Commentary

Parisians navigating the narrow streets of the 4th arrondissement in recent days may have heard a familiar, yet nearly forgotten, sound. The bells of Notre Dame Cathedral have been ringing again after nearly five years, in preparation for the famed building’s long-awaited reopening.

Visitors rediscovering Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral when it reopens this weekend will be stepping into a highly charged conversation about France’s past and its future. Both sacred and secular, the cathedral tellingly illustrates the conflict between tradition and reform in France, as a historically Catholic and imperial power tries to adapt to its multicultural and postcolonial present.

To my fellow candidates, to Americans everywhere, let’s unite under the promise of Philippians 4:6, which says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”