Standing With Each Other

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courage, helpless, Holy Week, lament, loss, Notre Dame, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pain, pray, presence, suffering, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning as I read the psalm of the day (69) on the USCCB website I was reminded of the prayer service that we prepared in December for the feast of Our Lady of Guadeloupe, a prayer of lamentation for the caravan of migrants streaming toward the southern border of the United States. Bereft and sorrowful because of great loss, God’s people are searching for comfort and consolation in the present in the same manner as has been true throughout the ages. This seeking, I realize, can be an inner or outer experience – or both – and I find it again appropriately expressed in the paragraph below that was an introductory reflection for our prayer service in December.

Lament is a tool that God’s people use to navigate pain and suffering. Lament is a vital prayer for the people of God because it enables them to petition for God to help deliver them from distress, suffering and pain. Lament prayer is designed to persuade God to act on the sufferer’s behalf. Lament is often most effective as a communal activity. Reading and reflection are intended to express empathy for people suffering as a result of great loss.

Today the flames that devastated the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris have died out but the reality of the loss as seen in the photos rends our hearts. As was true at our prayer service, I believe that the spontaneous gathering of thousands in the Paris streets – inhabitants and visitors alike – who stood and wept, prayed and sang as the cathedral burned must have felt the power of community in that excruciatingly helpless moment.

On this middle day of Holy Week, I wonder if Jesus felt the lament of the few faithful ones who remained with him at the cross. Can we feel the reality of his suffering as present in the world today and enter in a true and visceral way to stand with those who deserve our presence and courage?

Une Grande Tragedie

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beauty, connection, Notre Dame, Peace, rebuild, symbolic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity

How does one speak of the event of yesterday which sent shock waves throughout the world? Anyone who has had the privilege of visiting the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris is in mourning – but so is everyone who perceives the symbolic meaning of the massive structure that the world watched burning over and over yesterday during the consistent coverage on television and the internet. It was said often that Notre Dame belongs not only to all Parisians but to a world that bowed before the structural magnificence and the priceless beauty of design and artistic jewels of all kinds held within her walls.

I have been privileged, as a high school French teacher and a Roman Catholic, to stand in the light of her more than 800 years of existence and feel the holiness that is not confined to one manner of religious practice but transcends all in the energy and splendor of the place. There are no words adequate to measure the loss. President Macron has vowed to see that the structure is rebuilt and one can only hope his promise is fulfilled. But like so many such efforts, it will never be the same. The wooden structure will likely be replaced by more fire-retardant materials and the prayers of nearly a millennium of pilgrims will be hard to replace.

But wait! There is possibility of a sort. President Macron promised to begin today to solicit donations from around the world of people who desire to restore this most precious icon of art and faith. Perhaps such a worldwide effort will create something symbolic that speaks of our connection, a striving for unity of purpose that will stand as a new way of building cohesion. Perhaps in the rebuilding we will achieve a new kind of universal claim of ownership, a recognition of need for beauty, peace and willingness to participate in something larger than ourselves where all are welcome to visit and find a home. Perhaps in our corporate loss we will find a widening of our hearts, a willingness to create something beautiful for God and one another.

May it be so, we pray.