What took place on April 15, 2019 [USA TAX DAY] in Paris with the partial destruction of the Cathedral is something that is emotionally jarring. As I sat watching the fire slowly chipping away at the 850-year history of Christianity in France, I couldn’t help but think of how the Catholic Christians of the Parish would continue. Would they be able to pull through losing something that meant so much to not only the people of France, but people all over the world? How could this be overcome?
Throughout history we are able to see that whenever tragedy strikes that we are met with a call of “renewal”. This call of renewal is also met with a call to REBUILD MY CHURCH! In many cases, if not with all of them, the rebuild my church sentiment is not mean to be something of a structural rebuild [ though in this case that will be done as well], but rather a call to begin repair the spiritual lacking that has occurred among the people. I think that this case is just one more example of this. As the fire raged on you couldn’t help but see people banding together in prayer, in the singing of hymns, and embracing each other through tears. 
God does in fact have a powerful ability to draw people to what is important. Of course, the structure of the Cathedral itself is important-but what is more important is the powerful lessons that are found within. The message, mercy, meaning, and love of God is what is important, material things can be replaced.
It will take time to rebuild structurally the church building, but the Church itself is already strong and repairing itself. What joy we can find in the people coming to pray for the rebuilding. What beautiful imagery that we have from this event. God is with us always. God has a plan for all of us. This is a time of RENEWAL. This is a time of REBUILDING. This is a time of REFLECTION.
Dr. Lawrence V. McCrobie 