In Notre-Dame in ruins, meditation, music and poetry to keep hope

It was an accomplished Good Friday. Nothing seemed to remain. Nor the imposing stature of Notre-Dame de Paris, decapitated, uninhabited. Nor the world fell on its knees, brought down by the pandemic.

It is almost noon. The Archbishop of Paris enters his sick cathedral. He is wearing a white helmet, paltry protection against collapse. The prelate advances, dignified and sad at the same time, in the vessel of gray and disfigured stones. He walks to the bottom of the temple, covered with a heavy red cape. There, a strange crown awaits him. She is of thorns. Archbishop Michel Aupetit puts on his helmet and contemplates this other helmet of suffering, this precious circle that escaped the flames last year. He has been revered for centuries in Paris. It was in 1238 that Saint Louis bought this relic of the passion of Christ.

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"It is noon" precisely: the actress Judith Chemla begins reading the poem by Paul Claudel. "I only come, Mother, to look at you" and "say nothing" but " let the heart sing in its own language" . The verses resonate in this choir as if they were written immediately. Power and helplessness of prayer, which we listen to at a time of disarray, believing or not, with an attentive ear. If the Catholic channel KTO retransmits this unique moment, it is broadcast live by BFMTV, which produces the images. For half an hour, she chose to stop the infernal flow of news to give the impression of silence and watch the stillness.

Readings by Philippe Torreton

Then fall into the cleaver these sentences of Claudel, who suddenly converted to Notre-Dame de Paris on December 25, 1886. They seem written for this day: "Because you saved me, because you saved France." (…) Because at a time when everything was creaking, that's when you intervened. Because you saved France once again. (…) Because you are there forever. Simply because you are Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, be thanked! ”

Renaud Capuçon's violin, dressed in a white safety suit with a red line, supports this thanksgiving. It is almost incongruous at this hour of misfortune. However, it expresses mad hope in the apparent absurdity of Good Friday.

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Follow, read by the actor Philippe Torreton, several meditation texts. Francis Jammes: " By all those whose flesh is torn or succumbs (...) by the patient who is being operated on and who groans (...) by the mother learning that her son is healed (...) Hail Mary" .

And this powerful "spiritual testament" of Mother Teresa, which moves even the actor. The saint makes Christ speak there: “I come, thirsty to console you, to give you my strength, to get up, unite with me, and heal your wounds (…) I come with my power, in order to carry you yourself and carry all your burdens (…). Nothing in your life is unimportant to me (…) I know each of your problems (…) If you ask me with confidence, my grace will touch and fill you ” .

The largo of Telemann's Fantasy n ° 7 sharpens an emotion tempered by the prayer for Marie Noël's "doctors" : "Give the doctor Grace, so that at its worst moment, in its uncertainty, its weakness of man, his trouble, he always remains wise enough, always good enough, always pure enough, worthy of the sacred pain whose faith has given itself to him. Give the doctor Faithfulness in Mercy, so that he does not forget, never abandons the least of the wretches who trust him. ”

Before the Archbishop's blessing, Péguy had the last word. The author sees in the “crown of thorns” a “crowning of Hope” endowed with the mysterious power to “calm the poor forehead beating with fever” with these four audacious lines of conclusion : “You must have confidence in God my child . We must have hope in God. You have to trust God. You have to give credit to God. ”

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In introducing this ceremony, Archbishop Michel Aupetit had improvised this supplication: “In this holy week, Lord, the whole world is struck down by a pandemic which spreads the death and which paralyzes us. This crown of thorns is the magnificent and emblematic sign of this You have suffered, the derision of men. But it is also this magnificent sign which tells us that You join us at the height of our sufferings, that we are not alone and that You are with us, always. (…) At this very special moment we ask You and we entrust to You all those who are victims of this terrible disease. Those who remain in mourning, those who died. Those also who dedicate themselves body and soul, the caregivers and all those who are raised to serve all their brothers voluntarily. ” In the afternoon, the Stations of the Cross took place in the Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois church.