THE CHURCH AND FINE ARTS

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 155, 27 March 1922, Page 6

THE CHURCH AND FINE ARTS

UPLIFTING HUMAN SOCIETY EDUCATION & INFLUENCE FOR GOOD At the dedication of St. Mary of the Angels Roman Catholic Church yesterday morning, the Rev. Father T. McCarthy, S.M., chose for his text for the sermon, “I have loved, 0 Lord, the beauty of Thy house and the place where Thy glory abideth,” from Psalms xxv. The first great work of the Catholic Church on this earth, said the preacher, was to apply the infinite merits of the passion and deatli of her Divine Founder to the sanctification and salvation of souls. Ananother great work entrusted to her, one that sprang naturally from the first, was the uplifting of human society to the highest pitch of civilisation and culture.

Among the many potent influences availed of by the Church for elevating mankind above the gross and material was the cultivation of the liberal or due arts, such as music, painting, poetry, sculpture, oratory, and architecture. Everyone had felt the refining influence of these stealing into his soul. How awe-inspiring it was to gaze upon a noble structure of white marble, how it stirred the emotions to listen to the joyous strains of music, and- how the dull canvas quickened Into life and spoke with the' eloquence of the human voice under the masterhand of the painter! The Catholic Church .was the foster-mother of all these arts; the most renowned artists of all time were trained in her cloisters; the grandest edifices which were *ver reared were designed by her sons; the most sublime strains of music were the creations of tho Church; and the most celebrated orators' of the world! s history were her priests. 1 She it was that gathered together the scattered fragments of the arts of Greece and Rome, raised them from the depths of sensuality, and refined them by her influence. The difference of ideal was the distinction between Christian and pagan art —the Christian was a man who had grown up in the contemplation of Divine things, and the pagan was a sensualist. The beautiful masterpieces spoke of a religion of unerring faith, infinite hope, and all-embracing charity; they spoke of a living; God, of a sublime immortality, and of an ideal manhood and womanhood. The ambition of the Church’s artists was not merely to arouse the sense of the beautiful, but to educate and .influence for good tho •minds of the people, to explain the sublime mysteries of holy faith, and to raise the mind and heart above sordid things. Dawn of Christian Art. Christian. art dated back to the time of the catacombs, for In those underground vaults the first Christians hid themselves from the fury lot . their persecutors. Even in these depresshg surroundings tho'Church’s sense of the beautiful asserted itself, the cold, dank walls having been adorned with endless frescoes representing scenes from the life of the Divine Master. They carved in marble the tombs of the martyrs, they enriched their low and narrow chapels with" all the decorations Nature or art could furnish, mid when, after K'ree centuries of persecution and martyrdom, the Roman Emperor becAnie Christian, through the length and breadth of the empire there arose magnificent cathedrals and '•.(lurches. Unfettered from the yoke of the tyrant, the Church began in earnest her second mission—the uplifting arfd ennobling of human society and fostering of the fine arts. The Emperor .dedicated a magnificent temple of ! Byzantine architecture'in Cosstantinople to the true God. - When it was destroyed by fire it was rebuilt by the Emperor Justinian in magnificent Stylo. And at Rome, at Antioch, and at Alexandra gorgeous temples were reared with munificent generosity. Just as the arts were on the verge of perishing from the face of the world, thby were all pressed into the service of the Church; and from that period she bad been their great, their unfailing and inspiring protectress. The artist learned from the Church that* in art, as in all things else, there was no enduring success without a basis of morality. Here, as in many other thjjjgs, the divine pliilpsophy of Christ indicated a remedy for a race suffering, like our own, from corruption of refinement and excess of luxury and wealth. Reference was made to the transformation of the Basilica in Romo from a gloomy courthouse to a magnificent temple of God, to the defeat of-thjl ruthless Attila and his savage hordes by Pope Leo 1., who turned tjie tyrant away_from its walls, and converted his followers to the Christian faith. When in -the fifth and sixth centuries the civil order of Europe was utterly broken .and helpless, it was within the precincts of the churches ‘ that poetry, eloquence, music, and painting found a welcome shelter, and the classic traditions of ancient art were preserved for ages that could appreciate and utilise them! It was around these great Christian centres that were built the first hospitals and refuges for orphans and widows, and for the blind and aged. The slave, the debtor, the threatened virgin, and the oppressed matron found an inviolable asylum. “The Popes,” he quoted from. Roscoe, a Protestant historian, “were the patrons of the arts. They were men superior to their time; learning was on the eve of perishing from tho face of the earth; civilisation was about to be swallowed up in the overwhelming deluge of barbarism. The Church alone survived the wreck. She alone, by her powerful • influence stemmed the rushing torrent, and prevented learning and art from being utterly aiid hopelessly destroyed.” To behold the Church’s triumphs in the realms of architecture it was necessary to cross every' lino of latitude, every meridian which encircled the '"lobe, every year of every century of her long-drawn history, and all proclaimed the truth that Catholicity had in itself the secret of the highest art and tfe purest morality, that Catholicity was the summing-up <>f all the art, of all the history, of. all the uplifting and regenerating Influences of the world for the last 1900 years. Whenever liberalism and irreligion gained control of a country their first acts were to suppress the monasteries which had ever been the nurseries of art; whenever there had been a revival of Catholicity, aft lin'd never failed to receive a quickening impulse. Every line 'of her history showed that she had ever cherished, elevated, purified, and sanctified all the finer instincts of our nature. Rebuilding St. Mary’s. “Well nigh four years have passed since old St. Mary of the Angels was destroyed by lire,” he said. “In the very hour of our seeming disaster there arose before the mind of the pastor of the parish a vision radiant and fair, th 6 vision of a stately temple rising from the ruins, richer and more resplendent than any in the land. 'This vision he communicated to his ecclesiastical superiors, who, approving of tho work of its realisation, hade God-speed to the hofile enterprise, and a devoted and generous people rallied to his sido. Never for an instant did the pastor falter or despair.

