I have always been a believer that there is a pendulum in our lives. It represents the cultural and societal shifts with most of its motion centered just like our own existence.
As I watched the horrible fire which almost leveled the famed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the symbol of the pendulum immediately struck me. I am sure the decline in one of my constants, religion, is something in which most of us are greatly aware. All religions have undergone a dwindling in their flocks and as I watched the events unfold on television, I thought about how this great edifice to faith and hope could, in its rebuilding, serve as the impetus to positively affect the Church but also bring religion back to the souls and lives of those who may have wandered away.
It took two centuries to build Notre Dame and just minutes to almost destroy one of the great symbols of western civilization. Maybe, just maybe, the great culture of the western world will once again be appreciated with efforts to maintain and teach the values which are so envied.
Evil always wants to remove faith, but I want to believe there will be a rebirth and it will begin from the ashes of Notre Dame.
