Bishop Larry Duffy.
©Rory Geary/The Northern Standard What we saw on the streets of Paris was people giving witness to the power of hope over adversity, writes Bishop Larry Duffy
Images are important. They tell us stories. They explain things to us in ways that words sometimes can’t. They also nudge us into reflecting more deeply about some of the great mysteries of life. Above all, images connect us all as human beings, regardless of where we are.
The past two weeks have been imbued with images. Among the most memorable were those on our television screens and phones, and in our newspapers, images of the destructive fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the sacred and symbolic heart of the great city of Paris.
As news of the fire spread, so too did the images of flames and smoke. The film clips of the cathedral’s famous steeple succumbing to the flames went viral in minutes. As fire crews and other emergency services battled to save the structure of the building, people pondered on the meaning of it all: were we seeing end of over 800 years of heritage, a place of God, in the holiest of weeks?
Other images
But other images emerged too. These included the crowds of people, many of them young people, gathered in the streets along the River Seine, praying and singing the Ave Maria, praying for the cathedral named in her honour. The sound of those prayerful voices raised our minds upwards, to God.
Those prayers were mixed with tears as the tragedy unfolded, but they also showed a determined commitment to restore the glory of Notre Dame.
And then, as news filtered through that the building and its famous towers had been saved, we began to see images of the interior of Notre Dame.
There before us was the Cross of Christ shining through 800 years of smouldering debris that lay all around. We even saw its glorious reflection in the water that lay in the nave of the cathedral, after it had done its work of salvation for the building.
There was a lot of Easter in the story which those images put before us.
The message of Easter is about our salvation. It marks the generosity of God the Father who so loved the world that he gave his only Son who died for us so that we might live. It celebrates our liberation, our resurrection and new life. It celebrates God’s perfect love for each of us. Yes, the Easter message offers new life to everyone.
Easter is the oldest and the greatest of the Christian feasts, surpassing even Christmas in terms of importance. It is so important that the season of Easter lasts for 50 days until Pentecost Sunday on June 9.
During this time, we Christians celebrate not just the resurrection of Christ in an historical way, but the resurrection as an ever-present reality.
Christ is always present in the Church and, through its members, in the world. This mystery is the Good News for the whole world and, as such, we Christians are sent by Christ to proclaim it, to celebrate it in our liturgy and to be witnesses to it – even in adversity.
What we saw on the streets of Paris was people giving witness to the power of hope over adversity. The news they encountered on the streets was poignant, just like the experiences of the followers of Christ in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago.
But like that first Easter Sunday there was hope, there was a sense of renewal. There was also resilience.
France has been a place of revolution and it has experienced the traumas of war many times. Notre Dame is a witness to all of that. France is a secular republic. Yet the world saw images of people praying quite openly on the streets.
We heard and saw political leaders professing their commitment to the rebuilding of Notre Dame and business leaders promising huge donations towards that reconstruction.
Here, amidst all the poignancy of such a tragedy we saw hope overcoming fear.
We saw people of faith and people from a more secular perspective setting out before us a truly pluralist sense of hope for the future.
Easter message
The Easter message for us is an invitation to renew ourselves, to clear the debris out of our lives and allow the glory and mercy of God to shine through us.
May this Easter be a time for all of us, regardless of background, to reflect on how we might renew ourselves as individuals, as families, as communities and as a country.
In the words of the concluding prayer which the Church uses on the evening of Easter Sunday, may God grant that as we celebrate the feast of the resurrection we may be renewed by the Holy Spirit and rise again in the light of life. Alleluia!
Dr Larry Duffy is Bishop of Clogher.