On December 7, 2024, Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich knocked loudly three times on the door to Notre Dame cathedral with his staff, referred to as a crozier1. Once the doors were opened according to the “Rite of the Open Door,” the organ played, the bell rang and the reopening ceremony began as the cathedral once again roared to life following the catastrophic fire of April 25, 2019. Our Lady of Paris stirred from her slumber.
The cornerstone for Notre Dame cathedral was originally laid on March 24–25, 1163. Pope Alexander III was there in Paris to witness it. The legendary hero Robin Hood (whose real name is lost to history) was only three years old according to some accounts. The Second Crusade to free the Holy Land from the Muslims had ended in failure only fifteen years earlier. In England, Henry II who previously had a bromance with Thomas Becket now raged against his former ally and drinking buddy who had been installed as Archbishop of Canterbury (by Henry, no less!) In the following year (1164), Becket would seek refuge in France. Six years later (1170), Becket, now back in England, would be murdered at the high altar of his cathedral by four soldiers loyal to Henry.
In another seven years from the beginning of the construction of Notre Dame, the first wheelbarrows would appear in France. Flying Buttresses–much more sophisticated than wheelbarrows–were just developed which allowed the famous cathedral to soar even higher towards the heavens than other cathedrals, and adourned Our Lady with much larger windows than ever thought possible.
As the final plans for Our Lady of Paris were approved and the teams of artisans assembled, the people in Paris and elsewhere in Europe were hearing about a deadly new disease called the Plague. This bacteria was just becoming reacquainted with the continent, mainly along the coasts near harbors, but sometimes inland as well. Two centuries later (1347) it would return with a vengeance. But for now, it was just probing for opportunities to work its deadly mischief at a time of its own choosing.
The cathedral was completed in 1345 (182 years later.) That would be akin to starting something fifteen years or so before the Civil War and only completing it now. This meant that generations of more than 1,000 builders spent their entire lives constructing something of value and beauty they would never themselves enjoy or live to see. They would be replaced by their sons or others in their guild who would not live to see it finished, either. Or their children. Perhaps some workers and journeymen just needed the money and steady work and didn’t care what it was they were building. Others may have been lured with the promise of papal indulgences for themselves and their families. Some most likely felt honored to be chosen, seeing this as an opportunity to demonstrate their faith and a story to tell their grandchildren. But the edifice was built for the glory of God, not for their own edification, and they labored day-after-day chiseling stone, lugging wooden beams, cutting glass, and many other tasks as well.
Several centuries after the cathedral was finished, it started to fall into ruin. During the Reformation, Hugenots (i.e., French Calvinists) saw the cathedral as a temple of idols and tried to destroy it. During the French Revolution which followed in the late 1700’s, precious metals were stripped and stolen from Our Lady of Paris by anti-Christian mobs, while statues of monarchs within the cathedral were decapitated or otherwise destroyed. Other countless acts of vandalism occured as well. During the days of the Paris Commune in the nineteenth century, the cathedral was used as a wine warehouse and just before the Commune was destroyed, members of the commune tried to set fire to the cathedral, itself.
Notre Dame had many rooms and passage ways. There were altogether 800 different keys needed to access the entire structure. Possibly no one in history has seen every nook and cranny in the building.
I could not imagine such a project started today that would only be finished in the year 2207.
So, Our Lady of Paris is approaching her eight hundred and sixty-third birthday. Part of her has been worn down by the elements, torn down by vandals and revolutionaries, and burned down, possibly because of an electrical fire or maybe a careless cigarette tossed aside by a weary workman quitting for the day. No one knows for sure. Whether the cathedral will still stand almost nine centuries from now is yet another question.
No doubt that several years before work began on the cathedral in the twelfth century, there were posters circulated in Paris, greater France, even perhaps across Europe advertising for wealthy patrons and workers, many talented and trained in specific ways, some with no special talent, but who were merely enthusiastic, dependable, and as strong as an ox. Each one selected was given a responsibility, whether to broadly color walls or to paint detailed murals on the same walls. It went to some to hew plain stones for steps and to others to sculpt intricate carvings in marble.
BE PART OF A LIVING CATHEDRAL
Today, we have another call for workers to consider. This is an ongoing call to build yet another church, but this is an invisible, supernatural church that cannot collapse, burn or be vandalized and desecrated as Our Lady of Paris was. We can read about this project in a first century document called the “Shepherd of Hermas” or sometimes referred to as just “The Shepherd2.” I discuss The Shepherd in an extended footnote below. Be aware that it is not a book in the Bible, so it may well be fallible or flawed in some way. In fact, in my opinion, it is.
