Handeling Mortality

In the latest issue of TOUCHSTONE, Peter J Leithart reviews a book on imagination which includes the following: “… Pascal says, we seek happiness in illusory diversions, hoping to forget our mortality.”

Hoping to forget our mortality.

The other night, thanks to the good will of Christian friends, my family and I attended a performance of Handel’s Messiah. I totally forgot whatever ailed me. Handel’ll do that to you. But, with all weighty respect to Handel, the credit should actually be lain at the feet of Virtue. It is rare, this side of paradise, for us to seek that “forgetting of mortality” in Virtue. We most certainly seek it in Vice …

Tree, Snake … Round One.

Your day, yesterday, today … To be continued.

As one priest said, “We sin because we die.” Think about it. Isn’t it because we know the eventuality, but don’t know the time, that we rush forward to cram so much into so little. And what does it leave us but full of remorse and empty of charity?

On the other hand, there are times when (planned or otherwise) the “hoping to forget mortality” is wrapped in beauty and appears a sacrifice pleasing to the Good God. That must be what Handel meant when, upon completion of Messiah, he said: “I did see all heaven open before me and the great God Himself.”

My recent experience was enhanced by the performers: 150 male & female high school students, dressed in black formals, looking elegant and mannered. Momentarily, void of hip-hop, saggin pants (and worse), I saw sanity, dare I say hope, return.

It’s one thing to shun beauty. It’s another to be just plain ugly. Our world, home to death and decay, longs for the beauty of Virtue. For whatever vices Handel may have suffered, his masterpiece remains a symbol of beauty, hope and good cheer.

St Paul writes: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

With beauty reflecting Virtue, it is possible to forget our mortality all the while remembering that the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

Hallelujah!