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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF 6 MAY IN ST PETER'S SQUARE
On Wednesday, 6 May, at the General Audience held in St Peter's
Square, the Holy Father concluded his reflections on the theology of the
body based on the words of the Sermon on the Mount. The next chapter of
his reflections will be based on Christ's words concerning future
resurrection.
Pope John Paul delivered the following address.
1. In the Sermon on the Mount Christ spoke the words to which we have
devoted a series of reflections for almost a year. Explaining to his
listeners the specific meaning of the commandment, "You shall not commit
adultery," Christ expressed himself as follows: "But I say to you that
everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery
with her in his heart" (Mt 5:28). The above-mentioned words seem to refer
also to the vast spheres of human culture, especially those of artistic
activity, which we have recently dealt with in the course of some of the
Wednesday meetings. Today it is opportune for us to dedicate the final
part of these reflections to the problem of the relationship between the
ethos of the imageor
of the descriptionand
the ethos of the viewing and listening, reading or other forms of
cognitive reception with which one meets the content of the work of art or
of audio-vision understood in the broad sense.
Here we return once more to the problem already mentioned: whether and
to what extent can the human body, in the whole visible truth of its
masculinity and femininity, be a subject of works of art and thereby a
subject of that specific social communication for which these works are
intended? This question referred even more to modern mass culture,
connected with the audiovisual media. Can the human body be such a
model-subject, since we know that with this is connected that objectivity
"without choice" which we first called anonymity, and which seems to bring
with it a serious potential threat to the whole sphere of meanings,
peculiar to the body of man and woman because of the personal character of
the human subject and the character of communion of interpersonal
relations?
One can add at this point that the expressions pornography and
pornovisiondespite
their ancient etymologyappeared
in language relatively late. The traditional Latin terminology used the
word obscaena, indicating in this way everything that should not
appear before the eyes of spectators, what should be surrounded with
opportune discretion, what cannot be presented to human view without any
choice.
Body a model-subject
3. Asking the preceding question, we realize that, de facto,
during whole periods of human culture and artistic activity, the human
body has been and is such a model-subject of visual works of art.
Similarly, the whole sphere of love between man and woman, and, connected
with it, also the mutual donation of masculinity and femininity in their
corporeal expression, has been, is and will be a subject of literary
narrative. Such narration found its place even in the Bible, especially in
the text of the Song of Songs, which it will be opportune to take up again
on another occasion. It should be noted that in the history of literature
or art, in the history of human culture, this subject seems quite frequent
and is especially important. In fact, it concerns a problem which in
itself is great and important. We showed this right from the beginning of
our reflections, following the scriptural texts. These reveal to us the
proper dimension of this problem, that is, the dignity of man in his
masculine and feminine corporeity, and the nuptial meaning of femininity
and masculinity, inscribed in the whole interiorand
at the same time visiblestructure
of the human person.
Special ethical responsibility
4. Our preceding reflections did not intend to question the right to
this subject. They aim merely at proving that its treatment is connected
with a special responsibility which is not only artistic, but also ethical
in nature. The artist who undertakes that theme in any sphere of art or
through audiovisual media, must be aware of the full truth of the object,
of the whole scale of values connected with it. He must not only take them
into account in abstracto, but also live them correctly himself.
This corresponds also to that principle of purity of heart, which in
determined cases must be transferred from the existential sphere of
attitudes and ways of behavior to the intentional sphere of creation or
artistic reproduction.
It seems that the process of this creation aims not only at making the
model concrete (and in a way at a new "materializing"), but at the same
time, at expressing in such concretizing what can be called the creative
idea of the artist. This manifests his interior world of values, and so
also his living the truth of his object. In this process a characteristic
transfiguration of the model or of the material takes place and, in
particular, of what is man, the human body in the whole truth of its
masculinity or femininity. (From this point of view, as we have already
mentioned, there is a very important difference, for example, between the
painting or sculpture and the photograph or film.) Invited by the artist
to look at his work, the viewer communicates not only with the
concretizing, and so, in a sense, with a new "materializing" of the model
or of the material. But at the same time he communicates with the truth of
the object which the author, in his artistic "materializing," has
succeeded in expressing with his own specific media.
