The beauty of the faith

Previously I talked about the Faith and being both intellectually satisfying and objectively true. It is also beautiful; the beauty of the faith may be the most important proof of its truth.

Jack Vance wrote a science fiction story where a young man ended up in an isolated community where lived a woman who was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the known universe. She looked very plain to him at first. After some time, he noticed that she was in fact very pretty. Some time later, he realized that she was in fact even more beautiful than her reputation.

My experience of the Church is like that. At first the Church and the faith looked very plain; in fact, according to popular wisdom, the Church is ugly and unfashionable. The more I dug into the doctrine of the Faith and more I experienced the liturgy of the Mass, the more I found that was profound and deep and fine. The more I learn about the Faith, the more beautiful it seems.

For more on the beauty of faith you can consult "The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty: Art, Sanctity, and the Truth of Catholicism" by John Saward, and also "The Evidential Power of Beauty" by Thomas Dubay. I have the first on my bookshelf but haven't read it yet.