ashes to ashes....

Notre Dame Cathedral is burning. While it is heartbreaking to see a structure that has stood for centuries burn, we must remember that it is just that--a building.
St Francis of Assisi was told by God to "go, rebuild My church, which, as you can see, has fallen into disrepair and ruin." Francis thought that God was referring to the little church of Portiuncula. In fact, God was referring to something much MUCH bigger...the church, which is US...me...you, they, them, him, her and so on.
Could Notre Dame's destruction also be part of a greater sign...that our "church" is also facing ruin? Our WORLD is in tatters...for each one of us IS the church! It is NOT some building, the church is inside each of us. All of us!
What are YOU doing to rebuild it?

We are the only living creature God has made who has evolved from smacking two stones together to create fire to having technology such as what we have today! Lions, tigers and bears have always been just that--lions and tigers and bears. But we humans....probably the only species who is hell-bent on destroying ourselves, our environment and everything within it, we should know better, right? You don't see polar bears walking across the Arctic, looking to kill most of the northern hemisphere, and yet, here WE are, plotting to destroy nations, neighborhoods...families....ourselves.

This being Holy week, I watched "The Passion of the Christ" once again. Every year, after I have watched it, I vow that I can never do that again, that I can never sit through that carnage again...and yet, there I was last night, clutching my Kleenex box and crying throughout the second half of the movie. Crying as I felt the blows...crying as I realized how horrible man can be towards his fellow man...and mostly...crying because Jesus was never vengeful. He came for US...to give us life abundantly, yet there were those who were so afraid of Jesus taking away their status quo, their station in life, that they sought to destroy Him at all costs. And here WE are, two thousand years later, doing the exact same thing! We swore "never again!" after the realizations of the Holocaust, yet it still occurs...and we turn our heads. We swore that there would always be food for all, even as nations hoard it away from their own people. We swore there would be responsibility, even as we murder unborn children and call it "planned parenting." 

Yes, friends, I woke up this morning and read the headlines in today's front page of the newspaper: "France's jewel, Notre Dame, is burning." I hung my head and cried. I cried because France's jewel is not just a building, it is the people worldwide who are the real jewels...people who are literally killing one another. Do we feel the same about THEM...the "bad ones" as well as the "good ones"...as we do about a brick and mortar structure?

Well, do we?