Nietzsche, in The Gay Science, after proclaiming the death of God (through the voice of the madman), declared churches to be nothing more than sepulchers of God. Having led a pilgrimage to some of the most beautiful churches in France and Belgium, I think the atheistic prophet is on to something. Europeans may painstakingly preserve church buildings, but they stand as monuments to a forgotten past. They were built as sacramental signs, and they remain beautiful, but they have lost their true signification to the descendants of their builders.
Despite efforts to preserve churches, many Europeans (native secularists or immigrants) perceive these monuments to the Holy Trinity and Our Lady as a threat. The fire at Notre Dame, whether accidental or intentional, follows on the heels of a number of attacks upon French churches, including arson at Paris’ second largest church, St. Sulpice, just last month. It would be hard to think of a more poignant sign of the collapse of Christian culture than the destruction of the beautiful churches left behind by our ancestors. And yet, they are only the signs of the faith of our ancestors. The faith that built the churches has collapsed long ago–not completely to be sure, but it has long since ceased to inform and guide our culture. The way of life built up by Christians is burning to the ground all around us.
Notre Dame embodies an entire culture that continues to disappear in front of us. One of the first universities grew up surrounding it; the first complete Mass setting by a known figure was composed there by Guillaume de Machaut; its architecture epitomizes the beauty and transcendent thrust of the Middle Ages. The church is a monument, one of the greatest artifacts, of Christian culture. It is a story in stone, which can instruct modern people, initiating them not only into beauty, but into what the architectures symbolizes. Its burning should remind us of what we are losing when we do not form young people in the Christian life: a noble imagination, rightly ordered minds and wills, and the capacity to transcend immediate concerns.
The Great Holy Week Fire of Notre Dame should awaken us to the need to do more than preserve the monuments of the past. We need to reform the inward life and outward culture necessary to reawaken these buildings: transforming them from sepulchers into places of rejuvenation, places of resurrection and rebirth.
See my interview with local Denver news on the fire:
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