This past Monday, April 15, Notre Dame in Paris suffered severe damage due to fire. The world watched as the spire fell and people wondered if the church and its relics could be saved at all. Myself included.

In 1160 when construction began on Notre Dame, if you had asked Bishop Maurice de Sully how long the church would stand and what would take down the church, he probably would have guessed fire, but he probably wouldn’t have guessed 850 years. Construction on churches at the time often involved wood and many were damaged by fire. It was the nature of the time. If the damage wasn’t bad enough the church would often be rebuilt. That’s just how it was.

In 2019, modern fire fighting and fire prevention technology have made instances like this rare. But it still happened. And what happens next?

“Back in the day,” when churches would burn in fire they would often rebuild, they were rebuilt stronger and better – more resilient.

Notre Dame took 100 years to build, but President Emmanuel Macron has promised it will be rebuilt in 5 years. The amazing power of technology (and money) will allow most of the people who watched it burn on Monday, see it rebuilt, visit it, worship in it. They will experience a more resilient Notre Dame.

I feel like it’s not a total coincidence that this happened during Holy Week – a week where we (Christians) commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. At a time when we need hope for resurrection.