Light and Beauty in Times of Darkness

Friday, Sep. 19, 2025

You’ll forgive me, I hope, for not devoting this column to the killing of Charlie Kirk and the political fallout that followed. I was of course horrified and outraged at the shooting that took his life, but anything I write would simply echo the reams that already have been printed. Similarly, I would raise my voice to join those calling for a more civil tenor of political discourse, but again, my words would only repeat much of what is said by people more prominent and persuasive than I.

 Instead, I would like to reflect on something I heard the night after the shooting, when I attended the opening event of “Earthbound and Heavenward: The Sacred Art of Discipleship,” a new exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art.

One of the speakers at the event was Justin Collings, BYU’s academic vice president. He began by saying that the question of whether it would have been more appropriate to cancel the exhibit opening had been raised at several meetings since the shooting, but the decision was made to go forward with it. He then said something that struck me profoundly. I wasn’t taking notes, so I can’t directly quote him, but he said that even in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, which had happened only miles from where we were sitting, he felt it was important to celebrate light and beauty.

Hearing this, I wanted to shout, “Amen!” All that day I had been focused on the senselessness of the violence, on the helplessness I felt that such events continue to happen, on the despair arising from the political rhetoric that casts blame but fails to suggest solutions. I had gone to the exhibit opening hoping to distract myself from such thoughts, but I hadn’t considered that what I actually needed was to turn from the darkness toward the light.

Pope Paul VI was aware of this necessity. In his address to artists at the close of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, he wrote, “This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. It is beauty, like truth, which brings joy to the heart of man and is that precious fruit which resists the wear and tear of time, which unites generations and makes them share things in admiration.”

Another part of the exhibit opening that lifted my spirits was the piece of art hanging behind the lectern. Titled “Rescue,” the oil on panel by J. Kirk Richards depicts an angel carrying a child heavenward through a cloud of dust and dirt. Seeing it reminded me of the quote by Saint Francis de Sales: “Make yourself familiar with the angels, and behold them frequently in spirit. Without being seen, they are present with you.”

It is easy to doubt, to ask where God and his angels were when Charlie Kirk was killed, but our faith teaches us that Our Lord is always with us: “Do not fear or be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9) – a reminder I needed after the violence and negativity.

While I was glad of the respite that the two hours at the art exhibit provided, it also served to refresh my spirit. I had been at the point of simply saying “Thoughts and prayers” and leaving it at that, but we here in America have been reciting those words for decades, without visible results. Instead, I’d like us to take the advice of Gordon B. Hinckley, 15th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who said, “Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work.”

And the work I’m going to undertake? That will be, in the words of one of my favorite saints, Catherine of Siena: “Drive out darkness and spread light.”