The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 323: Truth, Beauty, and Sacred Art (2025)

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Have you ever been moved by beauty? As we conclude our journey through the eighth commandment, we learn that beautiful art points us to the truth and perfection of God. Lastly, Fr. Mike reminds us that this commandment encourages us to always walk in the light and bear witness to Christ in all we say and do. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2500-2513. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism In A Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 323. We're reading paragraphs 2,500 to 2513. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in your reading plan

by visiting ascensionpress.com slash CIY, and you can also click follow or subscribe to your podcast app for daily updates. And daily notifications today is our last day of the Eighth commandment. Yesterday we talked about the respect for the truth as well as the use of social communications media. And today, we're taking a next step. And I think this is fascinating because when we talk about the truth, sometimes we just think, okay, don't lie. But we've seen over the last couple days. Okay, that's not just that. It's also how do I live in the truth? How do I bear witness to the truth? What are some offenses against truth? And also today, the connection between truth and beauty is just remarkable. So we're talking about beauty. And also,

So before we get to the Nuggets today, we're going to talk about sacred art, or art in general, and then sacred art in particular as well, and the goodness and the value and how truth and beauty are related. And so as we launch into today, let's say a prayer, Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the beauty of this day, the goodness of this day. We ask that you help us to recognize beauty in your creation.

Help us to recognize beauty in each other. Help us to recognize beauty in what you have made. And help us to recognize the beauty with which you've created us. us help us to walk in the truth of that beauty and recognize its goodness as we give glory to you in Jesus name. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day 323. We are reading paragraphs 2,500 to 2513. Truth, beauty, and sacred art. The practice of goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words,

the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all, when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words, the depths of a human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of his word, of his wisdom, the order and harmony of the cosmos, which both the child and the scientist discover. From the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their creator, for the author of beauty created them. As scripture states, wisdom is a breath

of the power of God, a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty. Therefore, nothing defiled gains entrance into her, for she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. For wisdom is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light, she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom, evil does not prevail. I became enamored of her beauty. 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 expression. Beyond the search for the necessities of life, which is common to all living

creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human beings' inner riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God's activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered to and ennobled by the ultimate end of man. 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. 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, and to the love of God, creator and savior, the holy one and sanctifier. 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 religious care, remove from the liturgy and from places of worship everything which is not in conformity with the truth of faith and the authentic beauty of sacred art.

In brief, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Christ's disciples have put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Truth, or truthfulness, is the virtue. which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words and guarding against duplicity, disimulation, and hypocrisy. The Christian is not to be ashamed of testifying to our Lord, indeed and word. Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith. Respect for the reputation and honor of persons forbids all detraction and calumny in word or attitude. Lying consists in saying what is false with the intention of deceiving one's neighbor.

An offense committed against the truth requires reparation. The Golden Rule helps one discern in concrete situations, whether or not it would be appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it. The sacramental seal is inviolable. Professional secrets must be kept. Confidences prejudicial to another are not to be divulged. Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, and justice. One should practice moderation and discipline in the world. the use of the social communications media. The fine arts, but above all sacred art, of their

nature, are directed toward expressing in some way the infinite beauty of God in works made by human hands. Their dedication to the increase of God's praise and of his glory is more complete the more exclusively they are devoted to turning men's minds devoutly toward God. Right, there we have it. Paragraph 2,500 to paragraph 2513 nuggets at the end, but before that we got to hear about truth and beauty, sacred art, so incredible. We mentioned this the other day that human beings, by our very nature, we're ordered toward the truth. We're drawn to the truth. Why? Because we're made with an intellect. And that intellect is meant to grasp on to what is true. That's what's what's made for. It corresponds with what is true. And also, beauty reveals truth or has the capacity

to reveal truth in a way that belongs only to beauty. In a way that's, as it says here in paragraph 2,500, that is beyond words. It goes on to say, it says, because truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, not just in our words, it goes on, above all, when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words, the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. And that is so powerful. I mean, we all know the phrase, a picture is worth a thousand words. And in this paragraph, 2500, it seems to me, at least, that the church is saying, yes, not just picture being worth a thousand words, but there's something that is expressed in art.

And remember, art is, it can be painting, can be sculpture, it can be any of those things you see, art is also music. And there's something that gets evoked, something that gets communicated when we see that painting, when we see that sculpture, when we see that walk into that architectural structure, that's just beautiful. Also, when we hear that melody, when we hear that symphony coming together, even sometimes when you simply hear a simple instrument played excellently, it can communicate something.

I mean, it's one of the reasons why, so my little brother, I remember watching a movie with him once. And at one point after the movie, he said, we both liked it. And he said, yeah, and the musical score was incredible. It was just remarkable. And I thought, I didn't even realize. I mean, I realized there was music they played, but he was listening to the music.

