The Cathedral - The very stones cry out!

 The Stones do indeed cry out!


I'm re-reading a book I enjoyed some years ago: Life in a Medieval City by Joseph and Frances Gies.

It's the story of a French town, Troyes, and life in that city in the 1200's.


One of the chapters is called The Cathedral and it describes the construction of the great cathedral at Troyes.


The masons and artists who designed and built the cathedral were not extraordinary geniuses, but they were  intelligent men who could recognize that they were building their monument to God, largely as a result of a series of remarkable accidents: (1) the discovery of  the cross-rib vault, proving to be strong enough to lift tons of stone high into the air, which led to (2) the flying buttresses which could artfully support the walls from outward pressure and (3) the poor quality of the window glass being produced at that time which led to the accidental discovery of using colored, or "stained,"  glass, in order to disguise the many imperfections of the glass.


Very often the masons and artists would engrave their initials in a secret place, not for public acclaim, the authors note.



And even today,  workmen high up on the scaffolding, repairing out-of-sight and hard-to-reach places, find hidden, on the stones, the personal marks left by ancient masons centuries ago identifying them as the humble stone-workers who were creating lasting monuments to God. They left their names on their work!

The master glazier is not aiming at immortality or even fame, though he is agreeably aware that his name is well-known among glassmakers, masons, prelates, and even the general public. Yet he puts something into his work that is not merely talent and knowledge. Neither is it religious zeal. It is pride, and he can find ample justification for it in religion, for the priests told him that God was a craftsman who looked on His work and found it good.

I am touched by these words by the authors. The worker had pride in his crafts, even as God Himself declared His own work good.  These master builders were styling themselves after God. They were eager to call their work good and to stamp their names on it permanently. Just as God stamped His sign, His image, on us.


Not all churchmen appreciated the majesty of the dazzling brilliance of the cathedral. St. Bernard himself wrote angrily about it:

Why this excessive height, this enormous length, this unnecessary width, these sumptuous ornaments and curious paintings that draw the eyes and distract the attention from meditation?...We, the monks, who have forsaken ordinary life and who have renounced the riches and ostentation of the world....in whom do we hope to awaken devotion with these ornaments...One could spend a whole day gaping instead of meditation on God. What ineptitude, and what expense!

But St. Bernard is long dead, as are the masons and artists who put so much of themselves in their work in the European cathedrals.  The authors conclude:

Today most acknowledge that the cathedrals' success in creating an atmosphere of mystery and awe is of incontestable value to religion. No man, burgher, or baron, can enter a Gothic cathedral without experiencing a sense of human insignificance in the presence of such majesty.

We have lost much of our heritage today. Part of that forgotten heritage is the way we look at work. Secular historians call it, often in a scornful tone, "the Protestant (or Puritan) work ethic."


That ethic was that a person's job, or task, was a gift from God. And all details the worker did in his job was to reflect the glory of God. If it was washing dishes, planting crops, building houses, feeding farm animals -- all of our work was to be proclaimed "good," just as God Himself proclaimed all His work good.


I think perhaps this "work ethic" is forever lost. Some things are irretrievable.



            Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.
                               Genesis 1:31


P.S. And in thinking about the great stone blocks the ancient masons carved for their cathedrals -- doesn't it remind you of Christ's words to those Pharisees when they asked Him to quiet His disciples and rebuke them for their words of praise? And Christ said "'If they are silent, the stones themselves will cry out.."  The ancient masons carving the stones for the cathedrals -- they were releasing the voice of God through the very stones around them.....?  Were they themselves hearing the voice of God as they worked?