. Because it puts us on the trail of the very author of beauty, who is at the same time the "author" of truth and goodness (cf. Jn 14 6). Pope Francis points out:

"(...) All expressions of true beauty can be recognized as a path that financial aid leads to the Lord Jesus. (...) If, as St. Augustine says, we love only what is beautiful, the Son made man, the revelation of infinite beauty, is extremely lovable, and draws us to himself with bonds of love. Then it becomes necessary that the training in the via pulchritudinis be inserted in the transmission of the faith"(Evangelii Gaudium, 167)".

The message concludes by inviting Christians to bear witness to the beauty of God's love manifested to us in Jesus Christ, the love that has changed our lives and that makes us appreciate the wonder of living. This is what John Paul II expressed in 1984: "It is worthwhile to be man, because you, Christ, have been man".

Thus, by witnessing to the love that saves, we will be able to sustain the hope of our contemporaries, especially those who suffer in today's circumstances.