The Deep Meaning of Notre-Dame de Paris
You never imagine seeing a place like Notre-Dame de Paris in flames. Images of the cathedral are seared in our common vision of beauty and the very best of culture. Engulfed in an inferno, the collective heart of humanity broke at the possible loss of this premiere Gothic cathedral, its art, and its relics. This is enough to make any beating heart stop and mourn but Notre-Dame de Paris is much more than a landmark in the history of France, Europe, and the world. It is a living and breathing manifestation of a deeper spiritual reality, one which has been the cause of many tears in sadness and joy innumerable times before.
Notre-Dame has not left my mind in the days following the fire. I spent them quietly reflecting on why the world had such a visceral reaction to the fire. One of the songs my choir rehearsed shortly after the fire includes a stanza instructing us to put our faith in God instead of the things of this world: “Silver is of passing worth, gold is not of constant value, jewels sparkle for a while; what you long for is not lasting.” (“The Call of Wisdom” by Will Todd, words by Michael Hampel) Perhaps we put too much emphasis on the tangible things. Shouldn’t our religion be more than our buildings? Shouldn’t our values be deeply rooted in one another and not in our landmarks? As a Catholic artist, a music director and liturgist, I offer a few humble thoughts from our artistic tradition.
The cathedral was built as a space for the worship of God and, barring a relatively short period during the French Revolution, has continuously been at the service of Catholic worship for eight and a half centuries. Notre-Dame received the best. She was built at the centre of a capital bustling with the best innovations and study of the time. She was built for a society deeply steeped in the religion for which she was built. She has withstood the evolution of taste, style, and innovation. We all look upon the cathedral and call it beautiful. In a remarkable feat transcending each age and in a modern time where choice is too numerous, all people unite in the beauty of Notre-Dame.
The worship for which the cathedral was built calls out to all humanity. Catholics believe this worship, the Mass, to be the source and summit of our faith. The Eucharist becomes the truly present Jesus ceasing to be bread and wine and transforming to God. We encounter the living God in the Scriptures. We believe in the promise of God’s actions in the Sacraments and thus have the promise of God present and acting in Notre-Dame and any place where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle, where Confessions are heard, baptisms are performed, and anointings are enacted. Such a cathedral pales in comparison to the majesty of the Sacraments but the experience of God within her walls pulls humanity towards this truth. When each person which crosses the threshold of the cathedral gasps in awe and is drawn beyond the temporal into the divine, the cathedral artisans have done their work well. Religious art seeks to give a taste of the happiness which waits for us in heaven. The Mass is where heaven meets earth. The space where this act of worship takes place should direct our thoughts, actions, and feelings into the deep mystery of this reality. Time and again, Notre-Dame brings all humanity to that threshold whether they realize what she is doing or not. She welcomes pilgrims into her enclosure where we come to her in trust. By the hands of those who created her, she leads us to the hands of the One who created us. We allow her to ravish us with her beauty and we trust completely that she will take us where we need to go.
Christian art begins where God became man in Jesus Christ, the mystery of the Incarnation. The Son of God was born into a fallen world to be a Saviour, to redeem the world and restore humanity and the physical world to its proper state. Again and again in the creation story, the sacred writer repeats the line: “And God saw that is was good.” The vocation of all artists is to call humanity to their better selves and direct minds and hearts to a true reality. The artisans of Notre-Dame succeeded splendidly.
When the world gazed upon Notre-Dame de Paris in flames, it was as though this divine threshold were about to close forever. We had forgotten just what she meant to us and we thought we might never find it again. We prayed and we cried and we begged for a saviour to stop what seemed inevitable. Should Notre-Dame have left us completely, her last gift to us would have been in those deep and united moments of prayer where we rediscovered each other, unified in our common Creator. She has not left us completely and as we recreate her, let us allow ourselves to be recreated by the One who calls us through her.
