Roberta Green Ahmanson: “Why art is important for the mission of the church”

“The medieval church served the poor. They had alms houses all over Europe. But at the same time they were doing that they were building Chartes Cathedral. There was an understanding that that beauty, that grandeur, that extravagance of color, design, shape and space was something that human beings longed for and needed, even when they were sick and poor.

There’s a Catholic theologian philosopher named Dietrich von Hildebrand who wrote a book called The Nature of Love. In it, one of his examples is the Wedding at Cana, and he says that Christians need to understand that part of what Christ was teaching at Cana was how necessary to us celebration and extravagance is. It’s not that we shouldn’t be giving money to the poor and the suffering, but in that we are just meeting material needs. Human beings are more than that. We all have spiritual and emotional needs of our being. Needs for love, joy. The first miracle Jesus does is not to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or heal the sick. His first miracle is to make wine, and not just any wine, but fine wine for a party. Von Hildebrand says this is the extravagance of God. Why do we feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, heal the sick? So they can enter into joy. Joy is the theme. The arts in all of their aspects bring us into joy, though sometimes the journey is difficult. Art isn’t easy, but it takes you somewhere beyond yourself and outside of your own little world. That’s the path to joy.

It’s always both/and. We need to be working to care for those in all sorts of need, but at the same time we can’t forget why. Those early Christians who had the heavenly Jerusalem on the arch over the altar were living in the present reality of the coming reality. And that’s what sacred space is all about, where you understand that it isn’t just now and it isn’t just material. We don’t live in a world that is merely material, but we live in a world that was created by someone who loved matter. God created this tension within us, but it’s also a wonderful unity.”