Brothers and Sisters, I’d like to go to France this morning. Some of you may have followed the story around the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Five years ago, in April 2019, the fire broke out that destroyed the spire and much of the roof, eventually brought under control by the courage and skill of the fire brigade. The damage was extensive and multiform, but there were no casualties and the basic structure of the Cathedral remained intact. What was so striking was how many people came out to see the fire as it happened. This was more than curiosity. There were tears and prayer and singing, and a recognition that here, in the centre of Paris, was a masterpiece of Gothic art, an icon of France, the spiritual heart of a country, a place of history and prayer.
In France, ecclesiastical buildings belong to the State. At the time of the fire, the President, Emmanuel Macron, made a promise that many people thought crazy or arrogant: “we will restore Notre Dame in 5 years”. But it has happened. More than 2000 people, artists, craftsmen, experts of different kinds, contributed to the restoration, many donated to it. Now the Cathedral is more beautiful than it has ever been in its 700-year history. No wonder there is talk of a rebirth or a resurrection. Symbolically too, the beautiful mid-14th century statue of our Lady and her child survived the damage, has been cleaned, restored to the Cathedral and gazes down protectively on all who enter.
The return of this cathedral to life, with all the ceremonies around it, has proved pure joy. Pope Francis called it a “prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France”, a Church which has given so many saints and theologians, so much inspiration to the Church throughout the world. If we think of St Vincent de Paul and St John Vianney, of St Bernardette and St Therese, we are only beginning…
St Paul famously wrote, “all things can turn to good for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). A cathedral which had actually become dark and dingy and full of structural flaws is now strong and radiant and can expect to be crowded by pilgrims and tourists this coming year.
All this recalls what a cathedral can be – to a city, to a people. They are among the most beautiful of Christianity’s’ artefacts. They are, like our Advent figure, John the Baptist, “prophetic”. Like John the Baptist, they “preach good news to the people”; they evangelise. They herald Christ. They are signs of transcendence. All that we Christians want to be for the glory of God and the salvation of the world, they are already. Through their wood and stone, their glass and their sculpture, their architecture and music; through the prayer, the preaching of the word and the celebration of the sacraments they contain, they are like our other Advent figure, Mary. They bring Christ into the world, they draw people together, they overcome division, they create unity, they are motherly, they welcome. Everything the Lord wants his Church, his Bride and our mother, to be, everything we as a Christian community here and now want to be, they already signify and help us to be. They belong to the sacramental order.
Turning to our Cathedral, I remember witnessing something that touched me here on Easter Sunday 2022. The African choir had been singing and lifted our spirits. After the Mass, at the back of the Church, people broke out in song and dance. Why not? This was Easter Sunday after all. At the same time, in a side aisle, knelt a crying woman. She was Ukrainian; it was not long after the Russian invasion of February that year. This is what a Cathedral can do. It can shelter our joy and our grief, and bring them under the canopy of God’s grace. Pope Benedict XVI once said that there are two things that will bring the Gospel to the world: beauty and holiness. A Cathedral is beauty at the service of holiness. On Christmas Day 1886, an 18-year-old unbelieving Frenchman entered Notre Dame. He heard the choir begin the Magnificat: “In an instant my heart was touched, and I believed”. He became one of France’s greatest Catholic poets and playwrights.
For all the faults and failings of Christians, Christianity, let’s never forget, has brought and still brings good things beyond number into human life: health care and education, for example (the Church remains the great provider of these things), a new sense of the meaning and purpose of human existence, of the dignity of the human body and human thought and human work. Christianity, again, has inspired so much magnificent creativity in every field, and not least the great cathedrals of Europe and elsewhere. All this has come to the fore again in connection to Notre Dame. What an unexpected response it has elicited, from Christian believers and other believers and non-believers! Cathedrals speak. In the deserts and distractions of so many cities, their voices cry out.
Towards the end of World War II, my father was part of the Allied forces invading Germany. In later years, he told me how unforgettable was the sight of the great Cathedral of Cologne still rising above miles of destruction.
All this can encourage us to press on to beautify our fine Cathedral, beginning with the sanctuary. We’re already blessed with the new icon Cross. Phase 2 will be to create a stone floor, then to bring the Blessed Sacrament to the centre, to complete the altar, create a new ambo and a new cathedra for the bishop, and to decorate the rear wall.
The Archbishop of Paris has spoken of the joy around the rebirth of Notre Dame. Let us create a Cathedral to bring joy to Aberdeen. To be a Bethlehem, a stable, a house and a manger for the Lord. To gather the small and the great to him and each other. To preach good news to the people.
St Mary’s Cathedral Aberdeen, 15 December 2024
