Art and Real Life

Thursday (or He Who Must Be Bookmarked) has an interesting post about Tolkien. It got me thinking about fantasy and real life…

Why are Saints Saints? I think it’s because they lived the Greatest Commandment, to selflessly love and be loved, everyday in the smallest and most mundane ways over long periods of time. For sure, there have been grand gestures of miracles, of great preaching and teaching, of visions, and of pen to ink. But how many of us can endure the Greatest Commandment stretched over our lives? It’s a glorious burden, impossible on our own but absolutely necessary.

Loving once a week, once a month, the kid with the mental or physical handicap is easy and fun. You’re friends. But why not more often? This draws us closer to Christ. Is there a more pure representation of Christ than in the face and the laughter of someone with down syndrome?

Escape is easy with our many distractions. This is not to say everything outside of human interaction is soul-killing: exactly the opposite with many works of art. Still, escape we do.

Our fantasy life, the “what-if” life, can become our essential life. Art comes to matter most; real life is messy and disappointing. Through our existence, there is always an emotional charge, a spiritual emptiness, which must be filled. The religious impulse is extremely hard to suppress. There is a deeply rooted urge to have and to hold onto meaning.

Let us find it in Christ and His sacramental imagination!