Many years ago, I had the privilege to visit Notre Dame de Paris. It was an awe-inspiring sight, a triumph of Gothic architecture. Beloved by millions, it stood as an icon of France and France’s Catholic heritage. Now ravaged by fire, it will be rebuilt, ostensibly as a sign of France’s resilience and commitment to cultural excellence.
There is a deeper problem here, symbolised by the fire in the cathedral – France’s anti-religious secularism and ethno-political turmoil. France has turned its back on God. The presence of Christians from a variety of denominations in France does not significantly alter the big picture of apostasy and decay.
Lest the reader think my judgment is harsh, I would say that I hold much the same view of the United Kingdom at present and speak as someone with partially French blood. I love France and the UK, but I do not love what they have become. I am concerned about the future of the two nations, but I retain the belief that God, with whom all things are possible, can bring about repentance and transformation within the hearts of the French and the British.
That such a conflagration should happen within Holy Week may be significant. In the Easter narrative, this week marks a time of separation and judgment. Jesus Christ declared to the Judean religious authorities of His day that their rejection of Him would have consequences. The Temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed. Vast numbers of Jews were slaughtered, exiled, and enslaved. The Temple, like the cathedral, was destroyed by fire.
Josephus understood the devastation of the First Jewish Revolt as a recapitulation of the fall of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar in the 6th century BC. God had mercy on His people Israel and stayed faithful to His covenant with them. He brought them back in the days of Cyrus and subsequently. In the light of history, Josephus had hope that God would one day restore Israel.
We see a glimmer of that hope today in the survival of the Jewish people and the re-establishment of the state of Israel in its ancient homeland. The story is not complete, however (see Joel Richardson’s discussion of the “Second Exodus”). The Temple has not been rebuilt; the religious authorities do not recognise Jesus as their Messiah, their God, Priest, Prophet, and King. Jesus has not returned and is not seated upon His throne in Jerusalem.
As He left the Temple, following His denunciation of the religious authorities, Jesus declared that the Temple would be desolate and they would not see Him again until they learned to cry sincerely, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!” Just so, France will be desolate until she learns to cry the same. Will she? Veronika West thinks so. I leave it to the reader to watch and pray.
All Along the Watchtower 
Reblogged this on Richard's Watch and commented:
Nicholas brings some poignant reflections on the Scriptures and history before we consider three prophecies and a ‘coincidental’ fire in Jerusalem at the Al-Aqsa mosque!
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PS. There’s a most intriguing synchronous set of Global Prophecy Signals coming from England, Ulster, South Africa, Texas AND Israel… about this conflagration!
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https://www.barnhardt.biz/2019/04/15/better-it-burn-to-ash-than-become-a-mosque/
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. . . or this: https://www.barnhardt.biz/2019/04/15/is-it-too-soon-to-say-its-a-perfect-metaphor-for-vatican-ii/
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I’ll have a read now. Good to see you around – everything okay at home?
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No worse than the rest of humanity I suppose, Nick. Seems that the Christian world (what’s left of it) is experiencing the Dark Night of the Senses and the Dark Night of the Soul at the same time. I suppose that if these are the stages of awakening and the movement toward Unity with God it can also happen to the people of God as well as to individuals . . . though that is how each of us experience it. Times are dark my friend.
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Indeed – my hope is that we can find true unity, a church that manages not to repeat the mistakes of the Wars of Religion and other dark periods of our history. I think this event may be the opening salvo for more significant wonders during the spring and summer of this year.
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Like Job, who was a model for Jesus Christ, he also was the model for every follower of Christ who was to come. We have further depths of despair and heartache to endure. Our crucifixion is not yet come and yet we know that we must, by sheer will, endure if we are going to enter into that resurrection of Easter morning. It is only right that we should share in the Sacrifice of our Lord . . . the road is fraught with difficulties and not everyone has the heart for such. One thief dies and the other saved. I only wish we could hope for the odds of a 50/50 split . . . but I fear it will be a much smaller split since we are not nearly as able as was Christ. We are only imitators so our odds are likely far less.
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Yes, I think things will get worse before they get better. Suffering and deprivation are the crucible of repentance.
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Then there is Pam Geller: https://gellerreport.com/2019/04/notre-dame-intentionally-set.html/
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I touched on your point as well this morning, and I pretty much agree with you. One point that I made though, is that there was a message contained, a promise if you will, the same promise that was found in the rubble of our World Trade Center.
The interior of the cathedral this morning:
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Yes, that is a stunning image: hope amid the wreckage. I liked the tone of your post: restrained, hopeful, and incisive.
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It really is. Thank you, it took a fair amount of time to sort out.
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I had an optimistic outlook on the fire. I watched on the news; saw and heard, the great throng of the French people singing hymns watching their beloved Cathedral in flames. In a great paradox of the Catholic faith, the scene was both heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time.
I sent my wife this particular passage in John 12:
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
I pray that the mourning the French (and European) people felt when they saw their heritage and symbol of Christian faith will be made anew with the death of beauty on April 15th, 2019.
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I wish I could share your optimism Phillip. I think the outcome is going to be worse than you think. The following from Barnhardt:
Notre Dame Will Be Repaired at Taxpayer Expense, but as a “Shared Cultural/Spiritual Space”. And That Is How It Will Become a Mosque.
This will be done with the FULL support and cooperation of Antipope Bergoglio and his coven occupying the Vatican.
