True Beauty

I had a rough day today at church.  But I've been at this for many years, and I've learned to receive the repeated blows upon the bruise with a dull sickening and move on.

However, it is when I see others who are dispirited by a turn of events that I become circumspect.

I watch in almost transfixed dismay, not unlike how one might react to witnessing a fatal car crash, when I see people taking for granted what is at stake for those of us who are committed, unreservedly, to the work of restoring, reclaiming and advancing sacred music to our Catholic identity.

It comes down to this:

True beauty, beauty that has the power to redeem, the sublime beauty of music, takes hard work. Years, not hours, go into perfecting the craft of bringing to life music that is truly beautiful and transformative. One can accomplish a pale shadow of true beauty through imitation, but when put to the test this kind of sham aesthetic, put up for show and vainglory, fails utterly to transform either the performer or the listener. It is transitory, a false display of beauty whose underlying motivation is pride. Redeeming Beauty in music, a quality which is brought to life through a deep passion for that which is truly good, truly beautiful and possessing of the power to draw one's soul into a closer beatific vision, comes at a price. That price is a death to self, a sacrifice that one offers in union with the suffering of Christ who is the True Music of the Universe.