In a weird twist of fate, less that 18 months ago, France was commemorating the armistice of World War I and celebrating the 850th anniversary of Notre Dame with a 5-night light show. It was a stirring reminder that the seemingly invincible cathedral had survived revolutions, rioting, vandals, and two world wars.
 
There were no celebrations yesterday (well, except for these folks). Rod Dreher (The Benedict Option) offers some insightful commentary on the disaster ~

What we lost today is one of the great embodiments of Western civilization. It is impossible to overstate what this means. It will take some time to absorb. Notre Dame de Paris is at the heart of France’s identity. All distances in France are measured from kilometre zéro, in front of the cathedral. Though most (but not all!) of the French have turned away from their baptism, Notre Dame is the symbolic heart of the nation. And now, it’s gone, though firefighters may have saved its bones. It took 200 years to build, and now it was made a holocaust in one terrible afternoon.

… I cannot see this as anything other than a sign. The only church in all of Western civilization more important than Notre Dame de Paris is St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The consuming fire is likely to have been started from a construction accident. I hope that is the case; if this was terrorism, then France is in for unimaginable spasms of violence. Nevertheless, if this was an accident, it still symbolizes what we in the West have allowed to happen to our religious and cultural patrimony. What happened in Paris today has been happening across our civilization.
 
It happens whenever we fail to live out our baptism, and fail to baptize our children. It happens by omission, by indifference, and it happens by commission, from spite. It happens in classrooms, in newsrooms, in shopping malls, in poisoned seminaries and defiled sacristies, and everywhere the truths that Notre Dame de Paris embodied are ridiculed, flayed, and destroyed in the hearts and minds of modern men. The fire that destroyed Paris’s iconic cathedral made manifest what we in the West have been doing to ourselves for over 200 years.

 
Dreher’s article is a somber reflection on the decline of the Christian west. Read the rest HERE.

 
The November 2017 light show, “Dame de Coeur,” featured 3D mapping and the latest in video projection, an impressive testament to our amazing 21st computer technology. The architects and various guildsmen who spent two centuries creating the cathedral would no doubt have been very impressed. And yet, when compared to 850 years, a light show that lasted 100 minutes total (5 nights x 20 minutes) – despite the dazzling special effects – is a mere blink in the vast expanse of history.
 
The artisans and craftsmen who gave the world Notre Dame believed in transcendent, eternal values. Imagine the vision, devotion and faith that propelled the creation of such a magnificent edifice. The men who began construction knew that they would never live to see it completed. Think of that. At best their great, great grandchildren would still be around to worship in the completed structure.
Such commitment and dedication, which says “I do this not for myself but for my God, and for my posterity,” is almost inconceivable to today’s modern, self-absorbed, cell phone-clutching secularist.

 
Further, while contemporary techno-wizards may be able to re-create spectacular 3D images of an 850 year-old cathedral, there is simply no one alive today with the knowledge and incredible skill required to re-create the structure itself. As Dreher points out ~

There is no way to replace what Paris, what France, what Christendom, and indeed what humanity, has lost today. It is irreplaceable. For example, we literally cannot recreate the windows, which date from the time of Dante. We do not know how to do it. As a friend said to me, “You can rebuild the World Trade Center. You cannot rebuild Notre Dame de Paris.”

 
The tragic destruction of this venerable symbol of Christendom only serves to expose what the west has lost – long before the first flame was sparked yesterday – a firm faith in the eternal God, creator, sustainer and savior of the universe.

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Related:
Au revoir France?
Catholic France surrenders to Islam
Macron’s France: Average of Three Church Attacks Per Day ~

Some have actively spoken out against the rise in anti-Christian acts in France, such as Cardinal Robert Sarah, who said: “They are the sad reflection of a sick civilisation that lets itself be swept away in the nets of evil. The bishops, priests, and the faithful must keep up their strength and courage.”

Up-dated: 5-10-19

Added: Notre Dame: An Omen ~ I just happened upon Dennis Prager’s insightful commentary on the double loss, of the cathedral – and the Faith ~

The symbolism of the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral, the most renowned building in Western civilization, the iconic symbol of Western Christendom, is hard to miss.
 
It is as if God Himself wanted to warn us in the most unmistakable way that Western Christianity is burning — and with it, Western civilization.