Our postmodern culture is shaping a world that resembles an ugly waiting room for Hell. The crisis is so great that after World War I, we can argue that real art disappeared. However, with God’s superabundant Grace, we can hope to see a return to art and culture. To achieve this goal, faithful people should develop the habit of imagining Heaven, and having sorrow for what the temporal order could be and is not.
In this article, I will describe some ways that prayerful and creative souls can use their imagination to revive art. It consists of imagining Heaven in a variety of ways. Heaven can be imagined as a choir, court, garden, spring or fountain. We might see it as a city, festivity, banquet, meal or procession. In this context, the symbolism of Holy Mass especially speaks to us of Heaven. Thus, we can look at each of these comparisons and how they help us imagine Heaven.
When we think about the angels and saints in heaven having the beatific vision of God, we describe Heaven in terms of choirs, singing in Joy. It is a hierarchical choir, as hierarchia in Greek means order put by God in Nature (as in Creation). Such hierarchy is continuous – not like a Masonic ladder with degrees – but like a rainbow where higher layers inter-penetrate lower layers forming the uninterrupted continuum.
When we contemplate the monarchical aspect of God, we can describe Heaven as a court of angels and saints participating in His Glory.
We can think about the Grace of God that gives abundant life to all creatures in temporal and eternal life. Reading Genesis or Revelation, we see Heaven described as a garden with trees that produce a diversity of fruits (rather than just a single type).
In the face of injustice, we thirst for justice from God. Heaven can then seem like a stream or fountain from which justice springs. This honorable and immaculate legal court of God’s justice satiates our thirst completely.
When we contemplate the infinity of God, “ever ancient, ever new,” Heaven is our Celestial Jerusalem. A ancient city like no other with winding streets, where the horizon always brings new wonders and delights.
When we remember the parables of Our Lord where Christ compares the Kingdom of Heaven to those who make ready for the feast of the King with magnificent clothes. We can then imagine the joys of Heaven as that of a feast or banquet.
We might also think of that intimate love of God whereby we can imagine Heaven as that tender and warm atmosphere of a family meal or group meal.
When we remember that everything in creation and liturgy is gradual and ceremonial, we can imagine Heaven as a colorful and solemn procession with all in perfect cadence and order. This can especially be seen in a Holy Mass.
These are just a few of the many images that a soul can explore when seeking to know God and His realities. By using these physical images that remind us of heaven, we can then transcend our constraints, and imagine the perfection of their qualities in the Creator. It is an honest and creative use of our imagination that the good God wishes us to do.
Today it is difficult to imagine Heaven because we lack the words and expressions. Many are unfamiliar with the artistic traditions that once favored imaging Heaven. We live in a violent tyranny in which it is easy to forget all good comes from above and the world follows a divine beautiful architecture.
Some readers might not be familiar with the different artistic movements of Christendom found in the Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, Classic and the Romantic forms.
The two world wars interrupted the sweetness of living found in this artistic movements. In their place, we find a sterile and fragmented culture in which no new artistic movement of Christian inspiration came to light. We are broken as a society and do not have the means to unite the minds and hearts needed to revive art in an integral artistic movement.
The artistic movements from Christendom came for imagining Heaven. Such expression shapes culture and habits making the world a waiting room for Heaven. A world shaped this way favors the sanctification of souls. Art becomes a means where souls get closer and closer to God.
Such imagining does not come about with effort. There is no beauty and art without suffering and pain. Sorrow forces minds and hearts to think about the meaning and purpose of life. It causes people to lament those expressions of beauty that never came to be, and redouble our efforts to make other beauties happen. The sorrow that is missing is a sorrow for potentialities that never came to be.
The imagining of heavenly considerations should not be confused with revivals, larping[1] and easy fantasies of rural life. While traditions must be revived, larping and escaping reality is not the way to do it. An artistic movement comes from the suffering and sorrow that are part of our fallen nature as we live a truly realistic, apostolic and militant way of life.
An artistic movement comes from the present reality. It does not walk backwards or play any type of catch up. We don’t have a continuum with many of our traditions and artistic movements. Thus, the movement to come is not a continuation of the Romantic, Gothic or Baroque movements. These cannot be revived. The new art can only come from struggling with our epoch, in full sorrow and in full charity. From genuine community life that avoids escapisms, an artistic movement can follow.
Anything good comes from prayer and the sanctification of our lives. It relies upon God and His Grace. With our prayers and mortifications, we must ask for the Graces of imagining Heaven, imagining the mystical body of Christ on Earth, and lamenting what could have been. Then art might be born again.
[1] LARPing: pretending to be someone he/she is not. Originating in LARP (live action role playing) where people dress in medieval phantasy costume to enact Dungeons & Dragons, the custom took the streets (and churches) due to people’s identity crisis, interrupted legacy and revival of the past.