And great was the fall of it

And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:26-27)

12 thoughts on “And great was the fall of it

  1. Good people worship at Notre Dame Cathedral every day, they didn’t deserve this.

  2. This fire is definitely a warning. A warning to the Pope who has been destroying the spiritual foundations of the Roman Catholic Church (what’s left of them). A warning to M. Macron, who has said that his country is no longer Christian. A warning to all of us, who dare to call ourselves Christians, but are, in fact, no better than Pagans, having lost the salt of Christianity.

    Will this warning be heeded? Or will all our civilisation be thrown out and trampled down like the salt that lost its savour?

  3. So instead of building edifices and monuments to Christ, let us build ourselves up in Christ, so that in Him we may bring His love to those in need of it, and thus build upon the Rock that saves unto all eternity a temple made of living stones.

    • I believe I understand your point, acuara. However, may I refer you to the introduction to Simon Jenkins’ book, “England’s Thousand Best Churches”:

      “I have lost count of the number of church guides which assert, ‘This building is not a museum, it is a place of worship’. I disagree. A church is a museum, and should be proud of the fact… An English church is more than a place of denominational worship. It is a place on which the pageant of community has been played out for a millenium. The Church of England is the true Museum of England, and its buildings should be the more treasured as a result”.

      In secular (though nominally Catholic) France, the upkeep of churches is, interestingly, the responsibility of the State (though that responsibility has not always been shouldered adequately), which suggests that nonbelievers value such buildings, as evidenced by the generous contributions to the restoration of Notre Dame pledged by billionaires, not all of whom, I daresay, are especially observant Catholics.

      • I would agree that the church building is the congregants’ expression of their love and devotion to Yah and Yah Shua (The Lord God and Jesus Christ in Jewish), but we were never asked to build edifices to worship the Lord in. It is true that some of the finest architecture in the world was utilized in the construction of churches. My favorite is St Paul’s in London that was built by Christopher Wren. However, I am afraid we are missing the point of what Jesus wished of us in building those buildings when He wanted His Body of believers built up instead. Yes, I will admit that dead stones are easier to work with than living ones, and that’s from someone who has worked with both. As for Notre Dame, all I can do is mourn what was do to it and recognize what occurred as the unfortunate harbinger of things to come,
        this day before Good Thursday.

      • An English church is more than a place of denominational worship. It is a place on which the pageant of community has been played out for a millennium.

        All those “bare, ruined choirs” that Henry VIII destroyed in his rampage through the monasteries are enough to make one weep. It is one thing when a faith dies out, another entirely when it is deliberately destroyed. Kind of like free speech is being destroyed throughout the West right now.

          • Depends on which history books you read.

            Here’s a wiki list of the places ol’ Henry sacked, taking their treasure.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_monasteries_dissolved_by_Henry_VIII_of_England

            Later, his daughter Elisabeth I resumed killing priests and Catholics.

            In between the two, Mary Queen of Scots killed off those loyal to Henry. She wanted to restore Catholicism to that green isle. The poor English were kept hopping, trying to survive.

            Some of this happened during Shakespeare’s life and a few of those who’ve closely studied his work claim to see Catholic sentiments in his dramaturgy. Those turbulent times must certainly have contributed to his tendency to melancholy.

            “Bare ruined choirs” indeed.

  4. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. – Revelations 20:9

  5. “The Ten Horns and the Beast you saw will hate the Harlot. They will leave her abandoned and naked. They will consume her body and burn her up in a fire.” (Revelation 17.16)

    “Don’t let anyone deceive you about this in any way. If shall not come first the falling away (Greek: apostasia) then shall be revealed the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction. He opposes every so-called god or anything that is worshiped and places himself above them, sitting in God’s temple and claiming to be God.” (2 Thessalonians 2.3-4)

    I wonder if the Roman god Jupiter who now resides in the body of Emmanuel Macron will appear one day in the rebuilt cathedral of Notre Dame and proclaim his apotheosis into a god? It all seems interconnected in that they have to destroy, expose and abandon their old order before they can bring about their new one.

  6. I’ve always thought that Shakespeare’s Hamlet saying:

    “To be or not to be that is the question
    Whether ’tis nobler in the mind
    To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
    Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
    And by opposing end them?”

    Was a heartfelt commentary on the times he was living in.

    Two good books on the Reformation in England are:

    “The Stripping of The Altars” by Eamon Duffy, and one by a Protestant, “A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland” by William Cobbett, written in 1824-27.The second is an easier read, but they both write about the devastation caused by the Reformation. It tore the country apart. And it divided Christendom and Christians, which was not Christ’s wish.

    He prayed: “That they may be one, as I and the Father are one.” And now there are thousands of denominations as people have kept separating from churches when they’ve had a disagreement, and started their own Church. No wonder the west is so divided.

    There were faults on both sides but the problems should have been worked out not divided the Church. It weakened the Christian witness tremendously and still does.

    • The divisions in the church are inevitable and existential; they aren’t bugs but features.

      If you look at the tensions between Paul and the Jerusalem Church, you can see it was inevitable. Conflict and dissension are part of human nature. Becoming a Christian doesn’t rule out dissent. After studying the conflicts of the earliest churches, I came to the conclusion that “wherever two or three are gathered in His Name, at least two are vying for power”. And that’s okay until it turns murderous.

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