The Face of Mercy / Daniel Conway

Artists give renewed hope and meaning to those who have lost their way

(En Espanol)

During the 2025 Jubilee Year, several days have been designated as “Jubilee Days.” These are intended to welcome and celebrate different groups of people and various ministries in the Church.

The Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture was held on Feb. 16-18. Individual artists and groups of artists were invited to reflect on the “way of beauty,” the via pulchritudinis, to encounter Jesus Christ, “the image [icon] of the invisible God” (Col 1:15) and the sure foundation of Christian hope, the one who reveals God’s love to all people. Artists of every race, language and culture were given a graced opportunity to discover or rediscover their vocations to express forms of beauty that can renew the world with the gift of hope.

The Gospel reading for Mass on Feb. 16 was St. Luke’s version of the Beatitudes (Lk 6:17, 20-26). According to Pope Francis, Jesus’ words “blessed are you” overturn our worldly mentality and invite us to look at reality with new eyes, with God’s gaze, “so we can see beyond appearances and recognize beauty even amidst frailty and suffering.” This new way of seeing the world is essential to the appreciation of works of beauty.

The second part of St. Luke’s Beatitudes contains what the pope calls “harsh and admonishing words.” These are the “woes” that follow the Lord’s words of blessing: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep” (Lk 6:24-25). The contrast between “blessed are you” and “woe to you” is stark.

Pope Francis issues a prophetic message to artists and representatives of the world of culture. “You are called to be witnesses to the revolutionary vision of the Beatitudes,” the pope says. “Your mission is not only to create beauty, but to reveal the truth, goodness and beauty hidden within the folds of history, to give voice to the voiceless, to transform pain into hope.”

The connection between beauty, on the one hand, and truth and goodness, on the other, is what genuine hope is all about.

As the Holy Father says:

We live in a time of complex financial and social crises, but ours is above all a spiritual crisis, a crisis of meaning. Let us ask ourselves questions about time and about purpose. Are we pilgrims or wanderers? Does our journey have a destination, or are we directionless? Artists have the task of helping humanity not to lose its way and to keep a hopeful outlook.

The spiritual crisis of our time frequently causes people to lose hope and to feel lonely, lost and afraid. Pope Francis believes that artists can give renewed hope and meaning to people who have lost their way. “Be aware, however,” the pope says, “that hope is not easy, superficial or abstract. No! True hope is interwoven within the drama of human existence.”

Pope Francis sees hope as dynamic, not passive. “Hope is not a convenient refuge, but a fire that burns and irradiates light, like the word of God. That is why authentic art always expresses an encounter with mystery, with the beauty that surpasses us, with the pain that challenges us, with the truth that calls us.”

The encounter with mystery that takes place when we experience authentic art stirs something in the mind and heart. Art inspires us, moves us and transforms us. As Pope Francis says, artists are “guardians of the Beatitudes” who can both preserve and expose the revolutionary worldview of Christ.

“We live in a time when new walls are being erected,” the pope says, “when differences become a pretext for division rather than an opportunity for mutual enrichment.” Artists, who are men and women of the world of culture, “are called to build bridges, to create spaces for encounter and dialogue, to enlighten minds and warm hearts.”

To those who ask, “What is the use of art in our wounded world? Are there not more urgent, more practical, more pressing things to do?” Pope Francis replies: “Art is not a luxury, but something that the spirit needs. It is not a flight from reality, but a charge, a call to action, an appeal and a cry.”

True beauty teaches us that there is infinitely more to life than what is pragmatic.
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †