The Buildings that Build Us Up: Mourning Notre Dame

                

Seeing the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris engulfed in flames and smoke had an unreal quality to it, even though fires and buildings catching on fire are commonplace and very real. One of the thoughts that crossed my mind while watching it was irritation at my past self for not having an interest in traveling to France while I was studying abroad in Spain. My thoughts also raced back to art history class in high school and seeing Notre Dame featured so prominently in Bishop Barron’s Catholicism series. However, amid the horror of the actual fire, what strikes me the most has been the deep sorrow penetrating the hearts of Parisians, other French people, Catholics and all lovers of art and architecture. World leaders, past and present, expressed their condolences as a multitude of French people gathered in the streets of Paris in silence and weeping. This event is a national tragedy indeed, and dare I say, perhaps an international tragedy, which rightly deserves to be mourned.

                The reason for this requires some deeper reflection. Thinking back on the history of this country, the September 11^th terrorist attacks continue to stand as the most prominent example of a national tragedy in recent times. Though the Twin Towers did burn and fall, the principal source of national mourning was the loss of thousands of human lives. I would contend that had the Twin Towers fallen because of some industrial accident without the loss of human life, there would have been a material loss but not necessarily national mourning. Again, still speculating (and never having been to New York), I think the destruction of the Statue of Liberty would produce a mourning more akin to what we have seen in Paris because it carries within itself a deeper cultural and human significance than a building constructed for economic utility.

                At the same time, the mourning for Notre Dame Cathedral goes deeper than its historical and cultural significance for France and Europe in general. Those roots are deep, and I do not want to insinuate that they are not significant enough in themselves to merit mourning, because they are. However, the principal reason to mourn Notre Dame, it seems to me, is that a sanctuary of the Lord has been ravaged. This is a place where, for nearly nine centuries, the omnipresent God has chosen to be with His people and be their Savior through the celebration of the Church’s liturgy. God, by His very nature, exists outside of space and time, but in His mercy and love for us, He chooses to encounter us in a particular place and time. In The Wellspring of Worship, Father Jean Corbon, O.P. beautifully writes that “the church of stone or wood that we enter in order to share in the eternal liturgy is indeed a space within our world; it is set apart, however, because it is a space that the Resurrection has burst open. It is not a place that platonically symbolizes an abstract universe, but a space in which a world delivered from death really dwells” (191). Abbot Jeremy Driscoll, OSB of Mount Angel Abbey is fond of saying that while one can pray and encounter God out in the woods, one cannot receive the fullness of Jesus’ perfect self-offering to the Father except through participation in the liturgy (paraphrase). Notre Dame, together with all the great cathedrals and basilicas East and West as well as the most humble urban chapel, is one of these blessed places where the reality of Christ’s Paschal Mystery, which we celebrate in a solemn way this Holy Week, has been communicated and received. Because of the structural damage, the future of Notre Dame as a place where people encounter the living God in the liturgy remains uncertain, which is tragic in itself. Let us pray with the people of Paris that through the intercession of Notre Dame, this house of God may be restored for the glory of the Lord and the salvation of the world.