He was attentive to the music. And he highlighted the fact that, Without that music, without that musical score, the story would have been emptier. The story would have been maybe in some ways shallower. The beauty that was meant to be communicated by this whole movie would have been lacking because if it would have lacked music, it would have lacked something powerful because we know this, right? I mean, how many times have maybe you've seen some clips like this where you have the actual scene from the movie with the musical score there and then they take out the musical score

and you realize, wow, it is really kind of empty without this beauty that puts this whole scene in a context because think about how often we're told oh this is what you ought to be feeling in this moment say in a movie or in a play or a musical theater kind of a thing because of the music that's playing in the background whether that be this is a scary scene so the music is has that whatever I don't know much about music so has that scary tone to it or this is a sad moment and there's that that melancholy that this comes in the back or this is a glorious moment and you have you know kind of like the Indiana Jones I mean I can in that trumpet launching in, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And I remember even as a kid thinking, like,

yes, I remember literally, I wanted to learn the trumpet just so I could play the Indiana Jones theme as I was jumping off a horse onto the back of a truck, you know, that kind of thing. But this truth and beauty, that beauty can reveal something that near words can't. And in fact, the book of wisdom highlights this. It says, from the greatness and beauty of created things comes these corresponding perception of their creator for the author of beauty created them. It's so incredible. We can perceive the creator from the greatness and beauty of created things. That God is the author of beauty. That's the book of wisdom. And we can actually continue. There's a big section quoted from the book of wisdom, that wisdom is a breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of

the Almighty, therefore nothing defiled against entrance into her, for she is a reflection of eternal light. And this is incredible, this way in which beauty can, I don't want to say capture, but beauty can convey the truth of God. In fact, I remember reading a book years ago by Dr. Peter Craft, just incredible. And he was laying out a number of the arguments for the existence of God. And most of them have, you know, logical points. And it's like, you know, point A, point B, point C, and they just kind of build on each other. One was an argument for the existence of God. And the only example he gave, the only argument, he said, the argument from beauty. And he just wrote, the music of Beethoven, period. Then under that, maybe in parentheses,

he said, either you understand this or you don't. Move on. And it's like, yeah, the reality of beauty points to the truth of God. Now, because of that, because we're created in the image of God, we also get to participate in this. When we create, when human beings create art, we are in some way corresponding and co-working with God. In fact, it says in paragraph 2501, it says arising from talent given by the creator and from man's own effort, right? You got to get good at it. You got to practice. Art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. Goes on to say to the extent that it's inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God's

activity in what he has created. Now art, of course, is not an absolute end of itself, but it is ordered towards raising up the human spirit. And sacred art is true and beautiful in paragraph 2502 when its form corresponds to its particular vocation, which means it's meant to evoke and glorify in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God. And this is what sacred art's meant to do. the reasons why our churches are actually meant to be beautiful. And of course, there are numerous kinds of styles that evoke beauty in different ways. And yet all of those styles should point to truth and beauty. They should serve to evoke and glorify the God of creation. And if a church has sacred art, that does not do that. It says in paragraph 25.03, it says, for this reason,

bishops personally are through delegates, should seat the promotion of sacred art, old and new, in all forms, again, as I said, different styles with the same religious care and also with the same religious care, remove from the liturgy and from places of worship everything that is not in conformity with the truth of faith and the authentic beauty of sacred art. So if a bishop comes into a church and says, no, this, you know, ugly whatever, whatever the object is, whatever the painting is, whatever the thing is, he says, we're taking this down and people are like, no, that's our ugly thing. It's the bishop's prerogative to come in and be able to say, no, the purpose of this place of worship. And the art here is meant to evoke and glorify the Lord to raise human beings, minds and

hearts to the worship, the praise, and glory of God. That's the whole purpose. If it doesn't do that, then it's the bishop's job to take it out of the places of worship. So as we come to this conclusion of the Eighth Commandment, a couple of things we get reminded of. And some of the things are reminded of, as I said at the very beginning, is truth is what is. Right? And there are such things as subjective truth, but there also is objective truth. Truth that is true. It is what is at all times, in all places, for all peoples. And truth cannot contradict truth. And so what we're made for, we're inclined by our very nature to truth. And once we find the truth, we are called to acknowledge it, to apprehend it, to live in the truth, and especially the truth of Jesus Christ. And so that's

the big prayer. The big prayer that we all have is, I have for myself and for all of us. is to always walk in the light, to walk in the truth in everything that we do and everything that we say, to avoid all temptations towards gossip, to avoid any temptation towards abusing the truth or distorting or manipulating or obscuring the truth, but to always walk in the truth and realize that every one of us is called to bear witness, meaning every one of us is called to be a martyr, to bear witness to the truth of Jesus Christ and his church. It's a high call. It's a difficult call, but it's your call and it's my call. Because of that, I'm praying for you. And because of that, please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait

to see you tomorrow. God bless.