As a Catholic, apparently I am supposed to be in mourning and wearing all black while sporting a rosary in my hand because of the fire at Notre Dame. Sorry, I just can’t feel it. Notre Dame had long ceased being the house of God and it had become a tourist attraction. It was pure religious Disney than pious Christianity. I have never been to ND but I have been to other cathedrals, including Compostela which is older and I feel the same way for all.
I think what ticked me off the most about the TV coverage is the faux sorrow by the talking heads and the fear about the possibility that the objects d’arte perished in the fire. That is not what church is about, that is a museum or the guitar collections in the Hard Rock casinos. The true measure of a church is the gathering of souls to praise the Lord and not how many statues of seraphims they have.
A Church or Cathedral or Meeting Place or whatever your particular Christian edifice is about is summed up in Matthew 18:20
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
The rest is just cheap decoration.
While I agree on the religious sentiment, there is something to be said about the fear of loss regarding the art and architecture. Notre Dame is a feat of human perseverance, ingenuity, and artistry. I, for one, am happy that it came out of this relatively unscathed (huzzah for medieval church construction methods) and the art was removed hasilty/due to the renovation.
You make a good point: They removed the expensive art and the building caught on fire. Somebody must check the insurance policy in the building because suddenly we have grounds for a conspiracy theory of Arson for Profit!
😀
One of the main reasons, historically, for a community to put in the generations-long effort to build a cathedral in the middle ages was, in fact, to attract pilgrims. (Having a holy relic on site also helped.) In other words … to encourage tourism.
Not that cathedrals can’t be expressions of faith, perserverence and human ingenuity, they are that. But they are also tourist traps from the get-go.
In the dark ages, if you wanted a holy relic, you just came up with a fake one. Such as, St. Peter’s finger bone, a piece of the True Cross, etc.
Mark Twain does a great bit on holy relics in his book “The Innocents Abroad.”
Amen Brother.
As an atheist, would there be another reason than the loss of history and objects for me to mourn its destruction?
That said, having been there, it is still used as a church with an actual local congregation (plus a shit pile of tourists) who take Mass there every week.
[…] I mentioned in a post that Notre Dame “was pure religious Disney than pious Christianity.” I ruffled some feathers even from those who were not in the faith and if not all, most had one thing in common: They had been to Notre Dame. […]