Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ – Acts 17:27b-28 (ESV)
This week saw the 21st anniversary of the promulgation of one of Pope St. John Paul II’s lesser known works, his Letter to Artists (4th April 1999, which was Easter Sunday that year). His Letter, while short, drips with the Christian message, and is addressed as an exhortation to artists. John Paul II is very inclusive in his definition of what an artist is, and encompasses a wide range of professions and skills, including painters, sculptors, writers, poets, musicians, composers, and architects, among others. While not everyone is called to be an artist, something affirmed in this Letter (§2), it still holds a great deal of value for the Christian people, and helps us understand the place of artists within the Church, and how the Church can help artists grow and develop. The Letter itself can also be read as a work of art in and of itself, as many sections of it are beautifully written, and John Paul II draws upon a few poems from his native Poland in expressing his message.
John Paul II opens the Letter by discussing how God is the ultimate Artist, the sole Creator of the universe and all it contains (Gen 1). God uniquely creates and “bestows being itself, he brings something out of nothing—ex nihilo sui et subiecti, as the Latin puts it.” (§1) Humanity, being made in the image of God (Gen 1:27) shares in His creative capacity to create things which are good. “With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power.” (§1)
The ability to create and produce works, whether they be buildings, art, or music, is thus a participation in God’s creative work, and demonstrates humanity’s place in relation to creation, and to its Creator. One example of this relationship between God and human creative efforts is Scripture, especially the Psalms, which are both human compositions of poetry, yet have been infused with, and guided by, divine inspiration. To be an artist, in the critical sense of the word, is a special vocation, or calling from God (§2). Like other vocations, it needs to be put into practice, into service (§3). The service of the artist is therefore to further the common good, through the re-presentation of God’s goodness and beauty. John Paul II explains that artistic intuition and personal inspiration “goes beyond what the senses perceive and, reaching beneath reality's surface, strives to interpret its hidden mystery. The intuition itself springs from the depths of the human soul, where the desire to give meaning to one’s own life is joined by the fleeting vision of beauty and of the mysterious unity of things.” (§6)
The middle sections of the Letter describe both theologically (§5-6) and historically (§7-11) the role of art and artists in the life of the Church (which is expanded on in §12-13). The sections on history are particularly interesting for those who wish to gain an understanding of art history within the Church, and learn the various struggles which not only artists, but the whole Christian people had to contend with in the battle for creative freedom and expression.
The Letter concludes (§14-16) with an impassioned appeal to the artists on the threshold of the Third Millennium, especially Christian ones. It exhorts them to enter more fully into the message of the Gospel, and the mystery of the Incarnate God, both visible yet imperceptible (Col 1:15). John Paul II notes that artists should be receptive to the Spirit of God, for He is the divine Artist described in Genesis 1:2, “Every genuine inspiration, however, contains some tremor of that “breath” with which the Creator Spirit suffused the work of creation from the very beginning. Overseeing the mysterious laws governing the universe, the divine breath of the Creator Spirit reaches out to human genius and stirs its creative power.” (§15) The Beauty which pervades artistic works thus becomes “a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savour life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could express in incomparable terms: ‘Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you!’” (§16, cf. Confessions 10.27.38)
Echoing the blessing bestowed at the end of the Letter, may we all, whether artists or not, be “guided and inspired by the mystery of the Risen Christ, whom the Church in these days contemplates with joy.”
Pope St. John Paul II, pray for us.
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