Reflection by Fr. Chris

This weekend I am out of town, visiting Notre Dame for their game against Virginia. Speaking of Notre Dame, we are very close to the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in December, a date which some feared would never come after the devastating fire in 2019. I remember I was in the Christ the King Seminary Chapel when I saw on Twitter that the fire had broken out. I was with Fr. Xavier O.F.M. who was taking time to help me go over my reading for the upcoming Easter Vigil. I remember that I did not want to be the one to tell Fr. Xavier because he is a huge fan of the arts, and I knew that such news would devastate him. After the initial shock, we went back to work, and the fire became a topic of discussion in all my classes that week.

One of the pieces of discussion which I remember from that week, was the lack of understanding in the American media concerning matters of the faith. These media corporations seem to have a specialist for any possible event, and yet when the fire broke out, one of the analysts (I want to say on CNN) questioned how one priest was strong enough to carry out the body of Christ. In this anchor’s mind, when he heard “Body of Christ,” he took that to mean a large statue of Jesus, and did not consider the Eucharist. For members of the faith, we would like to save everything in the Cathedral, but we understand the importance of the Body of Christ contained in the Eucharist over pieces of artwork. The world does not understand, years of apathy among the secular    culture has led to a blindness when it comes to the faith. Many in the world saw a fire destroy a beautiful building, a historic building, a grand piece of art. They neglected to observe that as important as Notre Dame Cathedral is to the history of Paris, its value is found in the liturgy which takes place within.

This episode reminds us that we need to take every opportunity that we can to catechize and instruct others on matters of the faith. There is a lot of ignorance when it comes to what the Church teaches and how the Church functions. Millions upon millions of dollars were given to the restoration project after the fire. There remains a draw within each person to the infinite, and this drive does not go away. We need to harness the energy of others as we rebuild our Church; it will be more difficult than simply repairing one building, but the work can be done through the community coming together with the Grace of God. 

In Christ,
Fr. Chris