“As the days grow shorter and colder we learn that this world will one day end. …Until that day comes, we have a choice to make.”
It is an old joke.
A businessman needs to hire an accountant for his business. From all the applicants he selects three to interview. He brings the first applicant into his office, sits him down in front of the desk and asks, “what is 2 plus 2?” “Four,” responds the applicant. “Thank you,” says the boss “we will be in touch.”
The second applicant comes in and the executive gives him the same treatment. “How much is 2 plus 2?” The second applicant hesitates at the absurdity of the question and finally answers, “Why, four of course.” “Thank you,” responds the businessman, “we will be in touch.”
The third applicant comes in, sits down in front of the desk and is asked the same question. “how much is 2 plus 2?” The applicant doesn’t respond immediately, instead he gets up out of the chair, closes the door to the boss’ office, sits back down, leans in towards the executive, and says very quietly, “how much do you want it to be?”
When we think about the purpose of art. Is the answer simple, straightforward and direct? Or is it whatever we want it to be? Or to put it another way, is it whatever the artist says it is?
Modern science can tell us a lot about why the human person functions the way it does. Science can tell us why we eat, why we drink, why we sleep, and why we make love. But it cannot tell us why we make art. Science cannot tell us why we are driven to paint and write and sing and dance and tell stories.
There was a time when we instinctively knew the answer. The gift of artistic talent, the drive to create, is a spark of the divine, given to some by the Creator to bring hearts and minds and souls back to Him. This is the primary purpose of art, as indeed it is the primary purpose for all the multiplicity of gifts God has given us, to connect the human race back to God. For millennia we understood this, even if sometimes we expressed “God” in different ways, under different names. The purpose of art was to connect us to something greater than ourselves.
But about 300 years ago, the serpent in the garden whispered to us once again. “You don’t need God, you are like God, use your gifts to indulge yourself.” It seems that artists of all kinds are particularly susceptible to the voice of temptation and the so-called age of Enlightenment began our break with God.
Shortly afterwards, the age of “modern art” was ushered in and art became the personal expression of the artist.
Art schools no longer taught tradition that built upon tradition and instead encouraged artists to dig deep with themselves and use their gifts to “express themselves.” But the primary purpose of art, at least from a theological standpoint, is to show the splendor of God to a people that have largely forgotten Him.
What is the primary purpose of water? We can drink it, it nourishes us, we can use it to wash things clean and even use it to create power. But all of these purposes, good and noble as they may be, are secondary to the primary reason we have water. We have water to use in the Sacrament of Baptism, the sacrament by which we become sons and daughters of God.
Art likewise can have several uses, it can be used to heal, it can be used to help disordered minds find order, it can be used to call attention to injustice and inspire people to take up a cause. But all of these uses are secondary, the primary purpose of the artistic gift is to build up the Kingdom of God.
We do not have to be theologians in order to see the world through a theological lens. All of creation teaches about the Creator. Every rock, tree, blade of grass, every cycle of the day and the year has something to tell us about our relationship with God.
We are entering winter and the season of Advent, what are we to learn from Advent, what is the lesson for the artist?
As the days grow shorter and colder we learn that this world will one day end. One day the sun will not rise and the world will not warm with its rays. Until that day comes, we have a choice to make.
God has given us all this time, from the Crucifixion to the present day to decide who we will serve and how we will use our gifts. During the season of Advent we prepare for the coming of the Christ child in Bethlehem, but we also prepare for His second coming at the end of all things when we will be faced with how we have lived our lives and how we have used our gifts.
Advent is a time to reflect on our past and make adjustments. For the artist that has been so seduced by the voice of the secular world, a voice that does not admit bending our gifts to any force but our own whims, this is a time to decide why we have been given this particular gift and why we are driven to create. Is it the answer of service that comes to us from outside ourselves, or is it the selfish answer that comes from within?
Pax Vobiscum
1st Sunday Of Advent