Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. These three concepts are called ‘transcendent’ because they go beyond ordinary experience and point us toward a higher reality, indeed, to the ultimate reality. For the Christian, that ultimate higher reality is God himself, who possesses these three attributes perfectly. God is the source and the goal of our inborn desire to pursue him through these three transcendent realities. When we willingly and actively seek truth, goodness, and beauty, we align ourselves with the One in whose image and likeness we are made, which helps us to live a deeper, more meaningful, more fully human life.
When Jesus proclaims the truth to Pilate during his passion on the way to the Cross, Pilate’s cynical response was, “What is truth?” We live in a time where that cynicism toward truth and ultimately, reality, is a common trait. For a Christian, such a question is either absurd or diabolical, precisely because it reveals either an ignorance of, or a denial of reality itself, and as such, it reveals an ignorance of or a denial of God, for God is the very Source and Goal of Reality. Truth is a property of reality, and as such it corresponds with the God-given gift of the intellect. With the God-given gift of free will, we can choose to pursue the truth or not. Seeking truth, then, involves our intellect, our understanding, our desire to seek knowledge, and a love for ‘facts’ and ‘reason’.
Goodness is the quality of excellence, something that, by nature, we desire to approach in all that we do. Striving for this goodness is linked to an innate desire to struggle for and to achieve the excellence of moral character in ourselves. It includes a desire to develop the habits of moral and ethical actions, that is, to do good for others, whether that be our family, our neighbors, or our larger communities, to align ourselves with Jesus’ commandment to us to love one another as he loves us (Jn. 13:34-35).
Beauty is considered the splendor of truth and goodness. It is encountered in the harmony and proportion of things. Beauty attracts us. It can be perceived in many different ways, through nature, or art, or through the vastness of Creation itself. Beauty moves us in our very depths. It lifts us up and outside of ourselves, for it points us toward that which is higher than ourselves. It does this because Beauty is a reflection of the infinite, divine Beauty that is the splendor of God. These three realities, truth, goodness, and beauty, are, then, echoes of God’s perfection within Creation that is there for us to experience, to desire, to pursue, and to know. Jesus reveals these realities to us. He is the Truth, the Good, and the source of all Life and all Beauty: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6).
Because we are made in the image and likeness of our Creator, we are all “wired” for God. There is a natural hunger in us that nothing in this world can satisfy. This is why, in an act of will, rooted in knowledge that is forged in reality, it is a Christian’s duty and joy to determine to follow Jesus, because only he can lead us to the kingdom of heaven where the splendor of God dwells in perfect Beauty, Goodness, and Truth.
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