Notre Dame and Humanities Misplaced Priorities

The burning down of Notre Dame has shown the world humanities, and modern Christians, true colors. The world wants to be proud of the fact that over 600 million Euros (and counting) has been raised within 48 hours of the fire to rebuild the church. The world wants to be proud of the fact that we’re all so sad that this happened.

But the truth of the matter is that the burning down of a monument is inconsequential compared to other tragedies going on in the world right now. There are millions of children suffering from severe malnutrition, most of which will never get treated and many of whom will die. There are millions more dying of preventable diseases because of a lack of medical care. There are veterans living on the street. Schools that can’t afford heat or basic supplies. The list goes on and on.

These things aren’t political, everyone agrees that they are a problem. Yet no one does nearly enough. Where is the outcry and outrage over the deplorable conditions that some of our fellow humans are subjected to? Where are the Facebook posts of support? Where are the tears of sadness?

We’ve become so accustomed to these tragedies that we have convinced ourselves that there is nothing to be done and tuned them out of our lives. But if we could muster the same amount of support and the same amount of outrage that the burning of the Notre Dame has generated towards something that actually matters, if we could muster our resources and money towards our fellow humans, something COULD be done.

As a society we need to get our priorities straight. A material monument, no matter how old or how beautiful, will always be completely inconsequential when compared to a human life. But one of those things is viewed as indispensable and the other as inconsequential. And somehow the building is viewed more important then the life.

How many lives could be saved with 600 million Euros? How many people could get the medical care they need to live for that money? How many people could be fed? How many lives could be changed forever?

God teaches us to beware of false idols and not to worship material things. It seems humanity has missed the mark. It’s time to wake up and put our priorities back in order.