What Could Possibly Be More 'Aesthetic' Than Catholicism? Why True Beauty is Found in Our Faith
Aesthetic is one of the buzzwords we often hear these days. Social media sites, such as TikTok, X, Instagram, and Pinterest are flooded with publications with this hashtag, and many users - especially women - want to make aesthetics a lifestyle.
What does it mean to be aesthetic?
"Aesthetic" is an English word that comes from the Greek "aisthetikos", meaning “of sense perception.”
The meaning that perhaps best describes the popular trend would be “of or relating to the appreciation or perception of beauty.”
Nowadays, the aesthetic trend is used to refer to what is especially beautiful and pleasing to the eye. The aesthetic applies to decoration, fashion, and even what we do daily.
It ranges from how we comb our hair, the makeup we use, the clothes we wear, and the activities we do (like serving ourselves a coffee or retouching a matching photo with emojis).
The hashtag #aesthetic appears in over 30 million TikTok videos (no exaggeration). Minimalism, vintage, and flirty styles prevail in this trend.
People - especially girls - who consider themselves aesthetic, are attracted to the pretty, and the pleasant, and this style makes them feel happy.
We can perceive this taste because we are naturally captivated by what is simple, clean, calm, and photogenic, and what is “game” - the aesthetic.
We want to see and organize or decorate our spaces like this because we want this to reflect and represent us. We seek to make our exterior aesthetic by bringing out our best style on social networks and allowing others to admire that beauty.
Since before Christ, the topic of beauty has already challenged great thinkers.
For Plato, beauty was identified with the good and was the “supreme idea,” while for Aristotle, beauty was pleasing to the eye and an essence valuable in itself.
So what is really aesthetic?
Even if we try, we will not always be “Instagrammable,” nor will we please everyone. The problem is that sometimes we overlook the fact that the most aesthetic thing we have is our inner beauty.
We are beautiful by nature (it doesn't matter if we are not aesthetic for social media) because true beauty does not depend on the taste of the subject, but on that beauty that is inscribed in the depths of our being.
Things are beautiful because they are ordered, and similar because they have an internal link that gives rise to a whole, well-crafted, and harmonious unity (paraphrasing Saint Augustine).
Beauty consists of the whole being present in the fragment through a precise correspondence between the parts that compose it.
If we are beautiful it is because we participate in the image and likeness of the beauty of God.
We are more than aesthetic, because we have an objective beauty that is real, although for some, we are not attractive to the eye. The beautiful emerges from the bottom and manifests itself, among other things, in what is aesthetic.
God, human beings, and things are not beautiful because they please us, but they please us because they are beautiful.
God is beautiful, totally aesthetic, Instagrammable, and pleasing to the eye. He and all his works have perfection and order that is beautiful.
Nature, the human being, the Universe, everything that comes from God, has perfect harmony.