This is an article in my Catholic Healing Series, where I talk about the most prevalent mental health issues of our time, who the best thinkers are, what the theory is, and how to heal the issue. If you enjoy this, feel free to check out other articles or videos!
The Issue
One of the primary issues of our times is that we have fallen out of touch with Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. In fact, our society and culture has in many ways become preoccupied with celebrating Falsity, Ugliness, and Badness. Restoring these foundational elements involves a love of God, an appreciation of transcendence, and a willingness to sacrifice. But once these ideals are appreciated, is it possible that they can heal? Not only is it possible, but I am writing this article with the hope that all will grow in appreciation of the ideals of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness and in respect for their efficacy when it comes to healing.
The Thinkers
William Shakespeare, potentially a Catholic, is one of the greatest writers ever. For me, he demonstrates the power of Truth. Shakespeare’s works are strange and curious in some ways. The English is so dated and complicated that I often wonder if the blue collar workers drinking in the pit of the Globe Theater could even comprehend it. The plots, at least at times, are incredibly far fetched and unusual. Some of the plot resolutions are extremely convenient and even disjointed and unexplained. Yet, Shakespeare’s works fascinated me, even as a young secular man who had a fondness for playing video games. I think that I recognized that Shakespeare had something to offer that the Legend of Zelda did not. As a young man, I studied under Garber at Harvard and Sacco at Dartmouth. But my most profound experiences have been as an adult. I have returned to Shakespeare’s works with my Wife to focus on depth to the absolute maximum, and (most rewarding of all), I have read Shakespeare with my oldest Son to pass on all of the things that I think are important with him. What is important about Shakespeare? Well, the works are not about being able to understand every last word, and every strange, and occasionally, convenient plot twist. They are about underlying Truth. Every work of art needs to be considered on its own terms. I heard that recently on a Schole Sisters podcast, and it is quite true. Hamlet struggles with indecision. Othello is wrathful and impetuous. That is why we always joke in Shakespeare circles that if you put each of them into the other’s play, you would have a one act play. Hamlet would outwit Iago and Othello would just up and kill Claudius.
Macbeth is the play of our times, in many ways. The Coen Brothers are aware of that. It is a play about how disastrous it is to try to create our own truth. Sartre would be horrified. So would satan. And Mary would rejoice.
As You Like It is about choosing the spiritual reality over the temporal. Pope Saint John Paul II would like
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is about the reconciliation of opposites, which is very similar to his principle of complementarity.
Much Ado About Nothing is about sex and how truth ultimately can prevail amidst the chaos of misunderstanding. That sounds a lot like
Theology of the Body, too!
Henry V is about the sacrifice that is required to become a man of character and to achieve greatness.
King Lear is about the importance of working hard for a greater purpose (another good message for our times).
Richard II shows how evil can prevail and corrupt the world—a Hitlerian theme told well before Hitler’s time.
Julius Caesar demonstrates how selfish leadership can lead to betrayal and chaos.
With all of these different plots, not only is truth revealed, but it also fosters a dialogue. People need to come together with open hearts and open minds and ask challenging questions. What is Hamlet’s deepest character flaw? Was Brutus justified in killing Caesar? Was
Henry V justified in fighting a war that cost many lives over land that was lost in the course of a generation? It is, in fact, in answering these questions that we learn to think and argue critically, and healthily. We are learning how to live lives of greatness as we read Shakespeare. We are not doing something that is easy with a quick payoff. We can turn to video games for that. Instead, we are learning to keep open minds and open hearts and to seek the Truth. What do we find when we do that? Greatness. Transcendence. And Scott Hahn rightly adds—Catholicism.
John-Mark Miravalle literally wrote the book on beauty. Beauty has two components—order and surprise. If a person were to venture to Chartres, arguably the most beautiful cathedral in the world, a person would discover a lot of stained glass. This stained glass has remarkable symmetry and order. At the same time, as the light hits the glass at different times of day, there is abundant surprise. Chartres almost never looks the same. This is authentic beauty. What is wrong with pornography? As usual, Pope Saint John Paul II, Mary’s Pope, gets it right. It is not that pornography shows too much of the human person, it is that it reveals too little. What happens with pornography? It is not rightly ordered. So, it only contains the second component of beauty, surprise. Without order, surprise becomes shock. That is what pornography reduces sexual intimacy to. It explains why people can escalate with the weirdness and intensity of pornography. When a person only receives shock, all that he or she can do is to add more shock to get an effect. Gratification plays out over and over, but there is no fulfillment where there is no authentic beauty. We see this throughout our society. Consider architecture, music, visual arts, and media. What do we get? Shock, shock, shock. What a tragic reduction!
How about the converse error? What happens when we maintain order but remove all surprise? We get bland mundaneness. A great example of this is a spiritual life of scrupulosity that chokes the Holy Spirit. People perform religious ritual after religious ritual, but there is no Breath of God in their spirituality. This too is a tragic reduction. We were made only for the fulness of beauty. For that, we need both order and surprise.
