A priest-colleague of mine who loves to paint shared that there is more to painting than just projecting an object on canvas with different mediums. He described how it once struck him, while painting a portrait, how he naturally began to somehow converse with the face that was gradually taking form upon the canvas.
As a philosopher, presently engaged in discovering and reflecting on Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s ideas on the role of beauty in the wonderful adventure of evangelization, he added that there was indeed something uniquely meaningful than just performing or unfolding one’s artistic skill. The object that the artist projects in whatever media seems to have an effect on the artist that other realities do not have.
Before we could reach our destination, I expressed delight in his insight and because I connected it with Saint John Paul II’s philosophical ideas on man’s action. In simple terms, John Paul II said that every action of man is not just a mechanical act, but the acting person in some way imbeds and leaves something of himself in the object he has acted upon or produced.
This idea is so true in the field of the arts. When a painter, sculptor or musician performs, he becomes intimately united with what he is doing. Thus, we understand why it is hard for some of them to part with their works. They have left, in some way, a part of themselves in what they have crafted. The case is not so with mechanically mass produced consumer objects. These cloned material commodities are devoid of an identifying personality or fingerprint.
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In our spiritual journey towards Heaven, we can also compare every son and daughter of God to an artist. Each one is given by God sufficient graces and means in order to achieve his or her final end. It is up to each one to creatively bring out the beauty and attractiveness of his progress in holiness before God and men.
Before anything else, the Master Artist is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s salvific work, from His birth to His death, is a masterpiece of love. Like an artist, He unfolded a creative burst of grace and mercy. His medium for his creation was ‘the total surrendering of His life’ that would render the portrait of our salvation.
Jesus’ final artistic stroke was achieved upon the canvas of the Cross. This destroyed the malice of sin and restored the beauty of man’s dignity as God’s child. He became part of His work by offering His entire life with a victorious finishing touch! Thus, when we, so to speak, contemplate the mysteries of our faith we encounter the Person of Christ alive within and not some abstract idea or doctrine.
Following Christ, each Christian must strive to serve in this artistic manner of surrendering himself. Often we speak about self-surrender, and quite notably we describe this in the time, resources and initiatives we employ to serve others in the family, parish, office or other social spheres. But if the Christian must take the art of giving himself to the highest level, he cannot be content in merely giving service, but must learn to genuinely give himself in the process.
Giving service is at the reach of almost anyone, but to give oneself is quite another matter. If we have to follow our Lord’s footsteps, who came not to be served but to serve, it will mean learning to be less ourselves each time we serve our brethren.
It will no longer be a material gesture of what we can easily offer, but those we serve will be transformed because they will feel a presence within themselves. It is the presence of Christ’s charity engraved in them through us, who are His instruments of grace.
This is the path every Christin must discover: to learn from the example of Jesus, growing and glowing under the light of His grace. Slowly, one learns the strokes and styles of the spiritual life, so that he gradually allows the Master Artist to guide his hand to paint His portrait in his own life and in others.