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Mary and the Sublime Beauty in Mariology

The mariologist is a product of divine patience, meaning that for mariology to exist, a faith experience is necessary. And if one wishes to pursue the path of beauty in the elaboration of a mariology, it is necessary to discover beauty within the experience of faith. And within the experience of faith in Christ, the Word Made Flesh, the Son of Mary, whose only possible beauty is the sublime beauty. Thus, following a thought that has permeated Christian culture throughout the centuries, beauty is characterized by form, the sublime by power. Beauty fosters a relationship with the true, the sublime with the good. The beauty truly found in Christian iconography, especially Marian, celebrating faith, has its own connotations when compared to other forms of beauty: it is clearly sublime beauty.Christian art is not beautiful as classical art is, but it is also not ugly, because it primarily expresses not the feeling of beauty, but that of the sublime. This fundamental difference between the aesthetic character of the two arts is the main reason we have been, and still are, prevented from grasping the distinctive traits of Byzantine art. This is why our purely descriptive judgments overlook the core of the problem and, even when praiseworthy, lack either sincerity or consistency. Critics can identify and describe various elements of this art, such as its decorative tendencies, the picturesque quality of its ornamentation, or its quest for dematerialization, but they never manage to establish a connection between these elements or demonstrate that they are the necessary consequence of an artistic ideal whose expression arises from a spontaneous feeling. This arises from the aesthetic category of the sublime, a feeling distinct from that of beauty. The feeling of the sublime is the source of all Christian art. Depending on the place and time, according to the psychology and spiritual inclinations of a people, this art has always found specific and original styles and expressions.It seems that in Christian iconography, founded on the incarnation of God, beauty emphasizes the humanization of God, while the sublime emphasizes the divinization of man. Beauty and the sublime thus appear as relative categories, whose complementary nature visibly expresses the hypostatic union of the human and divine natures in the single person of the Word Made Flesh. And both categories are motivated and sustained by the same source: the Word Encarnate.Born of a woman (Gal 4:4), who reveals the face and word of the Father, for the word and face of Jesus are entirely directed to the Father, while he pours out his satisfaction on him through the Son who always remained a Son even in the flesh of man. Therefore,> “When he was baptized, Jesus came up out of the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And there came a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:16-17).By fully accepting the disturbing presence of the Son as “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), not only does beauty and the icon gain legitimate autonomy, freeing themselves from any idolatrous fall, but they even acquire a special sacramental meaning. Beauty then becomes almost the most effective and credible witness to the mystery of God’s incarnation in the weak realities of the world. Among the many names of God, the one who most concretely incarnated in the body of the Word is precisely the beautiful.A bold and restless thinker like Simone Weil grasped, with the radicalism that distinguishes her, the essence of the matter through stunning mystical intuitions:> “The beauty of a human face is a fragment of the glory of God.””The presence of beauty in the world is the experimental proof of the possibility of the Incarnation, for with Christ ‘love descended into this world in the form of beauty’. In other words, ‘the beauty of creation is the gentle smile that Christ directs towards us through matter. He is truly present in the beauty of the universe’.”The essence of the iconic face, which springs from the mystery of the Incarnation, reveals itself as a true epiphany of Christ’s loving gift, renewing the invitation to participate in the transfiguration of all creation through personal and communal existence. This is the ascetic path to God’s glory and human salvation, to the incandescent light of the Three Persons, to the ‘unsetting sun’. In encountering the symbol-icon of beauty, the enlightened mind, illuminated by grace, opens itself to glory, the transfigured existence rips the veil of the invisible and reaches the face-to-face vision of him who is not only word, but also icon of the Invisible, and who, in the gift of ‘love to the end’ (John 13:1), completes his glory. The Incarnation sets in motion the immense circulation of glory; Christ was transfigured on Mount Tabor and radiated the original and ultimate beauty of origin and end. This Beauty liberates our freedom. The sun of Christ’s love shines in his heart, his eyes cast rays of light, wisdom, and strength towards men, awakening faith in their hearts. Linked to this delicate thread of love, in perfect freedom, is the possibility of being pierced by those transfiguring rays of light, as is the case with his Mother.”This foundational Mariological doctrine of transfiguring love is the same that governs the deep relationship of trinitarian love, so that “the Holy Spirit, who crowns the love of the Father and the Son, is also the object and instrument of the contemplation of beauty”. Thus, it transcends a mere aesthetic reduction, for the Son’s beauty flows from a precise source: the beauty of the Trinity, which means the beauty of love, and in this relationship lies Mary’s intimacy in the Annunciation.The divine knowledge light does not follow privileged paths, but the ascetic way to eternal truth in a purified heart, the only one capable of receiving the ineffable light of divinity and becoming beautiful. The same radiant light of the person purified, a radiant light that illuminates the faces of many biblical figures, constantly evoked in the lives of ascetic saints and confirmed by the aura that illuminates the sacred faces of icons. Interior light of grace, a ‘pneumatophoric’ personality, which has Mary as its admirable model.The light of beauty in the Theotokos is the visible presence of the Invisible Spirit. In fact, it was necessary that the one who would give birth to the most beautiful of human sons be herself of wonderful beauty. In the Mother of God according to the Eastern tradition, this ontological beauty resulting from the presence of the Holy Spirit is possible in a created being. The ‘breath of life’ in the Mother of the Word sketched on this earth its fullness. The ultimate glory of the Mother of God is the eschaton accomplished before the end of the world in a created person.To deepen reflection on the beauty of Mary from a theological perspective, refer to Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Redemptoris Mater”, which contemplates Mary as the most beautiful creature because closest to the mystery of God.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian theology, Marian apparitions, and the Graduate Program in Mariology.

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Learn about the oldest Marian image in the Catacomb of Priscilla.