Difficulties, disappointments, thwartings did but plume his courage and steel his determination to achieve what might humanly be called the impossible, but that day ho could witness the splendid realisation of the hopes, the aspirations, and th* prayers of the priests and the people of St. Mary’s. “Father Mahoney,” he said, “in tho name of the Catholics of the archdiocese of New Zealand, I congratulate you and all who have been associated. with you in magnanimous cooperation in the labours which are today gloriously consummated. I thank you for what you have done for the glory of God and the triumph of Holy Church, and I confidently promise you, in tlie name of the vast concourse of people assembled here this morning, and in the name of those they represent, that when you call upon us to assist you in reducing the . heavy debt that still burdens the gift we offer to God this morning, we will generously respond, regarding it as . a privilege and a joy to set one stone in the memorial of our gratitude to God for all His tender mercies towards His peopleAs the golden grains of corn fall into the hungry furrows, tho earth seems to swallow up and devour them, but in the springtime they shoot forth and yield the rich hiyvcst in the autumn. So each golden coin of its equivalent may seem to represent a loss, but, with our spiritual vision wo' see them springing forth again, a. spiritual harvest that will one day be garnered in the graimryi of heaven. And in return for the love-tribute you offer the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Christ this morning, may the great God increase in you all the spirit of faith, may He multiply in you the virtues of piety, humility, and charity; may he preserve you all from the contagion of this world and its cankering spirit, may he insert yourpurified souls in the immortal walls of heaven, may you all stand in the eternal sanctuary of tho Most High round whom radiates all art and splendour and beauty, may you be entranced with the joy and gladness that tho vision of his eternal perfections awaken in the souls of His elect, and may you all—bishops, nriests, and people—be haloed with the resplendent glory reserved for those who, throughout tlie ages of time, have spent themselves in the glorious work of erecting aud adorning and dedicating temples to the honour of the living God.”