To Rebuild The Kingdom Of God

The world was stunned this past week as it watched Notre Dame Cathedral burn. The Cathedral is of great religious, historical and national significance, and the world watched as the fire gutted the inside and brought down its distinguished spire.

A huge sum of money had already been collected even before the church finished burning in order to rebuild the relic. And I know that it will be rebuilt. Following from this, one item that is popular in the news and social media is the question (or frustration): We shouldn’t spend money to rebuild Notre Dame while there are poor and needy who need to be fed, Christ didn’t care about big churches, He cared about the poor. 

This is a common error in the 21st century, and a general criticism which Atheists and “Catholics” alike have for the Catholic Church. Atheists justify their anti-religious position making out a Church who does not practice what it preaches; a bunch of religious hypocrites. While the liberal, left-leaning, Catholic backwash from the 70’s does not really have anything to justify. They just hate and fear anything that is beautiful or remotely reminiscent of the “Old Rite”.

Let us make one clarification before we begin. The fact of the matter is, when effort is made to glorify God with the work of our hands, we are not simply trying to offer a burnt sacrifice to expiate our sins like Moses did. We create art not for God, but for ourselves. We are trying to know God, love God and serve God by using the ingenuity and talents He gave us. What is more noble than this?

Case #1 We build beautiful churches to remember God.

Since the New Covenant, mankind is close to God. We are married to God. As Christians, we aren’t reaching for something beyond our grasp, an almost faint memory. We are living and breathing a relationship with God.

In the Old Law there was a certain distance. God was our Creator and the One who promised us Salvation by nuptually binding Himself to us in a marriage feast which will happen someday. 

But now it has happened, and we know firsthand the depth of God’s Love for us. We know the savagery with which He was murdered for our sins and how He gives Himself to us everyday. For us today, God is our Creator, AND our Redeemer AND our Spouse.  However, we can only hear, and see our spouse with the eyes and ears of Faith.

How many people do we know who carry pictures of loved ones in their wallet? Many. Why? Because they long to be with them. They want to spend time with them, enjoy their company, laugh with them, joke with them…And not forget them. Let us not forget God.

Case #2 Man was made for the beautiful

Why is it that the most expensive homes are on secluded tropical isles, high in the mountain ranges or down by the lake? Because there is something in the view which is alluring to humans. Man is craving for the beautiful constantly. Let man use this hunger to praise God. God hardwired man to use the beautiful to experience the Divine. And so it is not wrong, but rather natural that man should build the most beautiful thing he can imagine to assist in knowing God.

Case #3 It catches our attention: This place is unearthly splendor!

Imagine walking down a clear brook. You are watching the sandy bottom get swirled by the rushing water, suddenly you spot the sunlight glinting off the scales of a Rainbow Trout as it swims gracefully by. Are you more likely going to be rooted in that spot intent on watching it, or, are you going to be distracted by the beetle floating on top?

Which is more imposing, a gothic cathedral with massive stained glass or a low dark brick church with an A Frame roof and tinted windows? I guarantee that the Cathedral would be noticed at once.

If you listen to the stories of former atheists, quite often you will notice that the final step in their conversions, was experiencing out of the ordinary fervor, peace, and collective attitude existing in these gothic settings. Granted, walking into a nice church doesn’t convert someone, but when it is injected along with the potion of a strong rational argument, the pull towards the Divine becomes a world of a lot harder to resist. Notre Dame has probably gained more souls for Heaven than the whole Church in the US did during the 70’s.

Case#4 The poor will always be with you

Christ said, “For the poor you have always with you: and whensoever you will, you may do them good: but me you have not always” (Mk 14,7). Christ was setting a standard for His impulsive disciples. Saying that the poor are important however, there is more to being a Christian than just feeding the hungry. I am not in any way saying that we should forget about the poor and instead build churches. No, of course not. What I am saying is that the one doesn’t necessarily negate the other.

In the first instance, the Catholic Church is charged with saving souls. In most cases that mission takes the form of Corporal Works of Mercy, sanctifying ourselves while showing the poverty stricken the mercy of God. In other cases, saving souls consists in feeding the spiritual hungry. Those who do NOT need food and shelter but who need to experience God in a surreal way i.e. something more than the mundane grind in order to become the saint they need to be, or to simply believe.

Summary:

One way to reclaim lost territory for Christ is to restore the Sacred. The Sacred is attractive, the Beautiful is attractive. Brick by brick, stone by stone, we have the opportunity to rebuild the Kingdom of God!