Movements

THE BEAUTY
OF BEING CHRISTIANS
Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada

Is aesthetics a truly fruitful way for the Church today? In certain aspects, would present day Christianity, torn from its living roots, not risk being fossilized in the cultural residue of a bygone age? I would be so bold as to say, as a hypothesis, or a bet, that the way of beauty seems to be that of the ecclesial movements and the new communities. At the beginning of the new millennium, are we (perhaps) called to start off again from the beauty of Christ? The way of beauty meets the deepest aspirations of the human heart.
Today, it is urgent to explore this way of beauty, since the point of view of truth and goodness are less effective in reaching the men of today, all steeped in skepticism and relativism. Christians have the task of restoring this harmony between truth, goodness and freedom, starting off from the living encounter with Christ who reawakens man’s heart and gives a meaning to his life by opening him to reality as a whole.
God’s love that shines on the face of Christ and of Christians reawakens each person’s “I” in what he or she has that is most personal and free. We can say more. Christianity is unique amongst all other religions in that, paradoxically, in some way, it absolutizes the “I” of each person in the moment in which it relativizes it, in other words, in which it makes it fully relational.
One of the tasks of the ecclesial movements and the new communities in the present moment of the world and of the Church is that of educating people in humanity, towards a fullness of humanity.
Love is not just a feeling, it is a person, a vision, a commitment that lights up all dimensions of the human being, and without neglecting reason and sensitivity. The place God has prepared for Christians is so beautiful that they cannot leave it empty. So let’s stay in our place!