We are graced with a universe of visible being, as, in
the illumination of transcendent light, sight becomes
insight. Art like religion moves between the concrete
and the abstract -- the material and the transcendent.
It also is in perpetual adoration of creation.
An act of creation echoes the created world and gives
us a silent expansive moment that clears away veils of
ordinary sight and lets us see the joy and intelligence
that is the heart of spiritual vision.
From opaque moments, to great translucence, we experience
a oneness with the cosmos, from which daily habit has
separated us. When art touches us we know in a heartbeat
that we have the same nature as these wondrous and compelling
elements usually perceived as being outside ourselves.
Kant said that he believed in the "starry heaven
above me, moral law within me…".
Imagine though that the starry heavens and moral law are
inseparable in our perception.
Imagine for a moment that both exist inside and out, that
we are part of what we see and in communion with all the
wonders of nature, that we are sunshine, starlight, and
that the time of creation is always now.
Much as spirit often transcends substance, aesthetic experience
often gives significance to perception that discursive
language limits. A shock of recognition, of ourselves
as luminous as all things bright and beautiful, and shepherds
of the created world.
How compelling that is. How connected and responsible
that makes us, not only to our human community, but as
well to all of creation.
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