An American family’s reflections in the restored Notre Dame cathedral (II)

My son asked to see pictures of the cathedral after the fire, and when I showed him the spot where we stood as it had been covered in collapsed debris, he was astonished that people had been able to rebuild. “It’s a real miracle,” he said, with all the solemn earnestness of a young child. He’s right. Mary’s special genius is inviting people to humility, drawing them closer to God through her son, often in surprising ways. The nameless artisans and laborers who originally constructed Notre Dame knew they were a part of something bigger than themselves that would outlast them: a monument to Mary that magnified the Lord. Centuries later, in a more secular age, the firefighters and architects who worked to save and resurrect the cathedral participated in a similar act of faith, even if they didn’t all perceive it in precisely that way.

As they encounter the divine and the eternal in this special place, who knows what will be stirred in the hearts of the thousands of visitors to the newly rebuilt Notre Dame?

At the cathedral, my family and I drifted toward a side chapel charging entry to a small museum. “Is there anything significant in there?” we heard a man’s Australian accent ask at the ticket counter. “Wood from the true cross,” came the reply. The man looked back at his companion, evidently impressed. “That’s pretty significant,” he said. They got in the ticket line.

It made us chuckle, but “Is there anything significant in there?” is exactly the question on many people’s minds and hearts as they approach all kinds of goods: work, pleasure, relationships. 

And at Notre Dame, and indeed at every Catholic church all over the world no matter how humble, we know the answer is a definitive yes. In this newly inaugurated year of hope, my prayer will be that, like Our Lady, Catholics can point anyone who asks them for a reason for their hope toward what is truly significant.

Maggie Phillips, January 17, 2025

www.wordonfire.org