In Genesis 1 of the Hebrew Bible, the word טוֹב (tov) is used to describe God’s creation. In the Septuagint Greek Bible, the word καλός (kalos) is used. Both words mean “very good” and “very beautiful”. They say that everything created by God is very good and very beautiful. This has been the deep-down reality of everything and everyone in the cosmos from the beginning. Judaism says this. Christianity says this. So why is our reality so often ugly and not always very good? Why don’t we see goodness and beauty all the time? Why do we see so much confusion, division, bitterness, and denial in the world?
Why so much darkness?
Wise men from time immemorial say that we have fallen from God. This is why there is so much darkness. There was no greater philosopher than Plato, and this is what he said. Other philosophers and poets say the same thing in many, different ways—but Genesis says this most clearly of all. Although creation remains good and beautiful, we have turned from the Source of goodness and beauty—the One who is the light of goodness and beauty. And so we cannot see this deep-down reality. We cannot see in the dark of our own shadows. Of course, by becoming man without change, God has set things right. We believe this. But faith is not just belief. It’s not “Presto, Chango”! We don’t just say, “I believe” and then suddenly we see. No. Faith is an action word. Faith is being faithful. And being faithful is hard work.
It’s hard, because faith requires self-denial, and we’d rather not—because indulging ourselves is so much fun. But if ever we’re to see—and to be in touch with what we are deep inside, we must work against the grain and do what we’d rather not. In other words, we must strive to please God, not ourselves. Only then will we begin to see. This is what the saints say, and they know deep inside.
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The Philokalia is a collection of holy, ascetic texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by the Church Fathers. This word means “love of goodness and beauty”, and these writings say that self-denial or asceticism is the only way to see. We must deny ourselves, discipline ourselves, go down deep, and with God—always working with God, purify ourselves.
Think of it this way: Our hearts are mirrors. If our heart is dirty, we do not reflect well; we do not see clearly; our perspective is distorted, unreal. But if our heart is cleansed, wiped clean, we begin to see that everything is pure, good, and beautiful deep down; we begin to see God. We begin to see as we struggle in faith to become pure.
Unto the pure all things are pure (Titus 1:15).
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).
Dostoyevsky said that the world will be saved by beauty. Not all kinds of beauty, mind you—certainly not the kind that seems beautiful on the surface. That kind of beauty isn’t good. That kind is deceptive. It is often dark, and it can take us in if we are careless. But there is a real kind of beauty. It is light. It is good. It is deep, and it does not pass away. But it needs to be brought into the open for all to see—and this, too, is hard work.
But here’s the thing. God works through humanity—and most particularly through His Body, the Church. It is our part as Christians to become good and beautiful, which is to become pure and thus transform the world—not so much by what we say but by what we are becoming. Then the world will see God working in us. And seeing this, the world around us will begin to change. This is the Good News. It’s God’s promise. It’s the way things work out in the end, so the saints say.
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Now imagine:
If all of us were to work with God at becoming good and beautiful, think of how good and beautiful this world would become. The outside of the cup would become as clean and as beautiful as the inside, and our collective reality would become both good and beautiful.
I think this is the most human, the most beautiful work of all, because it is God working in us. And it is the dearest, deepest hope of all humanity that the world will become both good and beautiful in the end. All of us hope for this, regardless of where we stand. I dare say even atheists and secularists hope for this deep inside. But it is a hope that we Christians above and beyond all others affirm every time we say The Lord’s Prayer with all our heart:
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done!
Fr. Paul Martin
Annunciation & St. Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Church
New Buffalo, MI