On the fall of Notre Dame...(and all similar monuments)

One morning I woke up and saw my timeline filled with posts on Notre Dame and the fire that has destroyed so much.

I personally had not visited the place. I had just seen it in pictures and movies.

I understand that it was an amazing work of art, a great masterpiece, an architectural beauty. I understand that it was a very old building, a part of historical and cultural heritage, a place that had attracted millions of tourist, a place where millions of people have had fond memories of. I understand that given all the above reasons, seeing it go up in flames must be saddening.

What I have difficulty understanding is the intensity of the reaction by my brothers and sisters in Christ specially their choice of words :

This shows how we have treated Christ!

This symbolizes the decline of Christianity!

A symbol of Christianity has fallen!

This was the place where you could feel the presence of God!

(And many many similar words...)

I am more saddened by these words than the actual event.

Do these words reflect what we believe as Christians? Should the destruction of one building (as amazing and historical and beautiful as it was) bring about sentiments that would seem to imply utter hopelessness, as if this is the end?

I cannot but recall Jesus’ words:

MARK‬ ‭13:1-2‬

“As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!" And Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down."” ‭‭ ‭

Isn’t what happened to Notre Dame what is going to happen to every building in the world one day? Pizza Tower, Eiffel Tower, Pyramids?

This also got me thinking about the way we human beings treat our memories. We cherish them, and take every effort to hold on to them. We take thousands of photos and videos every year and spend a lot of money on gadgets and devices that would take such pictures. We would then take every effort to make sure we can store them safely, sometimes by having multiple back ups on multiple devices, iCloud etc. And we get really frustrated and upset when we lose them due to carelessness, device failure etc.

We also love to visit places, listen to songs, read books that remind us of those memories and so when we see a familiar place being torn down, our hearts are filled with sorrow as if a part of us is being lost.

Yet, upon reflection, we would realize that one day all these buildings, all these places, all these photos will be gone. There would be nothing left of all the world we are living in. Ultimately the memories we want to hold on to so much will have no effect on what is to come. They will have no value to us as they will not affect our destiny. These memories we hold as dear would one day be irrelevant because the world in which we had them would be no more.

And once we realize this, we should ask ourselves what we should value and cherish instead. What would be of eternal significance?

Well, ultimately there is only one thing that has real value, only one thing that has real significance, only one thing that should concern us: Where we stand in relation to God.

Once this temporal world passes into oblivion, there would be an eternity, time without end and we would be in either of these two situations: living in the presence of our creator, enjoying His love and grace where no suffering and pain or even sad memories exist, or being the object of His holy and righteous wrath.

The deciding factor is whether we trust in His Son, Jesus Christ who has redeemed us from our bondage to sin by His sacrificial death on the cross and His glorious resurrection from the dead.

So my dear brother, my dear sister, though it is natural for us to hold on to our memories and cherish them, there is ultimately one thing worth remembering: God has shown us His love in Christ, and there is one thing worth holding on to: our Faith in Him.