Notre-Dame de Paris

(This post written by John; photos by Kathleen.)

Wednesday night the bells of every cathedral in France rang in unison. All one hundred of them. It was a keening; it was the way whales surround an injured member of their family and make those sounds (singing/praying?) that seem to say “we know you are hurt but you are not alone, we are with you.”

Our hearts were completely out of order this past Monday night, at the beginning of Holy Week, as we watched in disbelief the news of the burning of Notre-Dame de Paris, this vessel which holds 850 years of faith, devotion, history, culture, art. This loss for France—our country now—is impossible to overstate.

For us personally, as well, this was one of our most sacred of places. We’ve prayed there countless times, attended Mass, reverenced the Crown of Thorns. The guided tours John gave there were his favorite experience from our Show Me Paris tour days. The thought that this was all being lost before our eyes made us almost physically ill, and we went to bed that night in exhausted despair.

We’re still getting over the gut-punch of the fire, but in the days since, we’ve been thinking of an old Johnny Cash song, One Piece at a Time. In it, an automobile worker smuggles home car parts in his lunch pail every night, over many years. In the end, the free car he assembles at home is one-of-a-kind, a “ ‘forty-nine, fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two…(through the sixties) automobile.”

Notre-Dame de Paris (all Cathedrals in France are named in part after Our Lady, Notre Dame) seems a bit like that, a “Twelfth century, Thirteenth century, Nineteenth century…” cathedral. There wasn’t/isn’t a lot of the original mediaeval church left untouched. And even that church was built on the site of previous churches, from the fourth through ninth centuries, with recycled parts, including the Sainte-Anne portal that you enter on the right side of the façade.

In the 13th century, they replaced some of the 12th century stained glass. In the 14th, they added their own touches. Much of the present day façade is a 19th century recreation of what was destroyed in the late 18th century French Revolution. It was those revolutionaries who destroyed the original mediaeval spire. The “gothic” spire we saw so dramatically collapse on Monday was erected in the 19th century, part of Notre-Dame’s restoration which came after Victor Hugo shamed the nation with his tale of a lovesick hunchback and a once-majestic cathedral, become derelict.

Now we shall see what the 21st century has to add to this old survivor.  France, like the rest of Europe, has long nurtured skilled artisans who will know how to rebuild the cathedral for the greater glory of God.

President Macron promises it will all be done in five years which seems gloriously optimistic. But large parts of the original mediaeval cathedral were done in only twenty years. It took longer to finish because they ran out of money to pay the required skilled artisans of the time…and only ran out of money because it was decided from the outset that, of every sou raised for the cathedral, half would go towards the building of a charity hospital, the Hotel-Dieu. The cornerstones of the two buildings were laid the same day.

 

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Perhaps we could pray that, of all the money to be raised now for the years of work ahead, once again half would go to serving those who are hungry, homeless, sick, suffering…to refugees…to the rebuilding of our planet.

Even with all that has been lost in this calamitous fire, there are survivors, including, astonishingly, the precious Rose windows, relics, and that “Bible in stone,” the façade. And most importantly, the true treasure of Notre-Dame survives, through all those people (thirteen million a year in our own century) who passed through it and carried away with them the chance to be touched by the sacred.

Below you can see a few of our own photographs of Notre-Dame.

As we move through this Holy Week, our hearts hold the miracle of the Resurrection that comes after death, the trust in the Eternal.

A blessed Easter to you, and our grateful love.

(You can hear some of the cathedral bells ringing throughout France here: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/patrimoine/incendie-de-notre-dame-de-paris/video-notre-dame-de-paris-les-cloches-des-cathedrales-de-france-sonnent-en-choeur_3402837.html)