The Grand Reopening Of Notre Dame

              The reopening of Notre Dame....this being December 7.....has just concluded. In the first seat of the front row sat the French President.....Emanuel....(God with us)....Macron. Next to him sat a regular American citizen....president-elect Donald Trump but....not his wife. Next sat Macron's wife....and then Jill Biden...but not her husband?. Elon Musk was a few rows back....but not Rubio?
               Like many American tourists....my wife and I visited the cathedral....this back in April of 2001. I really enjoy going into churches just to view the architecture. If it is an historic....or even an older local church....where I know that maybe a century ago or more the gospel was preached from its pulpit....then my focus is on that first....before the architecture. 
               Apparently there are a number of changes and new furniture in the newly remodeled Notre Dame. I heard one comment and question about the many statues being repainted....and how the more traditionalists would accept that? The major change seems to be the five primary pieces of....furniture....or liturgical objects....the altar and baptismal font....such as that....but as I watched the ceremony....my focus was on a large bowl shaped object in the absolute middle of everything. So I researched it and it is a wooden depiction of an altar. It is on a stepped pedestal....and is....oh I'm guessing about six feet high.
               OK....I need to touch on this here before making my comment on the large bowl-shaped altar. As simply as I can put it....salvation in Roman Catholicism....officially...is faith and....works. I lived it early in life....and it is in their catechism....in other words....that is what it is....faith....and works. Salvation in the gospel of Jesus Christ....from God's Word.....is faith....alone. Now one might say....and indeed they have....so what....faith is there....but....and this concerns all protestant denominations and evangelicalism today and all the liberal churches out there....when you add works to the equation....then there cannot be faith alone....thus there is no salvation. This is not just a Roman Catholic issue....this an issue in all churches that either in dogma or in practice have essentially told their people that they can work....'just be good and do good things....go to church'...their way to heaven.
               Whenever....and there have  been many times....when I attend a funeral mass for a relative or a Catholic friend....with many from the regular congregation there....I know that there are believers present among them....but they are Christian....not because of the official definition of salvation....but in spite of the official definition of salvation given them.
                OK again....now for my comment. Mary....the characterization of Mary....in Rome....is severely problematic. Mary was a Hebrew women....lost as we all were....who was greatly blessed....and is now with all of the others blessed with the grace of salvation....waiting....along with all those others....for the culmination of all things....the glory given to Jesus....forever and ever!
                All of the beliefs of Mary contrary to that....and all the visions.....and all of the dedication given by individuals such as did Pope John Paul II....is dedication and worship given to something that is not that of the young Hebrew girl who gave birth to the Savior. The question therefore is....what or who....is the Mary of the apparitions and the cathedrals and the rosary?
                So....as I turned on the television....and there in the middle of literally everything was that bowl shaped....(for the cameras viewed it from ground level)....a passage from the prophet Zechariah came to me....chapter five....verses five to eleven....where Zechariah has a vision of a basket....he was told that it was a basket of the iniquity of the people....a cover on the basket was raised and there was a women....wickedness. The cover was put back on and two angels carried the basket away. So in this grand cathedral that is all about....the unbiblical depiction of the Virgin Mary....and where everything about Notre Dame is 'Mary'....when I saw that bowl or basket-shaped object....Zechariah is where my thoughts went.
              
Addendum: On the upper left of this screen is a link to a novella that I wrote about twenty-five years ago....Isaac Crockett. When you read about Jake....he was my buddy. As I added characters....I went to my past and picked a name for he or she. The name of the church is the name of the church I grew up in....and the name of the monsignor is the name of our parish's monsignor. Ann's father spent his retired time gardening around the church grounds....that was my own grandfather. The religious march of people from around the town to the church....depicted in the novella....was real....only not in Easton, Pa.....but Buffalo, New York. The bookstore was our own bookstore....only not on a boardwalk. The book was about a young man and a young woman but the reason for the book is the topic of Roman Catholicism. Without that there would not even have been a novella.