“For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.” (Is 61:10)
You can’t really call the immediate vicinity of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris a construction site, even though there is a great deal of construction equipment operating there. To my eyes, what’s happening there on the Île de la Cité is still more of a salvage operation, now more than two years after flames ravaged that beautiful temple of God’s love at the heart of France.
The construction wall around the perimeter of the grounds provides the surface for a display, along the north side of the cathedral, of photos and text that explain the work of conservation and stabilization that is going on there. As I understand it, they are still just working to stabilize the building, trying to make it safe enough to begin to repair and restore it. There is a long way to go.
On the section of construction wall that runs along the west front of the building, the Diocese of Paris has reproduced large-scale images of paintings and drawings of the cathedral submitted by children from around the globe in response to an appeal by the Archbishop of Paris, who called on kids to “Draw me Notre Dame: the cathedral you know or the cathedral you imagine.” For the moment, anyway, I’d say that these marvelous pictures rival almost anything hanging in the Louvre, for sheer power of imagery and meaning.
Some of the images show the cathedral in flames. A few are kaleidoscopic in their use of color. One possibly nerdy boy, Loïc, from Germany, shows the west facade of the cathedral with windows that look like pencils and highlighters, buttresses that look like rulers, arches marked out like protractors, and the number Pi written out to a couple of hundred digits in between the two west towers. Most of the drawings and paintings depict the symmetrical west front of the building, with its two towers and three doorways. But some of them look to the flying buttresses of the apse at the east end, from across the Seine.
It is impossible not to be charmed by Rebecca from Paris’s crayon depiction of Notre Dame. She shows the now-destroyed flèche topped by a red Sacred Heart, past which is flying what looks like a chicken, but must be a dove, since it is carrying an olive branch in its beak. The chicken-dove is flying toward the upper left-hand corner of the drawing, whence there reaches down a five-fingered hand identified as “La main de Dieu” (the hand of God).
by Loïc from Germany
by Rebecca, from Paris
Some children’s pictures reveal a more nuanced imagination, and quite a few include the figure of Mary, in whose honor the cathedral is dedicated, and one of the patron saints of France.
by Annonciade, from Versailles
by Magdalena, from Poland
Magdalena, from Poland, placed a figure of Mary in the space where the elegant spire would have been visible between the two towers. At first I thought Our Lady was shown there standing on a wreath of flowers. On closer inspection she appears to be stamping out flames, and dousing them with streams of water that spray out from her fingertips.
Annonciade, from Versailles (yes, Annonciade), painted an elegant watercolor, looking toward the cathedral from the east, the slender flèche rising into a darkened sky, and an elongated and curved figure of Mary occupying the entire right-hand side of the painting: her mantle wraps around the buttresses, her head bends over the northwest tower, and her left arm reaches out to touch the lead-grey roof in a tender caress.
Tristan, from Paris, used what I think might be colored pencils to draw Our Lady looking very much like a nun whose blue habit involves a long cape that she holds open with her outstretched arms in order to enclose the sturdy cathedral more or less about her skirts. Clearly, she could, if she needed to, enfold the entire building completely within her embrace and protection by simply dropping her arms and closing her cape to contain the cathedral within. And one does not get the sense, in looking at this picture, that Tristan imagines that because of the fire at Notre Dame, Mary has failed at her task of guardianship, or that she ever could. His picture, like so many of the children’s pictures, shows us ever so much more than a cathedral. It shows us a vision of faith and hope that cannot be burned by fire, that withstood the flames of that dreadful day, and that embodies hope, quite specifically in the motherly person of Notre Dame, Our Lady, Mary, the Mother of God, and the Mother of us all.
by Tristan, from Paris
Héloyse, also from Paris, must be younger. She has made in crayon and watercolor a simple drawing of the west front of the building: blocky, rectangular, and all colored blue, but engulfed on three sides by violent flames of mostly red, with a little yellow, too. Other than an architecturally simplified flèche, quite out of scale, the only other details Héloyse has included are some tracery in the rose window, and a few figures in the tympanum over the central doors - the space above the doors that’s bordered by the pointed arch above them.
by Héloyse, from Paris
At the actual building, that space is occupied by a fairly stunning 13th century representation of the Last Judgment, carved in stone. It is a serious, complex scene, with Jesus reigning from his throne in heaven. Many saints and angels are depicted there, as well as some sinners who are headed to hell. Beside Jesus, you find Mary to his right, and St. John to his left, both kneeling, the better to intercede for us all.
But in her version, Héloyse has included only three figures in the tympanum, with stick-like, indistinct bodies. And all three figures have big, round, unmistakable smiley faces, unperturbed by the fiery situation beyond. I don’t think any further theological commentary is necessary. Thank you, Héloyse.
Of course, one cannot enter the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris these days, but I found my visit there immensely profitable. You visit what looks like a construction site at Notre Dame; and you think that what you have found there is a place where people are working hard to save that landmark building. And indeed, along the one wall, on the north, you find some fascinating detail about the enormous and very impressive project to save Notre Dame. But then you move around the corner, to the west front of the cathedral, and there you encounter the children’s pictures, in all their simple beauty, and with the special religious insight of the young… and they reveal a different and truer story about who’s saving whom. The children show us Notre Dame, Our Lady, clothed with the garments of salvation, covered in the robe of righteousness.
Now, the French (like the Spanish) are liable to get carried away with Mary, who is not, it has to be said, our Savior. It’s possible that these Europeans sometimes seem to take things too far. But Annonciade and Tristan seem to know what the prophet Isaiah was getting at when he said “For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” And their images provide a marvelous suggestion of who could claim those prophetic words as her own.
Those beautiful images of Mary, suggest to me what the garments of salvation might look like, and how the robe of righteousness might be worn. More to the point, those pictures show us that if Mary can deign to put on such vesture, it is for the purpose of cloaking us in it too, since she was the first of our kind to take Jesus into her heart, into her life, and the only one ever to bring him into the world, for the sake of all the rest of us.
I, for one, found it easy to rejoice in all those depictions of Notre Dame, especially the ones that feature the person of Mary, herself. After all, when you get to know Mary, she never fails to introduce you to her Son, to help you discover who he is, and why it is that you should get to know him. And chances are that if you spend any time with her at all, she will instruct you to do whatever he tells you. And I trust that my heart is joined, not only with Paris and the people of France, but with the hearts of children around the world, who have much to teach us, when I pray:
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
The Feast of Saint Mary the Virgin, 2021
Saint Mark’s, Locust Street, Philadelphia