THE FINE ARTS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 72, 27 March 1922, Page 7

THE FINE ARTS

HOW THEY HAVE BEEN FOSTERED

CATHOLIC CHURCH'S MISSION

AN ELOQUENT SERMON,

"The Church and the Fine Arts" was the subject of an eloquent sermon delivered by the Very Rev. Father M'Carthyat the opening" of the new Church of St. Mary of the Angels, Boulcottstreet, yesterday morning. Preaching from Psalm XXV.—"I have loved, 0 Lord, the beauty of Thy House and the place where Thy glory dwelleth" —Father M'Carthy said that the first great mission of the Catholic Church on this earth was to apply the infinite merits of the Passion and Death, of her Divine Founder to the sanctification and salvation of souls. Another great work entrusted by Jesus Christ to His Divine Spouse the Church, one that naturally sprang from the first, was the uplifting of human society to the highest pitch of civilisation and culture. All that was best in the civilisation of the world today could be traced to the Catholic Church as to its source, its fountain head. "SOUL AND INSPIRATION." Among the many potent influences, availed of by the Church for elevating mankind above the gross and material, for developing the mighty faculties of the human man's soul and giving them ideals in keeping with their spiritual nature, must be reckoned in a foremost place, t!ie cultivation, ■. the fostering of the liberal or fine arts—music, painting, poetry, sculpture, oratory, architecture. The Catholic Church was the very soul and inspiration of all those arts, which owed their very existence to-day to her. The most renowned artists of all time wero trained in her cloisters; the grandest edifices that were ever reared were designed and erected by her consecrated sons; the most sublime strains of music that ever fell in soft cadence on the human ear, expressive of every emotion of the soul, all were the Divine creations of the Spouse of Christ, the output of the genius and the inspiring influence of the Catholic Church. The greatest painters that ever lived ci-me from her bosom, animated with her heaven-infused genius. The most celebrated orators of the world's history were her anointed priests whom she commissioned to preach the saving troths of Eternal Life (committed to her keeping by Jesus Christ). She it was that gathered together the scattered fragments of the arts of Greece and Rome, raised them from the depths of sensuality to which they had fallen in pagan days, refined them by her holy influence, and pressed them into her service to aid her children in their worship of the One True God. Here was the secret of the triumph of Christian over pagan art—a diffei'ence of ideal. The pagan mind knew no higher eoncepti6n of beauty than to reproduce in marble or on canvas the form and .figure of some sensual god or goddess. The Christian artist was' a son of the cloister; a man that had grown out in the contemplation of Divine things. For an ideal, he lifted his thoughts, his imagination, his soul to the "Kingdom not made with hands," and sat in contemplation at the ■foot of the "Great White Throne." Hi* immortal masterpieces spoke_ of a- religion of unerring faith and infinite hope_ and all-embracing charity; spoke of a Living God whose perfections were reflected in angelic hierarchies full of nameless mysteries of glory; of a sublime immortality crowned by the vision and the- possession of the eternal truth and infinite beauty.. They spoke of an ideal womanhood in which all nature was-summed up and crlorified: and. best of all, of an ideal Manhood, of One who was man and yet more than man, God. yet in whose bosom throbbed a human heart listening to every appealing cry that rose from theearth. The Church alone could, as the testimony of:-ages had, abundantly proved, unlock, from the treasure-house of her powers and give to her worth v children, the art of reproducing ideals which had hitherto not entered into the minds of men. and which, till the end of time, would be the admiration of the world. BACK TO THE. CATACOMBS. Remarking that Christian Art dated back, to the time of ■ the - Catacombs, 'when the Church's sense of the beautiful asserted itself, and she bade thoseof her children possessed of artistic skill to beautify the cold,'dank walls with endless frescoes, representing scenes from the life of Christ and the sublime doctrines taught by Him, thus filling the hearts of 'the faithful with' more lively sentiments of faith and hope and -love, Father ' M'Carthy went on to refer to the subsequent raising of gorgeous temples throughout, the Roman Empire to the honour of the One True God. .He depicted in vivid language the' march of Altila and 500,000 savage warriors on Rome, and how the. haughty tyrant who called himself the Scourge of God turned back at the voice of the Sovereign Pontiff, Leo 1., who had quietly told Attita that he would never set foot in Rome. Thus, through Rome being saved, the priceless treasures of the literature, the architecture, the painting, the sculpture, of the ancient world were saved for the admiration of succeeding ages. The Church then followed these unruly savages to their forest home and converted them into meek and pure-minded Christians. Society was formed under her fostering care, free republics sprang up under her guidance, -and schools and libraries were opened in every town. - Not the fine arts alone sought a shelter in the Church, for poor suffering humanity crept in beneath the folds of her mantle. It was around the great churches that were built the first hospitals and refuges for orphans and widows, for the blind and the aged. Here the slave, the debtor, the* threatened virgin and the oppressed matron found an inviolable asylum. Truly in every land the Church was the city of God amongst men, the last resort in the dark night of revolution and strife, of all that was lovely and unworldly, pure afict elevated, pitiful and self:sacrificing. When 'the Iconoclasts or image-break-ers for a period of 120 years proclaimed war on all works of art, burned down the libraries, demolished every statue and hacked into shreds every tapestry they could lay their vandal hands upon, the Church again came forth as the champion of the arts and ordered that . every work of art and ancient classic extant should be concealed in her monasteries. What wonder, then, that even the Protestant -Jiistorian, Gibbon, was forced to admit: "All that the world has to-day of ancient art was treasured for 1000 years in the cloisters of the Catholic Church." "The Popes/ said Roscoe, another Protestant historian, "were the patrons 'of the arts. They were men vastly superior to their lime. Learning was on the eve of ' perishing from the face of the earth; civilisation was about to be swallowed up in the overwhelming deluge of barbarism. The Church alone survived the universal wreck. She alone by her powerful influence stfcmmed the rushing torrent and prevented learning and art fron> being

