Beauty does motivate us to turn our hearts and minds to God. That doesn't mean beauty is necessary, but if at all possible, it ought to be part of the equation. There should be no reason to leave to chance what can be secured by a presence of beauty.
When it comes to liturgy, whenever possible, it should be beautiful. Beautiful interior, beautiful music, beautiful dress of the clergy and faithful. But just as with everything else, we don't want to let the beauty become an idol in itself.
We don't want to go to church merely because it is beautiful. As Lao Tsu says, "beautiful words are not always true, and true words are not always beautiful." If we consider just the words - a homily may very well use "beautiful" words, words that are easy to digest, pleasant to hear... but will they change us from within? Will they challenge us to grow in our faith? Will they make us better, saints?
So too, there can be a beautiful interior that is merely a museum, where the gospel is not preached, where people, if they do raise their thoughts to God, do so in spite of the surroundings, not necessarily because of them. Beauty is indeed needed. But it's not everything.
Goodness is something that I find very attractive when observing someone expressing virtue. When I see someone do the right thing, especially when facing ridicule, I am attracted to them. I want to spend time in their presence. I want their goodness to rub off on me. I want to surround myself with people who will inspire me to be better.
And so it is important to me how people dress and behave in church. It is important to me what the priest preaches during the homily. No, I don't want fire and brimstone, but I don't want empty placations either.
Truth is the trickiest of them all. Truth in our society is completely relative now. The majority of people seem to not believe in anything outside of personal truth. What's true for me may not be true for you. And so we have gender confusion. We have the calling of virtue vice, and vice being held up as virtue. This is madness, and I cannot be in a church environment where this is allowed to go on.
For me, truth starts with biological facts. There are women and there are men. And there are those who are confused about their identity, who clearly need to fix their identity firmly in Jesus. Of course, there are intersex individuals, but these are a small subgroup of people whose cross to bear is this unique birth defect. There is nothing normal about birth defects. By their very nature, they are not desirable. They do not make the person with the birth defect undesirable. It's just the birth defect that is out of place. We cannot hang our entire identity on a single happenstance like a birth defect, or any other circumstance that is beyond our control. But I digress.
Another truth is what is good and bad to do. Hurting people is bad. Helping people is good. Enabling people is not helping them. Tolerating people is not helping them. Telling people what they want to hear even when it isn't true is not helping them. There are things that God calls us to that are difficult but good - both for us and our fellow human beings. We need to be reminded of these things often from the pulpit, so that we do not allow society at large to dictate our worldview. We cannot have the pulpit parrot back to us what our favorite podcasts, social media platforms, or news outlets are telling us. The church must stand against the grain and focus on Jesus, His teaching, His example. I will not accept anything less from a church.
But what this means is that there may be times in my life where the choice is between a church that is pleasant, fun, comfortable, familiar, but in no way instrumental in growing my faith or that of my children, and choosing a church that may not necessarily check off all the boxes of my personal preferences, but that is based in truth, preaches goodness, and is beautiful in at least some small way. Maybe the beauty is in the interior of the church only. Or maybe it's only in the music. Maybe it's in the silence. Maybe it's in the ritual expressions of the liturgy. Maybe it's in the way my children choose to dress up for this church but not others. Maybe it's in the manner in which we humble ourselves before God in order to receive Christ in the Eucharist. Maybe it's in the effort we put forth to get there on time. Maybe the beauty is in the community formed around this meeting time and place. Maybe there's some other beauty that is like a pearl of great price... maybe the only beautiful thing about the better choice church is that it is faithful to the Gospel. Maybe the beauty is in its consistency.
I have to reorient myself away from an expectation of being entertained, of enjoying myself, and remind myself what worship is all about. It's not about enjoying some good Christian music. It's not about satisfying my autistic need for ritual repetition, either, though. Worship is not at all about me. It's about God and that means that I may not necessarily enjoy it on the surface at first.
I have to find myself grounded in Jesus first and foremost, not in a particular church expression of His Gospel. That means I am principally responsible for a daily, even hourly turning of my heart and mind to God. That is not the responsibility of my church.
You do the best you can with what you've got, and you don't cry about it. I have to remember that when choosing between less-than-perfect church options. Be grateful I have the freedom to go to church at all. Be grateful I have choices of any kind. Be grateful. Always be grateful. Amen.
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