“Our Lady’s” Power and Promise

How broken is your heart? Mine certainly is.

I’m speaking, of course, about the burning of the central part of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. As probably many of you, I loved the Cathedral: its position in the center of that most exquisite city; its romantic presence and Gothic majesty; and, yes, the tribute I believe it paid throughout the ages to the beauty and inspiration and creativity Catholicism, at its best, could bring to the world.

Within all the heartbreak that comes with the fire and destruction, however, I also see metaphoric value for today’s Catholic Church, its own moral center deeply damaged and desperately needing renewal and Easter rebirth.

Think about Notre Dame. The center of the Cathedral was eviscerated by flame and fury, but the East facing façade and the magnificent rose and stained glass windows still stand to greet the sun. The center of the Cathedral was darkened, bruised and blackened, but the West facing towers still stand to glorify the setting sun.  

We, in so many ways, still have that same basic framework in our own Church: an eastern rising sun of a new day with all of its possibilities; a western setting sun of the old day retreating but still leaving its glow, its essential sacramental beauty to build on and renew. Like those seeking to recreate Notre Dame, we, too, have the vision of former artists and builders to guide and advise us. We, too, have a renewed awareness of what went wrong, what could not – or should not – be built the same way again. And, best of all, we, too, have the endless possibilities of new visions, new ideas, new possibilities and promises of what a new center, created within the undestroyed part of the old, could be for us and the world.

Let us hope and pray the drafters of the new Cathedral and the drafters of our own renewed Church include the gifts, visions, creativities, talents, and treasures of all genders. Notre Dame, Our Lady, would want nothing less.