e­ ucharistic species.

He is present with his power in the sacraments,

so that when anyone baptizes it is Christ who is baptizing. He is
present in his Word, since he is the one who is speaking when Sacred
Scripture is read in the Church. Finally, he is present when the
Church prays and praises, he who has promised: ‘Where two or three
are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst’ (Matt 18:20).”12

The presence of Christ and, beyond individual examples, its obedien-

tial and historical “formalization” in every ritual action, is the basis
of liturgical aesthetics.

THE LORD JESUS,

KEYSTONE OF LITURGICAL AESTHETIC
As can be readily seen, this manner of reading the “forms” of the
beautiful that flow from the Truth has one of its roots in the reflection
of aesthetic philosophy.13 Indeed,

“the influence of beautiful forms on the soul can be described, from a

psychological point of view, in a variety of ways, but an approach to
them is impossible without going back to the concepts of logic and
ethics, of truth and value, in short, to a comprehensive doctrine of
being. The form that manifests itself is beautiful only insofar as the
pleasure that it arouses is based on the self-manifestation and self-
giving of the deep truth and goodness of the reality itself. This reality
therefore reveals in this gift and manifestation of itself the in­exhausti­
bility and infinity of its fascination and of its value. The appearance,
as a revelation of depth, is indissolubly and simultaneously the real
presence of the depth of the whole and a real reference, beyond itself,
to this depth. It is possible that, in the various epochs of the history
of spirit, the first aspect is emphasized one time and the second an-
other, the classical completion (of the form that grasps the depth) one

12 
Cf. the study by A. Cuva, La presenza di Cristo nella liturgia (Rome, 1973).
13 
A more thorough study will find useful: S. Zecchi and E. Franzini, eds., Storia
dell’estetica. Antologia di testi. I. Dai presocratici a Hegel. II. Dalla crisi dei grandi
­sistemi alla ricerca contemporanea (Bologna, 1995), extensive international bibliogra-
phy, 519–80; 1069–126. In particular, S. Givone, Storia dell’estetica (Rome–Bari,
1988); F. von Kutschera, Aesthetik, Berlin–New York, 1989; F. Rella, Bellezza e verità
(Milan, 1990); F. Perniola, Del sentire (Turin, 1991); E. Garroni, Estetica. Uno sguardo
attraverso (Milan, 1992); R. Bodei, Le forme del bello (Bologna, 1995); S. Kofman,
L’imposture de la beauté (Paris, 1995).

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