Element of sublimation in true art
5. In the course of the various eras, beginning from antiquityand
above all in the great period of Greek classical artthere
are works of art whose subject is the human body in its nakedness. The
contemplation of this makes it possible to concentrate, in a way, on the
whole truth of man, on the dignity and the beautyalso
the "suprasensual" beautyof
his masculinity and femininity. These works bear within them, almost
hidden, an element of sublimation. This leads the viewer, through the
body, to the whole personal mystery of man. In contact with these works,
where we do not feel drawn by their content to "looking lustfully," which
the Sermon on the Mount speaks about, we learn in a way that nuptial
meaning of the body which corresponds to, and is the measure of, "purity
of heart." But there are also works of art, and perhaps even more often
reproductions, which arouse objection in the sphere of man's personal
sensitivitynot
because of their object, since the human body in itself always has its
inalienable dignitybut
because of the quality or way of its reproduction, portrayal or artistic
representation. The various coefficients of the work or the reproduction
can be decisive with regard to that way and that quality, as well as
multiple circumstances, often more of a technical nature than an artistic
one.
It is well known that through all these elements the fundamental
intentionality of the work of art or of the product of the respective
media becomes, in a way, accessible to the viewer, as to the listener or
the reader. If our personal sensitivity reacts with objection and
disapproval, it is because in that fundamental intentionality, together
with the concretizing of man and his body, we discover as indispensable
for the work of art or its reproduction, his simultaneous reduction to the
level of an object. He becomes an object of "enjoyment," intended for the
satisfaction of concupiscence itself. This is contrary to the dignity of
man also in the intentional order of art and reproduction. By analogy, the
same thing must be applied to the various fields of artistic activityaccording
to the respective specific characteras
also to the various audiovisual media.
Creating an atmosphere
6. Paul VI's Encyclical Humanae Vitae emphasizes the "need to
create an atmosphere favorable to education in chastity" (n. 22). With
this he intends to affirm that the way of living the human body in the
whole truth of its masculinity and femininity must correspond to the
dignity of this body and to its significance in building the communion of
persons. It can be said that this is one of the fundamental dimensions of
human culture, understood as an affirmation which ennobles everything that
is human. Therefore we have dedicated this brief sketch to the problem
which, in synthesis, could be called that of the ethos of the
image. It is a question of the image which serves as an extraordinary
"visualization" of man, and which must be understood more or less
directly. The sculpted or painted image expresses man visually; the play
or the ballet expresses him visually in another way, and the film in
another way. Even literary work, in its own way, aims at arousing interior
images, using the riches of the imagination or of human memory. So what we
have called the ethos of the image cannot be considered apart from the
correlative element, which we would have to call the ethos of seeing.
Between the two elements the whole process of communication is contained,
independently of the vastness of the circles described by this
communication, which, in this case, is always social.
7. The creation of the atmosphere favorable to education in chastity
contains these two elements. It concerns a reciprocal circuit which takes
place between the image and the seeing, between the ethos of the image and
the ethos of seeing. The creation of the image, in the broad and
differentiated sense of the term, imposes on the author, artist or
reproducer, obligations not only of an aesthetic, but also of an ethical
nature. In the same way, "looking," understood according to the same broad
analogy, imposes obligations on the one who is the recipient of the work.
True and responsible artistic activity aims at overcoming the anonymity
of the human body as an object "without choice." As has already been said,
it seeks through creative effort such an artistic expression of the truth
about man in his feminine and masculine corporeity, which is, so to speak,
assigned as a task to the viewer and, in the wider range, to every
recipient of the work. It depends on him, in his turn, to decide whether
to make his own effort to approach this truth, or to remain merely a
superficial consumer of impressions, that is, one who exploits the meeting
with the anonymous body-subject only at the level of sensuality which, by
itself, reacts to its object precisely without choice.
We conclude here this important chapter of our reflections on the
theology of the body, whose starting point was the words Christ spoke in
the Sermon on the Mount. These words are valid for the man of all times,
for the historical man, and for each one of us.
The reflections on the theology of the body would not be complete,
however, if we did not consider other words of Christ, namely, those when
he referred to the future resurrection. So we propose to devote the next
cycle of our considerations to them.
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