Beauty Beyond All Telling | REFLECTIONS POST ROME 2024
It isn’t hard to find beauty in Rome. Walk down any street, and you doubtlessly will find a fountain, piazza, or façade that catches your eye. Open the door of any church, and you will be struck by the dazzling gold, the gleaming marble, or the elegant columns. Baroque paintings enchant you with their play of light and dark. Medieval mosaics invite you to wonder at their intricacy. Ancient frescoes – now faded – beckon you to imagine their former glory. Beauty is certainly everywhere in Rome.
I was struck by this fact on my first Sunday in the Eternal City. I decided to attend Mass at a small church designed by Francesco Borromini, Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza. I had heard that it is a wonder of Baroque architecture, and it surely is. As I approached, I was struck by the swirling, soaring design of the steeple. I stepped inside and marveled at the vast openness of the space, the soaring ceiling, the richly carved pilasters, and the gently undulating walls. All of it led my eye to the where on the massive marble altar sat the golden tabernacle with a crucifix above it. No one could deny that this was a beautiful church.
But as I sat there praying before Mass began, I realized that what was even more beautiful was the reason behind such inexpressible grandeur. All of the beauty of the church was meant to facilitate an encounter with God, whose love for us is beauty beyond all telling. The design and decoration of the church reflected the beauty of a love so strong that it did not fear the cross, of a love so powerful that it conquered the grave, of a love so all-embracing that it could unite all things in itself, of a love so true that it sought to remain with us here forever in the Eucharist. That love, that overwhelming love of God, is true beauty. And it is to a realization and contemplation of that love that all beautiful things are supposed to lead us. I found beauty in Rome, but it was a beauty far excelling any edifice, painting, or mosaic; it was the beauty of the love of God.
Nathan Folz
Diocese of Evansville