Goodness is present throughout the
Bible. Scripture tells us our family story. It begins with a marriage between Adam and Eve and it ends with a marriage between Christ and His Church. In between, there are covenants—family agreements. Each covenant is maintained perfectly by God and failed by us as humans. So God gives us his New Covenant. He sends us Jesus who is wholly God and wholly man so that He can uphold both ends of the family agreement. God is so merciful that He uses our attempt to break the New Covenant to fulfill it. Murdering His Son is the fulfillment of His Covenant. A God Who loves us so much is unfathomable. This is the extent of His Divine Goodness.
Healing with Truth, Beauty, and Goodness
Disclaimer: these are just some of the tools that can be used to heal Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. This article does not constitute formal medical, mental health, psychological, or other advice. Also, I cannot guarantee healing or benefit. This entire article represents my opinions and applications of the tools, nothing more and nothing less.
Formatively, truth, beauty, and goodness do wonders for the development of a human being. I highly recommend people with children to do things like having deep conversations where they seek the truth together, learning to appreciate authentic beauty together, and reading the
Bible together and discussing. This can lead to children who flourish! But what do we do when people had anything but that in their childhoods? What do we do when people have gone through a lot of the healing process and it feels like they have a long way to go?
When a person has done a lot of healing and still has much more to do, sometimes it is helpful to shift gears. It helps to get fundamental. A person does not necessarily need to go through a process with healing. The challenge is much more monumental than that. A person needs to become a new person.
How can the person seek truth? One thing that a person can do is to find positive people in her or his life. Then she or he can write down the good things about herself or himself. After this, it helps to venture forth to positive people. Ask them to add to the list. Also, (and here is the hardest part), a person can ask these close people where they think that she or he needs to grow. They can ask not just the what, but also the how. How do others think they can grow? Once a person understands this, there is a sense of internal identity. All the things on a list about the self that are positive are gifts from God that compose a personality. All the areas where a person can grow are places where she or he can focus on making adjustments. If a person is willing to make these adjustments and then check in with the people who provided feedback, that is really transcendent! Few people have that kind of character. Think of Shakespeare’s characters, especially the tragic ones. What if they had paused and done this? Well, they might have lived through the end of the play, which is one of his key emphases.
With beauty, it helps for people to reflect on where to find it daily and where to appreciate it. What around a person has beauty? This is an opportunity to grow in awareness. Also, what beauty does a person want to live for? How does a person want to bring beauty into the world? These are questions that are not asked enough. Of course, where not enough beauty is present in a person’s life, she or he can seek it. What has order and surprise that can be added to a life? Think of planning a weekly schedule that allows for both order and surprise. This absolutely can lead to new life. These are times where people are fascinated by darkness. There is something remarkable about how God made us. We have a tendency to become what fascinates us. Let us be fascinated by the light and not the darkness. This is at the very core of Eucharistic Adoration.
With goodness, it can help to begin the day with prayer. What can we praise God for? What are we sorry for? What are we thankful for? What are our petitions for the day? What are the events that will happen, and how can we use these events as opportunities to bring God’s Goodness to others? Lectio Divina, praying meditatively with Scripture, can help to fuel this process. Then, we must venture forth with a sense of purpose. A lot of the most important part of our daily prayer happens in interactions with others. When there is that difficult person in our lives and we are compassionate where it is difficult, that can be our greatest prayer.
Conclusion
My spiritual father is Saint Maximilian Kolbe. He dedicated his entire life to Mary as the Immaculate Conception. When he was young, she appeared to him and offered him two crowns—the white crown of death to self and the red crown of martyrdom. He heroically chose both. He lived a life of humility and sacrifice where he evangelized throughout Poland and Japan and then back in Poland again. It was in his homeland that he was captured by the Nazis and was sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Auschwitz was the type of place that broke people. They told people on the way in all the terrible things that they would do to them. When they told Maximilian the terrible things that they would do to him, he smiled. Once inside, they would give Maximilian and his companions only enough bread to stay alive, and sometimes less than that, hoping that they would fight over it. Maximilian gave a portion of his bread away—and smiled. When prisoners escaped and others were going to be killed as part of protocol, they were going to kill a Jewish father. Maximilian stepped forth and told them that he would take his place so that he could return to his children—and he smiled. Finally, they locked Maximilian in a room to starve himself. He was smuggled small bits of bread so that he could say the Mass. After about two weeks, it was discovered that the Holy Spirit miraculously kept him alive. So, they came with a lethal injection to kill him. Maximilian held out his arm—and he smiled. Why? Because he lived for the Queen. He lived for she who is perfect Truth, perfect Beauty, and perfect Goodness. And the only thing that he could do that was better than that was to die for her. What is true of Maximilian can be true for the rest of us. We have the capacity for perseverance through even the most difficult circumstances if we will but let Truth, Beauty, and Goodness heal us, and then motivate us to live a life that is eternal.
Would you like Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in your healing process? Reach out to Tom Weishaar and the Catholic Healing Institute:
www.catholichealinginstitute.com
tom@catholichealinginstitute.com
Tom Weishaar, MA LPCC CCTP-II is the Founder and CEO of the Catholic Healing Institute. He lives in Steubenville, OH with his wife and three children.
