Posted on 04/20/2019 3:47:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Wi-Fi on my flight from Rome to Newark wasn't working, so phones were buzzing about Notre Dame as soon as we hit the runway. After the initial shock and sadness, gratitude was expressed. There are upsides to being disconnected: At least we didn't have to watch something we couldn't control on live television. Before we knew much of anything, including the cause of the fire or the extent of the damage, that seemed to be an instant lesson.
I've never been to Paris, so I've never been to the cathedral there. But on Monday I did the closest thing I could after I cleared customs: I went to the cathedral in Newark. The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is an under-appreciated treasure. It's safe to say that most people do not travel to New York City only to hop on the train to Newark to pray. More should. As it happens, the Mass schedule was changed up for Holy Week, so my visit was short that day. But had I stayed on, I may have run into the man who would later be arrested in my home cathedral of Saint Patrick's on Fifth Avenue. He had to be removed by police at the Sacred Heart cathedral for refusing to leave on Monday. On Wednesday, he was caught trying to set fire to "America's Parish Church" over the Hudson.
I mention this all not only because it hits a little close to home, but because the reactions people have had to the Notre Dame fire are a sign of hope in the world. We live at time when so many of us seem to be living lives as partial spectators, upset about things we have no control over, letting our moods and even health be impacted by politics and the churning tides of the news cycle. Not only is there more to life than the Mueller report, there's even more to life than people's takes on it.
Churches are full of stories -- about the people who gave from their earnings to help pay for them, about the skill that created a gift to God and man to help us reach to heaven. They continue to be full of stories. It seemed to me a miracle of God that during Holy Week so many people on both sides of the Atlantic were talking about "Our Lady" and were transfixed by a church.
Questions remain -- not about whether or how France will rebuild, because money is clearly being raised and I assume the pressure will be high to not mess with something so seemingly close to perfection -- but about whether this shared experience people had of watching the burning of Notre Dame will keep us from falling into the false security and complacency that can dominate our lives.
One thing that strikes me about churches in Rome is that you always run into someone looking for money outside them. This happens in urban areas in America, but in Rome the churches are tourist attractions (even more than they are places of worship these days, sadly). The beggars we see sitting outside churches should not be considered nuisances. They should be opportunities to learn about and help another human being, chances to reflect on the shared miracle of life and the obligations that miracle brings with it.
We can build great cathedrals with the way we live our lives, by how we love. Next time you are in a church with even an inch of beauty -- maybe it can be today -- don't miss the opportunity to remember that it could be your last chance to really begin to live by the measure of love, reaching high above the muck of social media and the outrage machine of cable news. So many people seemed to have their selfies to show from Notre Dame, but what about the stories of conversion?
The smoke and flames at Notre Dame, the scare at St. Patrick's -- these can light a fire under us. We won't be here forever, and there's much work to be done on the infrastructure of love in our lives.
Historic symbols especially religious ones are targets of the radicals and the left because it reminds them that history and faith are something they cant comprehend deal with or overcome so they must destroy it, revise it and remove the reminders of it. I still believe it was a terrorist act
Regardless of what caused the fire, Fox News last night ran a piece in which the massive amount of funds raised were viewed by radicals as “white privilege”.
We are losing the culture war.
Merle Haggard wasn’t the first one to ask,
“Are the good times really over for good?”
After growing up in the 1980s, I can’t see us ever returning to those times of optimism and stability. Of course, part of the reason is millions of people have been told the 80s were only good for straight white people...
The 1950s seem straight laced viewed from here.
But the 1960s were the best ever and IMO, since.
Interesting. My sixteen year old son told me yesterday that the ‘80s seemed it would have been a great time to live. I told him that people were having fun and celebrating life. Even disco was fun. I really liked going to discos and dancing and meeting women.
The optimism of ‘80s came directly on the heels of Carter’s malaise and Reagan’s optimism. The reason that Trump’s optimism is not as effective is because of the instant media we have now. I suspect Reagan’s personality would not have affected the nation as much as it did if the hate and lunacy of the left were as pervasive then as it is now.
On the other hand, my son says a lot of kids his age are aware of what the left is doing and are more discerning than the previous generation.
The perpetual victims view the 1950s as the antebellum South for all intents and purposes, and even the 60s had racial strife that doesn’t resonate with them.
You’re right that Reagan wouldn’t have been as popular or successful if the media was running the 24/7/365 opposition movement they run today.
I have teens, and that optimism from the 80s is non-existent now. These young people were told they’d have a lower standard of living than previous generations, and they can verify it easily. My issue with that whole discussion is that it ignores the middle-aged people (often tied to families and mortgages) that are hit with the same horrible economy/globalization; young people are shying away from families and home ownership, while people in between often have to deal with both - and it is disincentivizing both for young people.
These are choices we’ve made, but the implications of having them unavailable/unattainable for young people is bad news for this country. The open borders, and public insistence that they stay open by public officials, is unprecedented; the replacement of our people and way of life is occurring at a far faster rate than people realize.
The perpetual victims view the 1950s as the antebellum SouthWhites-only water fountains were common downtown. N*ggertown had its own stores, many of them black owned and operated, with no 'food deserts.' There were no riots or attempts to burn down their own neighborhood stores. It was safe for whites at night to visit black entertainment venues, though few did. Separate but equal schools provided better conditions by far than the hoodlum infested 'integrated' schools of today.
the 60s had racial strife that doesn’t resonate with them.It was ironic to read of race riots in Boston and other northeastern cities who were racially enlightened until they actually came in contact with hordes of blacks 'escaping' the south. Decades later, many blacks have moved back to the South. I saw a 'blacks use the back door' restaurant policy enforced in Conroe, Texas, near Houston, as late as 1968. Driving through Alabama in 1970, at the state line, I saw a large billboard featuring a mounted Klansman on a rearing white horse. The sign said, "You're entering Clan country."
I didn’t mean they viewed the 1950s South as the antebellum South; they viewed the NORTH that way (and rightly so; even Frederick Douglass chided Northerners for their treatment of northern blacks while pointing fingers at Southerners).
Along the same lines, I wasn’t specifically referring to Southern racial strife in the 1960s; the North had plenty of problems and riots along the same vein. While the North had generally outlawed slavery prior to the Civil War, they’d always had far fewer blacks - and the problems really started as the manufacturing jobs many worked went overseas (a problem in all northern cities to this day - massive unemployed, now unemployable populations).
There is almost no dispute that the lives of the average black and the average white were much better in the 1950s.
The system was unfair to some and occasionally involved brutality, that’s beyond doubt.
But the state of affairs today is unfair to millions and children are growing up among unimaginable brutality in every city in America, so much so that any sensible person fears for the future of our country.
Someone said the Constitution
is not a suicide pact. We’ll see.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.