Who Burned Down Notre Dame? I Know!

I don’t believe in coincidences.

Monday afternoon, my friend called: “Turn on your television set to the news; Notre Dame is burning.”  We watched together the huge flames reaching into the sky.  The fire had been burning for hours before we had turned the news on; couldn’t anyone put it out?  And we shed tears, as we watched and together recalled how we once had visited that beautiful monument to God.  What a tragedy, and this was the start of Holy Week.

I don’t believe in coincidences.

Later on, I went to my late-night adoration and prayed for the people of Paris, Europe and the world.  What else could I do?  I arrived back home at 2:30AM and turned on the television.  And there on the screen appeared a large beautiful old stone building, a church, and the huge flames which reached from it into the sky.  And I watched as people all around it cried.  The church was not Notre Dame.

I don’t believe in coincidences.

The show I had tuned to was an episode from the old television series, Joan of Arcadia.  In the remaining minutes of the episode I saw the teen-aged Joan come to realize who had started the horrible church fire: It was Satan.   God, in the form of an average person, speaks to Joan in this series, but now Satan, in the form of a person, was speaking to Joan too, and with great confidence.  He spoke with confidence because he was a person of great riches and power and influence in the world, and in Joan’s world we see him begin to even influence Joan’s mother.  And then Satan challenges Joan, and God, to stop him.  And the episode ends with Joan wondering:  What can I do?

I don’t believe in coincidences.

This week we meditate on how a powerful Jewish nation set upon Jesus.  He was an earthly sign of God, and He was set upon like the burning churches I saw on television; His body was destroyed.  But that is not the end of the story, although Satan wished it was.  Jesus rose again.  His followers who said: “What can I do?” as He was destroyed, received the gift of His Spirit.  What seemed to be a tragic ending was only the beginning.  Satan didn’t’ win.

I don’t believe in coincidences.

I have faced many tragedies in my life of late, and in the lives of those around me.  My friend, the one who called me yesterday afternoon, is also undergoing tragedy in her life.  And last week, to take our minds off of the tragedies we opened and began watching a Christmas present I had given her, the complete set of episodes of an old television series:  Joan of Arcadia.

I don’t believe in coincidences.

The episode last night on late-night TV closed with Joan wondering: “What can I do?”  My friend asks that question, and so do I.  Notre Dame burned; and it seems the Catholic Church is in flames too.  In previous episodes of the series, Joan of Arcadia learned that God is present in this world, and in her life.  She rarely understood why God asked her to do things or put events into her life, yet she grew in confidence and followed Him.  And she found that even in earth’s tragedies, even death, there can be new, more beautiful life.

We too need to grow in that confidence this Holy Week.  We need to see the tragedies that happened, even to Jesus, resulted in a new, more beautiful life.  And we need to learn to trust that Satan, despite his great confidence, will not win.  We can have sufferings; Notre Dame can burn down; Jesus can die on a cross; Satan will not win.  Satan may have his victories and speak with confidence, but like the television series, there are more episodes to be seen.  The story is not over.

I don’t believe in coincidences.  WE need to not believe in coincidences, but trust that God is with us, will guide us, and will bring us to a joyous life with Him. He writes the story, and the final episode.

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After I finished the above reflections this morning, I went to complete my morning prayers with the reading of one Psalm, as I do at the beginning of each day.  And so, I opened my bookmark to the next Psalm and read:

Psalm 22

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Be not far from me

They have pierced my hands and my feet
I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.

Those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord.

Yes, to him shall all the proud of the earth bow down

Posterity shall serve him;
men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation,
and proclaim his deliverance to people yet unborn,
that he has wrought it.

Need I say it again?