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Cathédrale Notre-Dame De Paris – Intersections.

April 24, 2019 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Politics, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Fire ravaged the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.  As sympathy poured in from around the world, it was noted that the fire’s destruction was even more poignant in that it happened during Holy Week – the most solemn week of the Christian calendar.  The building was completed in A.D. 1260 and its own history intersects with some important world historical events that, upon observation, contribute to a fuller understanding of our times.

Erecting grand cathedrals was the rage in the middle ages.  However, until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in England, completed a few years after Notre Dame, the tallest man-made structure in the world for close to four thousand years was the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.  And it was on the painted walls of Pharaoh Kufu’s pyramid, and others like it, and the papyri found inside, that the world was introduced to many of the beliefs celebrated and venerated during Easter in those medieval buildings.

There we learn of a resurrected God, Asar – whom the Greeks called Osiris – who reigns in Amenta or heaven.  We learn of the belief in an immortal soul, or Ka, that could hope to gain entrance to heaven after judgement as depicted in the famous “scene of the weighing of the heart”.  Where after declaring that he had made no offense against people, animals, or nature, the deceased is led before Asar and his heart is weighed on a scale against truthfulness or righteousness called Maat.  Only after being found truthful or righteous, can the former deceased then enter paradise and live forever.

Compare and contrast this belief system developed by the indigenous people of Africa to the belief system in Norse mythology developed by the ancient people of Europe.  Their God, Odin, sits in Valhalla, meaning “hall of blood” or “hall of the slain.”  To gain entrance into Valhalla one must have killed someone in battle or been slain in battle himself and carried there by the Valkyrie.  There he joins the masses of other “heroes” who have been killed in battle.  Which tale of blessed afterlife, Heaven, sounds more akin to what was to be celebrated at mass in Notre Dame Cathedral Easter Sunday?

Another interesting historical note in which Notre Dame played a direct role is the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte there as Emperor of France in 1804.  The year before he had been forced to sell his North American land holdings, known as the Louisiana Purchase, in order to finance his war to maintain the French Caribbean colony of Sainte Dominque.  In 1804, Saint Dominque was liberated after the largest insurrection of enslaved people since Spartacus’ unsuccessful revolt against Rome some nineteen hundred years earlier.  The renamed Haiti was the first and only state in the Western Hemisphere to be established by formerly enslaved people.  So, it was a ragtag but determined army of black slaves led by Generals Toussaint L’Overture and Dessalines who beat the vaunted General Napoleon, eleven years before his more widely heralded defeat by Englishman Wellington at the Battle Waterloo.

Imagine how history may have played out differently if Haiti had been welcomed into the world as a free nation, following the examples of the American and French revolutions from which it received its inspiration.  In affirming that “All Men are Created Equal”, perhaps America could have avoided its Civil War, or at least could have abolished slavery decades earlier.  Instead, fearing more insurrections at home, the newly formed United States’ third president, Thomas Jefferson, author of those words, would roll-back John Adams’ assistance to this new state led by former slaves.

History is instructive.  The people, places and things that tell the stories of humankind intersect in so many interesting ways.  It is through the knowledge and understanding of history that we can better understand modern times.  It is through the lack of knowledge, or misunderstanding of history, that people can be misled to believe that their group, alone, is responsible for what we call civilization.  The exchange of language, culture, myths and genetic material has taken place from the beginning.  No one group gets all the credit, or the blame, for the world as it is today.

Staff Writer; Harry Sewell


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