What does Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral represent?

In my opinion, Paris’ Notre Dame is a jewel of architecture built by people who envisioned something bigger than “life.” These people invested all their skills to the building of a cathedral that gave great honor to the Blessed Virgin and to France, so important in the history of the Church. Like it or not, governments, regimes, and centuries pass, but the Church, imperfect as she may be, like love, does not pass.

For two thousand years, the Church has borne witness to the meaning of life that Christ revealed to mankind and to our modern world, to those who suffer, who are searching for something more, and who find in Notre Dame Cathedral the immutable rock on which it rests. This cathedral is the symbol of enduring love and of a stable life founded on rock.

We must not deprive today’s people of this transcendence and meaning, especially as they are the generation that will rebuild the cathedral after the fire. Their donations were directed precisely towards this beauty and immutability that Christ, the source of all, gave us.

If we suppress the deep meaning of this masterpiece, we will suppress its soul. Notre Dame Cathedral would lose what people seek there in the first place—a sense of peace and closeness to eternity and to what endures—because generations have gone there to pray and open their hearts to the infinite contained in that holy place.

Renaud Mercier

Adapted from: La Croix