Wisdom from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

True knowledge is being struck by the arrow of beauty that wounds man: being touched by reality, ‘by the personal presence of Christ himself’, as [Nicholas Cabasilas] puts it. Being overcome by the beauty of Christ is a more real, more profound knowledge than mere rational deduction. Of course we must not underestimate the importance of theological reflection, of exact and careful theological thought; it is still absolutely necessary. But to despise, on that account, the impact produced by the heart’s encounter with beauty, or to reject it as a true form of knowledge would impoverish and dry up both faith and theology. We must rediscover this form of knowledge—it is an urgent demand of the present hour.

—Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger from On the Way to Jesus Christ