To appreciate art and the beauty that Le Cathedral de Notre Dame d’ Paris was. It is like losing a beautiful painting on a grand scale, something that adorned the whole world and gave testimony to the genius of man and the power of God.
For 850 years the cathedral stood in place for the world to see as it overshadowed the beauty of what is Paris, the city of lights. Second, only to St. Peters in Rome as the home of Catholicism, it presides not only for Christianity but also for all the world who believe in God.
It withstood the assaults of man against man in the many wars it witnessed. As bombs fell and bullets flew, as swords clashed and cannon balls rained upon Paris, it stood in contrast to what is Man’s instinct, making war and slaughtering each other, for only Man can make war, yet only Man can create such beauty!
The building was made when building edifices as such were impossible to do and man had not the know-how nor the technology, but only the will. It shows what an amazing thing man’s will is, what it is capable of in defiance of nay-Sayers.
Losing this monumental masterpiece is like losing beauty in her prime, her elegance, grace, and inspiration are lost forever and never to be reclaimed.
What will fill the footprint? Perhaps the French will re-build something that can memorialize the old masterpiece but will never equal it. But, life is strange, some of us live a long time and some of us die in infancy, but all of us die eventually. Death is the consequence of life, it can’t be denied and can’t be stopped. So it is with even buildings, iconic ones as well as inconsequential ones. Buildings are brick and mortar, wood and stone, they testify to our existence. The pyramids, cathedrals, temples and mosques, all fall eventually, they are the residue of mankind’s ideas and inspirations, and like those ideas and inspirations, they too will die.
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