We went on our honeymoon to Britain a year after we were married in 1976. I was a student for the ministry and we were definitely poor as church mice but we had a wonderful time. Ruth did roll her eyes, in the nicest possible way, at the number of churches and cathedrals we visited. My undergraduate degree was in art history and I was eager to visit buildings which were the best of Medieval and Renaissance architecture.
This may explain why I continue to be so interested in Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, which I first visited when I was but a lad of 19. The recent catastrophic fire has...rekindled?... that curiosity, and there is an excellent article from the New York Times about how close it was to total devastation. It was a combination of courage on the part of firefighters and prayer, I would suggest, that averted collapse.
Master Cpl. Myriam Chudzinski
Even though mass was being celebrated at the time the fire was detected it was half an hour before the fire department was notified. One of the lead firefighters was a courageous 27-year-old Master Cpl. Myriam Chudzinski arrived, a few minutes before 7 p.m., Notre-Dame was surrounded by hundreds of horrified bystanders. Chudzinski had been trained to respond to a fire in the cathedral and climbed hundreds of stairs with 25 kilos of gear to be greeted by a blaze that was already raging. While she and others worked high above the spire collapsed in a roar. Other firefighters entered the cathedral knowing that they might not emerge again. Bold decisions on the part of those first responders meant that the historic place of worship was saved.
There has been plenty of finger pointing since the fire was extinguished and lots of criticism that so much will be spent to restore it. I'm glad that it was saved -- some described it as a miracle -- and it will rise from the ashes. It also occurs to me that "God moves in mysterious ways, God's wonders to perform." There are many saints recognized in the cathedral but surely the heroic efforts of the firefighters were a holy task.
The closing words of the Times article are fitting:
That sense of the cathedral as a living, wounded entity has only intensified since the fire.“First off, this is all about our fragility,” Monsignor Chauvet, the rector, said on reflection. “We are as nothing. The fragility of man, in respect to God. We are nothing but — creatures.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/07/16/world/europe/notre-dame.html
We went to Paris a few weeks after the fire, and I was surprised how good the church looked - from the front at least. It's only when you move around to the side that you notice the damage. Great job by the firefighters to put themselves in harms way and save one of the most treasured buildings in Paris, if not the world.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you could see Notre Dame Roger. Let's pray that it won't be the last time given the imposing structural issues.
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