Why would hundreds of people, with millions around the world watching on the world’s main TV channels (SKY, BBC, CNN for starters), converge on a Church Service 18 days ago; a crowd that included, presidents, one president’s wife and daughter, a president soon to be, prime ministers (past and present), kings, queens, princes, princesses, grand dukes, grand duchesses, politicians, guests, artistes, musicians, church leaders, as well as several hundred professionals, highly skilled workers and hundred more fire fighters – oh, and even Elon Musk? Why would they all converge on an act of religious worship?
Not much of a riddle really, if you follow the news. At one level, the answer is simple. After the catastrophic fire of 2019, and following the breakneck speed of the restoration, drawing on skills and crafts, many of which risk being lost to the world, the ‘soul of France’, as it’s known, the mighty medieval cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris – of Our Lady of Paris – which they started building in 1163 on the Île de la Cité, an island in the River Seine – Island of the City – first mentioned by Julius Caesar in 53 BC and in the 3rd century, site of a Roman fortress – was being reopened by the Archbishop of Paris.
The great occasion even caused a momentary ceasefire in the turmoil of French domestic politics. There was the Cathedral for hours on our TV screens – soaking up prime time TV the world over – with that great symbol of France – the cockerel – a new cockerel – one refashioned to look somewhat like a phoenix of new birth, atop the spire, and with recast bells (one of them already rung by victors at the Paris Olympics earlier this year, before being hung with two others in the cathedral’s sanctuary). The restoration was likened by many to a resurrection. Let’s not over-egg the resurrection paradigm in the case of a building. As President Macron himself said ‘Cathedrals are mortal.’ As if to remind us of that fragility, mother nature, the weather, got the upper hand at the event, and much of the human planning had to be changed.
But the event pulled a crowd from all over the world. There were all those people of importance inside the cathedral, eyes looking upwards in wonderment and admiration; and many of them taking sneaky ‘pics’ of each other on their phones. I couldn’t resist a wry smile and mischievous thought as I watched all the world leaders and celebrities standing in, one by one, for photographs outside with President and Mrs Macron of France, with, as a backdrop, rather pointedly, the sculpted scene on the west front of Notre Dame, of the Last Judgment – the same scene that is depicted over our great west door here in Cork.
€700 million later; 2000 people – stonemasons, architects, engineers, carpenters, roofers, metal workers, sculptors, artists and countless more – working daily on the site for five years – 2000 oak trees for timber beams to support 4,000 square metres of lead, weighing 210 tonnes. The restoration took forensic research. It wasn’t just brute structural engineering. It was and is art. President Macron on one of his visits to Notre Dame commented ‘The intricacy is incredible’. And he asked ‘How long does it take to train a carpenter to do this work?’ “A lifetime” answered Julien le Bras, head of the firm of carpenters, ‘a lifetime!’
So, as I say, at one level, there you have one answer to my Christmas Day riddle as to why all those world-famous people, as well as ordinary Parisians converged on Paris for that Church Service, and why so many of us watched it on TV.
But why would you or anyone bother? Why bother restoring the Cathedral at all? Wouldn’t it all be rather pointless if it is only to be some relic and example of an architectural masterpiece of the past, stunningly beautiful as it still is? God forbid, but if this cathedral of St Fin Barre was destroyed tonight, would we restore it just for art’s sake alone, or because of the void on our city’s skyline? No we wouldn’t.
Something stronger and more fundamental is undergirding all of this, and underpins the efforts, over the centuries made by countless generations in every part of the world, to build places of worship, of prayer and to serve as pastoral bridgeheads for engagement with the surrounding communities.
Generations of people simply would not have bothered erecting and preserving and adorning these impressive buildings of immense scale, unless there was something truly wondrous behind it all. People simply wouldn’t have bothered unless there was something to bother about – something to motivate, inspire and transform them. We wouldn’t have bothered coming here today on this annual feast if there wasn’t something fundamental and life-changing to touch base with: the nativity – the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we accept that centrality of the Christmas story as a proposition which resolves the Christmas Day riddle I pose to you, then we have no option but to ask ourselves:
What does that birth – and the life, teaching and example that followed mean for me now?
How am I to respond?
How does this birthday and the movement it started affect and change me?
None of this would have happened in Paris, or here, or anywhere else for that matter, if the baby had not been born that first Christmas and if, in every generation, people hadn’t responded the way they have. It is what it represents – today’s story – that endures. The clue to my Christmas Day riddle is in the name of that Cathedral in Paris – Notre Dame de Paris – our Lady of Parish – and behind its high altar is the marble statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the lifeless body of her son as his body is taken down from the cross – they are at the centre of it all. She and he are at heart of today’s Christmas story too, as she gives birth to him; our saviour.
In this we put our faith, hope and love – and its power to transform:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.’ (John 1.1-5)
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.’ (John 1.14)
And one last thought from Paris. The greatest of the bells of Notre Dame – cast in 1686 and weighing 13,000 kg – is named Emmanuel. Emmanuel – the name of the child born at the heart of the Christmas story. Let us draw strength and inspiration, in these overwhelming and unsettled times, from that name, Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us.’
As one Bible version puts it
‘The life-light blazed out in the darkness, and the darkness couldn’t put it out.’ (John 1.5: The Message)