In Vision III, Chapter 2 of the book, the protagonist Hermas, perhaps the same Hermas mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Romans, is being spoken to by a woman who is a living embodiment of the True Church (i.e., those Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox who confess the Creeds–at least the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed–and love and believe in God and trust in Jesus’ propitiatory death on the Cross and His resurrection for the forgiveness of their sins.) For those unfamiliar with a creed, it is not a prayer, but a statement of faith. We are required to accept this statment, because it defines who and what a Christian is and should be, and if we disagree with any part of it, then we need to resolve that disagreement quickly and decisively. The woman in the vision escorts Hermas around a scene of a tower being built by workmen on or near the sea. Hermas recalled his vision:
“For the tower was built square by those six young men who had come with her. But myriads of men were carrying stones to it, some dragging them from the depths, others removing them from the land, and they handed them to these six young men. They were taking them and building; and those of the stones that were dragged out of the depths, they placed in the building just as they were: for they were polished and fitted exactly into the other stones, and became so united one with another that the lines of juncture could not be perceived. And in this way the building of the tower looked as if it were made out of one stone. Those stones, however, which were taken from the earth suffered a different fate; for the young men rejected some of them, some they fitted into the building, and some they cut down, and cast far away from the tower. Many other stones, however, lay around the tower, and the young men did not use them in building; for some of them were rough, others had cracks in them, others had been made too short, and others were white and round, but did not fit into the building of the tower. Moreover, I saw other stones thrown far away from the tower, and falling into the public road; yet they did not remain on the road, but were rolled into a pathless place. And I saw others falling into the fire and burning, others falling close to the water, and yet not capable of being rolled into the water, though they wished to be rolled down, and to enter the water.“
In his vision, each type of stone had to be evaluated and ranked by the workers, who, if I recall correctly, were angels. Hermas learned that the stones were representative of different types of people, such as those who were martyed for their faith, or perhaps those who were young in the faith, those who were living sinful lives but repented their sins and those living sinful lives and were not interested in repenting. Some stones represented wealthy people who arrogantly put their material wealth well-being ahead of God in their lives, and so on. Where and if someone “fit” in the tower (Church) depended on his or her relationship with God the Father and whether they were living a healthy Christian life, even though not without fault. Moses sinned. King David sinned. Peter sinned. For the purposes of this post, it is not important to explain the significance of each type of stone, just that God’s True Church is not made of stone and glass as Notre Dame is, but rather it is made of people. These people respond to the call to participate in this project even as artisans and commoners responded to the call to build (or repair) Our Lady of Paris. Very few of these building blocks in the shepherd’s vision were useful “as is.” Most needed shaping, polishing and so on before they could be used. This happens in the everyday life of a Christian. If anyone wants to read further in the vision, or the book, itself, you can find it here. And, just as there were different people building Notre Dame (e.g., carpenters, masons, glaziers, etc.), so there is a division of labor here as well, as Paul notes in his first epistle to the church in Corinth. In 3: 6-8, Paul says:
“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labour.“
Paul is saying that he scattered (broadcast) the seed of the Gospel everywhere he went. He did not hang around in a city for years nurturing or socializing his converts into the faith. That job was assigned to others. He traveled 10,000 miles in his born-again life from Turkey to Spain and possibly even to France and Britain. Tens of thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands heard him talk. Some were immediately converted. Others eventually responded but not right away. It is like someone who is a radio broadcaster that cannot tell how many people are listening to them at any given time. But they do their job anyway. This is a reasonable requirement that God asks of us. Some of us wittness by the way we live our lives; loving and forgiving others, visiting the sick, caring for our neighbors, being our brother’s and sister’s keeper and this is how we plant the seed of the Gospel. Perhaps years after we are dead, some person might remember something we said or did and it suddenly “clicks” in their mind and they come to the Faith. I’ve never been to a Billy Graham rally, but I did attend one or more prayer meetings years ago for a rally scheduled twelve months hence, and it was billed as featuring an associate evangelist (not even Billy Graham.) Yet, people in the area and elsewhere prayed that the rally would bring souls to the Cross. Maybe three hundred, maybe six. But this is how things work.
So, it is probably too late to play a role in the restoration project of Our Lady, but you never know. The website that might advertise openings is the Friends of Notre Dame. But it is not too late to get involved with building the Eternal Church. There is no place to sign up. You just show up when someone needs help, forgiveness, understanding, encouragement. You ask the Holy Spirit to point them out and you will find them soon enough.
FOOTNOTES
1The crozier was made from a burned beam of the cathedral’s roof when it was set alit on April 25, 2019. Altogether, 5,000 oak trees were used for the cathedral’s original roof.
2So, what is the 411 on The Shepherd? The early church grew very quickly. The twenty-seven books in the New Testament were all written before the year 100 A.D., Mark possibly being the first and Revelation likely being the last. Some of the many works were accounts of the life of Jesus (such as the Gospel of Thomas.) Some were instructional books on the Christian life, like the DIdache. Others were letters such as III Corinthians or the Epistle of Barbabas. Some were prophetic books similar to Revelation (like The Shepherd.) Some of the books were scams. People back then knew about that. Today, some people get text messages from someone saying they are the son or daughter of the recipient and they have been arrested in England and need money wired for bail. Except the victim has no son or daughter. And if they do, their child is bing imp’d (i.e. there is an imposter at work.)
So, the early church came up with a criteria. Does a work claim to be written by an apostle, like the Gospel of Luke or Romans? Almost every New Testament book has the name of the author clearly known, except for Hebrews. Some say Paul wrote Hebrews, some Barnabas. We just don’t know. But the early church held it in high regard. And when I mention the “early church,” I mean people in leadership who personally knew the Apostles in many cases. For example, Polycarp died in 155 A.D., half a century or so after John died, and John was probably the last of the Apostles to die. Polycarp was personally acquainted with John. They may have spent many hours together talking about Jesus and things we, today, never heard of and also spoke of the Faith far into the night before John died. So whatever Polycarp might have said before he was killed carries a lot of weight.
Secondly, do other apostles refer to that book, themselves? Thirdly, did the early church tend to accept it? FInally, there were church councils such as Laodicea (363 A.D.) where Godly men met and prayed to be shown which books were genuine and which were forgeries or contained heresy. As it turns out, The Shepherd made it to the Council of Laodicea. At that Council, there was a “tossup” between Revelation and The Shepherd as far was what would get into the Bible. The delegates from Laodicea and several other churches specifically mentioned in Revelation voted against Revelation in favor of The Shepherd. But ultimately, the book of Revelaton won out.
