Veronica's Veil: Icons in a Culture of Disconnection

Last night, at the NYU Catholic Center, Thomas Hibbs, Thomist philosopher and critic of contemporary nihilistic culture out of Baylor University, delivered a lecture ("Maritain, Modernity, Aesthetics and Beauty")that was remarkable for its clarity and depth of insight. Drawing from Maritain's understanding of art and beauty, Marion's more current insights in icons-and-idols, and the striking visuals of Roualt's Miserere, Hibbs contrasted (post)modern nihilism with Roualt's image of Veronica and her veil. Maritain, following Thomnas, understood that art is always based in the senses and the natural, in reality, even as it moves beyond mere portrayal to unveil deeper realities. The crisis of our culture is the disconnect (traced through modern philosophy back to the "angelism" of Descartes and his divorce of body from mind/soul)of image from reality. Futuristic film (e.g. The Matrix) is obsessed with the dread that image reflects only another image, in an infinite regress, so that nothing real or true is ever reached. So, for example, Maritain considered that early-20th-century art mostly ignored the human face...with a few exceptions. Prominent among these exceptions was his friend Roualt. The key to understanding Maritain and indeed the Catholic understanding of Beauty and Truth is Roualt's presentation of Veronica and her veil. Vera-icon means, of course, true image. And so, by this tradition we cherish the conviction that the face of the actual person of Jesus is truly an image of the invisible God; and that that actual image itself can be re-imaged by us, as Veronica did with her act of compassion and her humble iconic veil. And so, the Catholic Universe of Veronica, Thomas, Maritain and Roualt is the polar opposite of post-modernity in its skepticism, nihilism, isolation and loneliness. With Aristotle we know that our senses, images, words and thoughts connect us with the real, with Being, with "the Other." With Veronica we know that we can touch and caress and comfort the very face of God in the concrete, physical, sensual realities of service, sacrament, art, family and sacrifice.