Popping in from vacation for a moment . . .
I’ve seen a gripe or two about social-media feeds filling up with people’s old vacation pictures of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Don’t waste time grumbling; this is part of how people are grieving, trying to get their heads around what was lost, and coming to terms with the fact that the experience they thought that be available eternally has been suddenly snatched away by flames. Notre Dame will be rebuilt, but it will never quite be the same Notre Dame that existed before the fire.
Beyond that, is it too early to say this is a morning of miracles? When we saw the spire fall, everyone watching feared the worst — that next to nothing would survive. The piece of the True Cross and Crown of Thorns made it out. Sixteen statues of the 12 apostles and four evangelists had been removed for cleaning last week, for the first time in a century. The Rose Window survived, albeit with some damage, but not “catastrophic damage.” The organ survived, although it sounds like they still need to assess for damage. This morning, the spireless exterior is recognizable, still standing. And thankfully, no one was killed.
This isn’t meant to downplay the scale of what was lost; this is a tragedy with few parallels in French history. But like that old saying “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” perhaps many of us have taken the inheritance that the Cathedral represents for granted — spiritually, culturally, artistically, architecturally. If Christianity teaches us anything, it is that great light and triumph can emerge from the darkest and bleakest of times.