Monday was a hard day. I couldn’t stop staring at social media at pictures and videos as one of the greatest churches in Christendom burned and burned. It started out fairly small. I though that they’d get it under control but it just kept spreading.
If one had to make a list of the top ten churches in Christendom, Notre Dame would be on that list. It’s over 800 years old and was built in the golden age of Christianity. I can’t even imagine how many saints have been in that beautiful church.
Many people were quick to point out that this beautiful church burning is a symbol of the state of Christianity in France or in Western Europe in general. Others are trying to determine the cause. Many are saying it was a renovation accident which is possible, though it’s a bit coincidental that over the past year many churches have been burned down or at least set on fire. Many people are saying it was Muslims or the Yellow Vests. At this point I don’t really care. Identifying the culprit won’t bring back the church, at least in its former glory. Talks are already ongoing regarding repairs by the French President and the Archbishop of Paris. Most of the artwork and the holy relics appear to be have been saved which is good.
Many non-Catholics are mourning this as a loss of a historical monument or a magnificent piece of architecture. I have to disagree. Not with the fact that it’s important to history or that it’s beautiful architecture but that there is something much deeper here. It must take a very Christian nation to produce a church like this. Other beautiful churches can be found elsewhere in Paris and throughout France. Believe it or not the nation that gave us Napoleon and the Jacobins was once a Christian nation.
In 2006 I spent ten days in Paris and this included two Sundays. I went to mass in Notre Dame and in St. Sulpice which was also recently set ablaze though damage was minimal. St. Sulpice was made famous by Dan Brown in the Da Vinci code which was a huge book back in 2006. It’s walking distance from Notre Dame. In both cases I tried to talk with the people in church after mass. Growing up I used speak and pray in French. I even knew the Our Father and Hail Mary in French before I knew them in English. I approached my fellow Catholics anticipating a lovely Parisian response but I didn’t get it. At both Sundays in St. Sulpice and Notre Dame the congregants were almost all American Catholic tourists who were fulfilling their Sunday obligation. The French are some of the most secular people on the planet. They may be even more secular than Scandinavians. All those beautiful churches and very few French people take advantage of them. It’s tragic.
France hasn’t been Christian since 1789. Even before then they were having problems such as Gallicanism. Still, some of the our greatest saints have come from France. St. Thomas Aquinas, though Italian is buried in France. He died on his way to an ecumenical council being held France.
If I can I will donate some money to the rebuilding of the church. However I will only do that if it’s to be rebuilt as a Catholic cathedral and not some gnostic-ecumenical shrine. I’ll have to wait until the plans come out.
I’m a big believer that we should have fancy and expensive church buildings. I believe they inspire great piety and devotion when coupled with true faith, which unfortunately isn’t too common in Paris or elsewhere in France these days. I think of the building of the temple in the OT in 1 Kings 7:48-51. Gold, gold, and more gold.
And Solomon made all the vessels for the house of the Lord: the altar of gold, and the table of gold, upon which the loaves of proposition should be set: And the golden candlesticks, five on the right hand, and five on the left, over against the oracle, of pure gold: and the flowers like lilies, and the lamps over them of gold: and golden snuffers, And pots, and fleshhooks, and bowls, and mortars, and censers, of most pure gold: and the hinges for the doors of the inner house of the holy of holies, and for the doors of the house of the temple were of gold.
And Solomon finished all the work that he made in the house of the Lord, and brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, the silver and the gold, and the vessels, and laid them up in the treasures of the house of the Lord.
– 1 Kings 7:48-51
I like my churches full of art, statues, icons, stain glass windows, and precious metals. The kind of church that John Calvin wouldn’t dare set foot in. My prayers are with France as they attempt to rebuilt this great monument. I also pray for their return to the Christian faith.
I hope that all of my readers are having a great holy week. God bless all of you.
The sight of a burning Notre Dame Cathedral was an awful one.
I struck me how little mention there was of Christianity or Holy Week when British news outlets reported this. Too few seemed to mention God or prayers also.
One Sky Television interview with a French tour guide was insightful. The lady was being interviewed in front of the cathedral and at the close of the interview asked people to “think” of Notre Dame (she made the gesture of prayer with her hands but could not bring herself to say “pray to God”).
I have no doubt that the restoration work will be very successful (York Minster provides a great example of recovery after a devastating fire) but some irreplaceable things will have been lost – such the mediaeval roof made from thousands of oak trees. Perhaps the rebuilding of the cathedral may lead others to renew their interest in Christianty. One can only hope.
“Perhaps the rebuilding of the cathedral may lead others to renew their interest in Christianty. One can only hope.”
It’ll be interesting if this affects mass attendance on Easter Sunday.
A point to be raised in relation to both of the Temples – that God allowed His holy place of earthly residence to be destroyed was a sign that He had abandoned it, because the people had first abandoned Him.
A hole was burnt in the heart of Europe, as someone said. May all the grief be healed by the One who destroyed His Temple and rebuilt It in three days. Amen.
Amen