The beauty of holiness sustains the holiness of beauty in the service of love and peace. The goodness of intelligence sustains intelligent goodness in the service of wisdom and glory. In an age of relativistic narcissism, nihilism insinuates itself into every form of social life unless truth is acknowledged and kindness sustains mutual respect. For wisdom to be loved, the mind and the heart need to unite but this union does not transfigure and transmute our loves without the beauty of holiness generating peace. Narcissism brutalises hearts just as nihilism poisons minds, unless holiness is perceived as beautiful and beauty as hallowing. Holiness turns hearts so that beauty can reveal light, restoring frozen ugliness to radiant glory. But without intelligent goodness, the goodness of intelligence is overlooked, spawning either hollow moralism or shallow cleverness. Narrow hardness of heart is the consequence, degenerating into vacuous nihilism. Wisdom shines forth in the radiant smile of holiness, unveiling an ineffable beauty that regenerates dead hearts with glory’s timeless life. When wisdom is loved, unselfish goodness leaps over self-interested desire, communicating peace.
The beauty of holiness can barely breathe in environments of nihilistic abuse and suspicion. When cynicism runs so deep that there is no trust in truth or goodness, it is then that the holiness of beauty may begin again to speak to shrivelled minds, if only they are able to let holy tears cleanse fossilised hearts. To win minds, wisdom reminds them that beauty hallows when goodness forgives, so as to restore hearts to the glory of their original nature. Then, the uncreated glory of beauty is beheld again, restoring wisdom through grace, nourishing revelation of the hallowed Name. Love’s glory may sometimes be so beautiful that hearts are pierced, restoring beauty to glory through the hallowed Name. Wisdom woos hardened hearts so that poisoned shadows melt away, turning into shimmering, radiant icons of God. The fierce intelligence of uncreated light restores intellectual rigour to unselfish love, ensuring that peace is secured again on the firm foundations of intelligent goodness. It is crucial that there are just a few in every generation who awaken to the glory of wisdom, so that when the many turn to see, they may safely abide in the presence of glory, glory unveiled in the awareness of presence.
The radiant beauty of wisdom does not pompously parade itself like a contemporary celebrity, but humbly serves the common good by communicating deep peace. In an age of war-mongering militarism, holy peace must show levels of courage and persistence that is rarely seen except in times of war. Costly peace-making calls for co-operative solidarity which, by and large, remains just about within the scope of many, even if warrior holiness lies way beyond most. Radiant clarity of attention unites with luminous purity of intention in those whose calling is wise leadership, enabling them to function as catalysts of peace. Transcending partisan identities, peacemakers refuse to be categorised as enemies even though it is impossible to confine such a function formally within the defined conventions of the tribe. Baffling to binary thinking, the beauty of holiness infuses wisdom into the warring politics of tribalism, uniting God-centred awareness with radiant presence in the Name. The beauty of holiness unites awareness with presence as wisdom unveiling glory, transmitting awareness of presence as presence of awareness with every breath. Holiness is beautiful and loves beauty at the heart of warring tribalisms, shattering binary oppositions as it wings its ineffable way of liberating freedom. The wisdom of holiness sustains a politics of peace that calls us out from the past by making future glory present. Holiness sustains wisdom even when nihilism threatens to devour itself as well as all it infects with its deadly virus. Holiness is beautiful and loves the beauty of the sacred embrace of wisdom and glory that hallows the deifying Name, welcoming peace on earth as in heaven.