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What is beauty, really?
Beauty is something good. Beauty is something true. It cannot be without truth or goodness, or it isn’t really beauty.
For example, makeup is a good thing in and of itself. It’s totally fine to wear it to enhance your natural beauty and to feel more confident about yourself. That’s a very good thing. But when we wear so much makeup that we no longer look likeourselves, we become someone we are not. We become a false version of beauty.
Men are great. And if we fall in love with one who helps us to become more of who we are, we win at life. But if we fall for one who leads us down a path that causes us to change in a way that makes us who he thinks we should be, we are no longer ourselves, but rather, a false version of ourselves.
These are the sorts of traps the world lays at our feet. “Be sexier!” “What he really wants!” “If you lost weight you’d be great!” “If you just did this other intense thing you’d be more awesome!” “Make sure you InstaSnapTweetFacebookBlog post every second of your life to prove your worth!” and, sometimes, as a Christian, even: “You’re not praying enough to be pretty!” “If you just went on this mission trip you’d be good enough!” These are the things that supposedly make us beautiful.
But in reality, these are crap lies that need to be laid to rest.
True beauty lies in being authentic. It lies in being true to who we are. And who we are isn’t defined by the world. It’s defined by Christ. Consider him your new Merriam-Webster.
By definition, and according to many great philosophers, beauty is transcendent, meaning that it exists beyond our ordinary understanding. In fact, some would say, that it exists beyond time. The definition of beauty also explains that beauty is something that “pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit” (Merriam-Webster, and, well, I’m guessing Jesus (especially since I have dubbed him our new dictionary)).
Given that it exists outside the ordinary, that it always demonstrates truth and goodness, and that it exalts (i.e. lifts up or elevates) the mind or spirit, I think it’s pretty safe to say that beauty is basically an encounter with God (pretty sure I heard a nun on Oprah or something say that once too, so let’s give her credit. Yay nun!).
Because beauty can be an encounter with the Divine, that also means that things that are beautiful somehow reflect the Creator, just as an artist’s work reflects the artist.
This means that all beauty must be true and good, to really be something that images God.
If we think of it that way, then it makes sense that we don’t want to fall into the trap of false beauty, in men, makeup, extracurriculars, and the like. We want to find the most authentic form of beauty within these things – because, as I mentioned, they are not bad things if they help us to become who we really are.
And that’s exactly what God wants for you! For you to become who you really are! He gives us these encounters with beautiful things to help us come to exactly that: the most true, real, good, and beautiful version of ourselves.
Ultimately, the most authentic form of beauty is found in Christ alone. He is the only real beauty that will satisfy us forever. But he does give us wonderful gifts in the form of people and things to help us to have a glimpse of this wonderful life he has planned for us, and wants us to begin living now.
So at the end of the day, the question really is this: how do I live that out? How do I know if it’s real beauty, and how do I become that? (Because I would hope that we all want to be beautiful, our truest self, and good.)
The answer is more simple than we think. It’s really just this: be besties with Jesus. Read Scripture (so you can hear him and recognize him by coming to know him). Participate in the sacraments (so you have a tangible encounter with him). Pray (converse with him). These are the building blocks of the foundation of any real friendship. Getting to know someone, talking to them, listening to them, spending time with them.
And then, in coming to know Christ, we will love him. In loving him we will want to share that love. And real love forgets about me because I’m thinking more about you. Which is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. The author and source of all beauty, became ugly, beaten, bloody, and bruised. And he did all of it thinking not of himself, and whether or not he looked good up there on that cross, but thinking about you and me, and how much he didn’t want to see us up on that cross. He did it in love.
So that’s really it. That’s the answer to what real beauty is, and how to become it. It’s all about getting to know the Guy who designed it all, and sharing him with others. Through that love we become like him, which is what we were made for all along: a life in Christ. For. Ev. Er. How beautiful is that?!
“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love for others.” St. Clare of Assisi
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Ashley AckermanAshley Ackerman is a daughter, sister, and friend. She loves talking and learning about the mystery of femininity, something she is certain she will never fully uncover in her lifetime. She works as a high school teacher in Virginia, a job that allows her to be her goofy-Jesus-loving-grumpy-without-coffee self every single day.