nttcrly and hopelessly destroyed." Then came the Renaissance, and the Church, enthroned"with' the nations at her feet, jvras free, to exercise Jiar Heaven-sent mission. ,) GOTBIC: .ARCHITECTURE. There was ' one art—: Gothic architecture— pre-eminently tha Church's art and her pride and crowning glory. More correctly.' this ; . should Be callei'church .'architecture, for it was not conceived in the frozen North, but came from the Syrian Orient, where its elements and the laws of its being were first met with in the ecclesiastical buildings of that ancient Christian land. Ths Church also especially fostered music. To her anxiety to brighten her ceremonial and lift the hearts of children heavenward, they possessed to-day the thrilling music of the Te Deum, the Exultet, the majestic Prefaces, the tuneful, piercing chant of the Libera, and the countless masses and canticles that exhausted the gamut of human feeling and evoked all that was tragic or tender in human experience and all lhat was facred or sublime iv Divine revelation. ', Coming to the achievement which had resulted in the erection of St. Mary's, the preacher s&id they all desired to congratulate Father S. Mahony, his feJlowpriests, and his loynl parishioners on the eminently successful termination of their gigantic undertaking. Father M'Carthy paid a high tribute .to the architect of the church, Mr. Clere, of Messrs. Clore and Williams, oh his conception of the noble design. In an eloquent appeal the preacher charged one and all, rich and poor, to come forward with a ready and devout mind with lh»«r first fruits to free thoir House of G>vl from debt and preeent it unentailed \o the worship of their Lord and Kin». "TBTft CITY OF GOD." "Having reared the shining white ■walls of thin city of God on earth," said Father M'Carthy in conclusion, "may He insert your purified souls in the immortal walls of the New Jerusalem, and in the Heavenly Zion; may you all stand in the eternal sanctuary of the Most High round whom radiates all art and splendour and beauty: may you be entranced with the joy and gladness that the vision of His eternal perfections, awakens in the souls of His elect; and may you all, bishops, priests, and people, be haloed with the resplendent glory reserved for those who throughout the ages of time have spent themselves in the glorious work of erecting and adorning and dedicating temples to the honour of the Living God."