For beauty, beauty, beauty…
has the human heart been made.
Numb and lifeless as it has become through sin,
it still bears this ardent thirst, this longing,
to reconnect, through beauty, with the gift
that lies at the very origin of each unique life,
and which sustains us at every moment
in its tenderest embrace, impalpable but sure.
Beauty touches, yes, pierces the heart like an arrow,
wounding it with a lively longing, a thirst,
which breaks the shackles of numbness and fear,
impelling the heart out of itself—and yet deeper within—
in order to encounter anew this beauty,
to welcome it, to hold it close,
and in turn to be held by it.
But fragments of beauty are not enough,
glimmers of the sacred light in natural creation
—in mountains and plains, sea and sky,
in the glimmering of countless stars,
in the refraction of light across the sky
at the dawning light of day or its last farewell.
But there is something more…more beautiful, more sacred:
the beauty of the human heart, shining through the flesh
of the person who stands before me,
or whose unique countenance, whose form,
is impressed indelibly upon my mind and heart.
Ah, the echoes of beauty’s harmony in this world
are not enough to still, quiet, and calm the heart
—the splendor of music whose melodies
awaken a deeper melody within the soul,
the gentle cooing of the dove, crying out her love,
in longing for the One whose hands fashioned her.
No, no…there is a deeper music, a purer beauty,
which I can hear when I close my eyes
and listen anew to your voice, my friend,
echoing within the inner space of my heart,
within these deep caverns of feeling, of longing,
which lie within me, hollowed by God’s hand.
I reach out to you, friend, beloved, child of God,
whom he has allowed me to receive, shelter, and love…
There is a beauty in you greater than in all the world,
a beauty which simultaneously wounds and heals my heart—
ah, a beauty utterly unique, unrepeatable.
For him, I know, I feel—through what I myself,
in my heart, know and feel before you—
for him I know that there is no other but you,
no other but you, unspeakably beautiful in his eyes.
But in you my heart does not find its final rest.
No, rather, from a deeper rest I reach out to you,
and from a perfect Beauty I welcome and hold you,
my friend, in the perfect beauty that is yours.
Yes, from the Beauty who is glimpsed in all beauty,
and who, surpassing all, draws my heart unto himself,
there to cradle me in the ineffable depths of his embrace,
ravishing me in the Beauty that will be my eternal delight
—from this Beauty I can truly see, receive, and hold you too,
sheltered and cradled in the pure loving affirmation of my heart.
Holding you thus, beautiful one,
my heart is drawn through you anew to the Beautiful One
who is the true and final longing of my heart,
and the everlasting Home of perfect repose.
But from within his repose and the Home of his Heart
I welcome anew, more deeply yet again,
the unique beauty that is yours, beloved, in him.
I cradle you in my embrace
as we are both, together, cradled in his arms,
united as one, now and for eternity,
in the unspeakable Beauty
who makes us one within himself.