The “repurposing” of Churches into “Shared Ecumenical Spaces” after the Notre Dame model will become all the rage, and will probably become legally mandated. Fire nor earthquake needed. Just the Compass and Square of Freemasonry under the sword of islam.
As someone else said and said well yesterday, God is JUST GETTING STARTED (https://www.apostoliccatholic.com/2019/04/notre-dame-is-on-fire-and-god-is-just.html ) with France. And it won’t stop with France.
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I think the outcome doesn’t matter. So to speak. Christ has risen from the tomb, In Him we already have victory.
I’ve been reading Kierkegaard and I think the one thing that has led prevented me to stay away from the path of some orthodox believing Christians, such as Steve Skojec is the despair that does lead to “the sickness unto death.”
“If two or more gather in my name…” The Lord is risen, the bridegroom has never left His bride. So, if I was walking around Galilee with the Lord at this moment, would it not be filled with joy and love?
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I simply don’t think it is despair. Its sadness . . . like Christ who lamented over the Jewish people whom he would have gathered under His wings like a hen with her chicks. Should we not feel this same lamentation in our day? We have fallen into the abyss and only Christ can save us . . . but I am sure that He would like to have some cooperation from those who are counted amongst His followers. Yes there is always joy in remembering how Christ suffered and died to save us. And we lament when these same people forget this salvific act of our Savior . . . just like the Jewish people who forgot that Christ brought them up from Egypt. Joy does not necessarily make one cheerful when we witness the wrath that is befalling Christianity due to our disobedience and disbelief.
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Should we lament? The one true temple has been raised from the dead. Of course, there is sin, disobedience, and pain. However, I don’t think I can express it any better than Pope Saint John Paul II:
We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery – the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!”. We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects the “fundamental duty of love of neighbour, without which it would be unbecoming to speak of Joy”. We realize that joy is demanding; it demands unselfishness; it demands a readiness to say with Mary: “Be it done unto me according to thy word”.
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A lovely and accurate picture of that which has reached perfection of love. But alas we do not live that way. Let me lower myself to the practical difficulties of the Christian life in this short allegory which I will make up on the spot.
Let us say that my mother has forbidden me to enter a fast rushing stream behind my house and I have promised never to do that. However, I defy her and enter therein only to be swept away by the deadly current. My mother jumps in and saves my life while forfeiting her own.
Now my love and joy for my mother whose love for me is the joy of my life. My sorrow is my sin of disobedience and shame. And the memory of her is sweet but my sin, though forgiven, is always before my eyes. Now my response should be to act the same as my mother and show the same love she bore for me to my fellow humans and/or my own children. I fail at this repeatedly in life. Am I not to lament this fact not only for my failings but for others who have done the same . . . though my joy and love for the sacrificial love shown for me by her has never left but my failings and the failings of others brings sadness and a sense of the failure that I am in the imitation and memory of her (or Christ as that is what we are speaking of).
Yes, that unselfishness that brought Mary to say “Be it done unto me according to thy word” may very well sincerely be uttered whilst in fact my will and my frail mortal fear may prevent me from acting and I am but a wretch . . . along with a host of others. So sadness, lamentations are in order as we beg for the Grace of imitation and an increase in Faith, Hope and Charity.
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I suppose there’s a balance. Lament for the souls that have turned away. And still find joy in our faith in Christ, the sacraments, and that practice of virtue in our quest for Holiness. But our lamentations I would say can not lead to despair.
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I agree. I’m sure there many folks who despair but I see little of that among the writers if they are of any repute within the Catholic world. Anger and sadness, yes; but not despair.
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I posted this comment on Words from the Crucible:
The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris is a beautiful structure, BUT I don’t necessarily think of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when I look at it. The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; man-made structures are not.
If you read the Acts of the Apostles, no where does it say that Peter or Paul traveled to Corinth or Ephesus or Rome, had a big fund-raiser to raise money to build a nice, big church building. Peter and Paul preached to people and taught people: they preached and taught in peoples’ homes, they probably preached in the open air and in other places.
The destruction of the Cathedral of Notre Dame could be God’s judgment on a very secular, decadent Europe or the west’s definition of Christianity. Where is the simplicity in Christ in vast man-made organizations and huge man-made buildings?
I was hitchhiking in Montana a few years ago and this pastor picked me up. We were talking about France and he said that France has never really recovered from the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572. France had the French Revolution in 1689 which was a foreshadowing of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917.
I believe that France is reaping what it has sown over many years of Godless leadership and persecution of Christians.
St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massacre
The Death of Voltaire
https://wordsfromthecrucible.com/2019/04/15/a-sign-in-paris/
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Ezekiel 21:21: “I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.”
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Good brother Tim, a commenter in here called notre damn building the beauty of christianity. The extent of the total depravity of the catholic church is slowly coming to light. The priests are fighting it tooth and nail. But wait, its not over yet. Nuns are starting to speak out. The liars in the clergy tell us that abortion is bad, while the priests rape nuns and make them have abortions. Millions of babies are buried under the convents all over the world. Wait, theres more. Nuns force the young nuns to have sex with them. Yes, lots of the young nuns are up for it, and the ones that arent just are forced into it. catholic church. How dare they call it a church. The devotees still cling to its greasy hull and in a fit dizziness yell out….Satan is trying to destroy the wonderful godly catholic church. It takes a catholic to blurt out something that stupid. Satan is tickled pink with his finest creation…..the catholic church.
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