Faces on Faith: God and his love, power are boundless
As I watched and read the coverage of the death of Pope Francis in the days immediately following Easter — the days which mark the beginning of the “Easter season” in Christianity — I recalled another, different “death” that the Catholic tradition also experienced right around Easter six years ago.
During Holy Week in 2019, I and millions of others around the world watched as the iconic Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris burned. The cathedral’s spire toppled to the ground in the blaze, and it endured other severe damage as well. It was a devastating spectacle for the people of Paris and France, but also for a great many Christians throughout the world.
I watched the fire do its work from the comfort of my living room; heard the anguish of those witnessing it in person; rotated among several channels every few minutes for different perspectives. And reflected on two particular Christian spiritual considerations:
One, which I heard many commentators on those rotating channels offer their audiences, was resurrection. As the suffering, destruction and death of Maundy (Holy) Thursday and Good Friday gave way to new life on Easter Sunday, they remarked, so too the suffering, destruction and “death” of this day would give away to a rebuilt Notre Dame. Like Jesus, Notre Dame would rise again.
The other was the same four-word phrase that a messenger(s) of God says to those who first reach the empty tomb in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels on Easter morning: He is not here.
The grandeur of Notre Dame, the devotion of those who labored to build it, and its significance in western culture are undeniable. And it did “rise again.” Although the rebuilding of the cathedral is not yet finished, Easter Sunday was celebrated there for the first time in six years on April 20.
But still … He is not here …
During those six years, Notre Dame may have been “gone” as a place of worship, but Easter remained. Because Easter always remains. Because what the Easter story proclaims, if anything, is that God, God’s love, and the power of God’s ways and call for humanity embodied by Jesus are boundless.
It remains — always — not limited to any structure, city, nation, ethnicity or political orientation. Not limited by suffering, destruction and death. It remains wherever and in whomever chooses to also embody those same ways — the ways of compassion, care for creation and the most vulnerable among us, forgiveness, kindness, justice, mercy and love. It proclaims that despite the efforts of those who consciously or unconsciously work to kill and bury those ways, they will rise again. They will always rise again.
Whether it’s in a cathedral or on a street corner. In Paris or here. In others, or hopefully, in us.
The Rev. Dr. Mark Boyea is senior minister at the Sanibel Congregational United Church of Christ.