Easter is a time of rebirth, new beginnings. For true Christians, Easter is the day when God who was made man rose from the dead and somehow redeemed us – past, present and future, sinners all.
Just a few days before this celebration, Notre Dame Cathedral, that grand monument, was almost burnt to a cinder, being less than an hour away from total collapse and ruin.
Sadly, the gargoyles which were meant to stop anyone, or anything, from harming this revered place of worship and iconic gem, failed – or they almost did. For despite the ravaging fires, the horror of the spire falling, the art and legacy partly disappearing, there was hope. Even if the elements might have tried to finish it off, humanity would not stand, stare at the destruction and do nothing.
France’s head of state immediately declared that the monument will rise again. Macron spoke and the funds have poured in. At the last count nearly a billion euros had been pledged. This is truly an amazing feat, worthy of a modern man of the times who gets things done – or promised – immediately.
The outpouring of horror at the sight of the crumbling cathedral was reminiscent of the way the flames engulfed the building. All humanity – reflected in the media and social media – united in crying out and repeating Macron’s call to rebuild the cathedral to heights only reserved for the emperors of old – those emperors who, a thousand or so years ago, decreed that buildings of immense stature would be constructed.
The monument was – and is – intrinsically a Christian one. But, beyond the monuments and talk, in the Christian world, what has been done to support the minorities, the ones who are diverse, the marginalised and, especially, the poor? Has enough been done to find solutions to the terrible treatment of millions of people all over the world who suffer injustice? Has money ever poured in so generously when considerably larger problems than a destroyed cathedral were bandied about?
Have we – in so-called Christian Europe – done much to save artefacts that have been, and still are being, despoiled throughout the world? Beyond a few words or platitudes, how many of us really care, or pour out our money and feelings when other religions suffer?
Have we – as nations or people – done enough and said enough when people die at sea trying to reach better shores?
I have no clue how many people died when the Notre Dame Cathedral was being built. I doubt if we ever thought much about them – the souls lost to build a grand place of worship.
Today’s cathedrals have turned secular. People hardly care about religion or what the spirit needs. Places built on the same scale are football stadia because that’s where people nowadays congregate to pay their homage to the demigods of today – sports stars. How many even stopped to say a prayer for the people who died while building the stadia for the World Cup in Qatar?
The main bulk of the deaths, which some say amounted to many hundreds, were of non-Christians, so maybe that is why we did not have an outpouring of outraged sadness.
Life goes on; life is taken away from monuments and people. But at this time of rebirth, this Eastertide, apart from revering any historical monument and rebuilding all we need to rebuild, unless we truly change and practise our humanity and Christianity, all our cathedrals are just hollow edifices. Which might as well burn and remain abandoned relics.
A Happy Easter to all.