Kirkepiscatoid

Sunday night I watched the 1923 silent version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and right now I'm watching the 1939 version with Charles Laughton as Quasimodo. Although I have seen both versions umpteen times, something new struck me Sunday and I am running with it tonight, also. It's the concept of the cathedral itself as a "character in the story."

Ok, most of you all know the basic parts of the story. Everyone loves Esmerelda, except of course there is that dislike of immigrants in Paris ("No Jews, no dogs, no gypsies"), and there is that problem that the archdeacon has the hots for her but there is a bit of a problem with that celibacy thing. Esmerelda sees best of all the courageous and true heart that beats beneath his grotesque frame. These are all "front stories". But I am becoming more attuned to the backstory of the significance of the cathedral itself.

In following both these movies, the cathedral of Notre Dame's role as "sanctuary" is incredibly important to the plot of the story. Its elaborate variety of passages, nooks and crannies of the bell tower, and the fact Quasimodo--the "deformed" one, knows the heart of this structure is an incredibly significant part of both these movies as you follow the action from location to location inside of the cathedral. Herein might lie the bigger spiritual question for all of us.

Part of what I'm starting to realize about my own spiritual journey is that all of us have our sense of "Quasimodo-ness" in our personal dark areas, our secret sins that never came to light, our deepest fears. Yet those qualities are exactly what gives us license to explore all the nooks and crannies of "the cathedral"--the heart of God--because it is the one place we feel safe. It is the place that empowers Quasimodo to approach Esmerelda and save her.

Our sanctuaries are not always easy to see as such. There may be dark corners and wet dank areas in them, but a place of respite none the less. But just as there is authenticity and goodness in Quasimodo, it resides in us, too!