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'Created ‘in the image of
God’, man also expresses the truth of his relationship
with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works.
Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expres—
n; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is
common all living creatures, art is a freely given
superabundance of the man being’s inner riches.
Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man’s
own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, iting
knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality
a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent
that it is spired by truth and love of beings, art bears a
certain likeness to od’s
activity in what he has created. Like any other human
ativity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is
ordered to and obled by the ultimate
end of man.295 Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form
corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and
glorifying, in faith and adoration,
the transcendent mystery of God — the surpassing
invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who
‘reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of
his nature’, in whom ‘the whole fullness of deity
dwells bodily.’296 This spiritual beauty of God is
reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels
and Saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to
prayer md to the love of God, Creator and Saviour, the
Holy One and Sanctifier. ~503 For
this reason bishops, personally or through delegates,
should see to the promotion of sacred art, old and new, in
all its forms and, with the same keligious care, remove from
the liturgy and from places of worship everything ~hich is
not in conformity with the truth of faith and the authentic
beauty of ~acred art.297 2504 ‘You shall not bearfalse witness against your neighbour’ (Ex 20:16). Christ’s disciples have ‘put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Eph 4:24). |
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