This post is an excerpt from https://washingtoninst.org/from-fall-to-grace-rekindling-hope-in-the-world-of-brokenness/
Listening to my friend reminded me of my visit to France last year. As my wife Esther and I visited the Palace of Versailles, we found ourselves overwhelmed standing before the golden-armored building’s glorious façade. Entering the palace itself—visiting the Grand Chapel, the Hall of Mirrors, the Royal Chapel, and the countless other rooms filled with stunning art and decorations—was an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Then, there were the beautiful and majestic gardens, with a long canal running through the center.
And yet, as we marveled at the garden’s beauty and grandeur, I found myself wondering, how could one man have it all? Louis XIV tried to bring all things to himself. He brought the nobles into the palace and positioned himself at the heart of all activities and attention, not just in Versailles but in all of France. He attracted the best talent from across Europe, bringing in the best minds in politics, economics, arts, music, science, military, architecture, and culture to make the Palace of Versailles and France the epicenter of the world. He even called himself the Sun King (le Roi Soleil). As the sun gives life to all things, Louis XIV made himself to be that—like God—drawing all things to himself under his absolute monarchy for the glory of Versailles.
Yet, while in France, we also visited a national archives museum in Paris, where I read a different story of Versailles. While Louis XIV and his successors were building an empire and entertaining themselves, the people were suffering, and the burden to keep Versailles running drove the country to a breaking point of financial collapse. In the end, the collapse came with the French Revolution. Those who had borne burden of the extravagant lifestyle of the French monarchs rose to end the glory of Versailles, never to be continued.
Walking out of the museum, thinking deeply about both the glory of Versailles and its fall during the French Revolution, I tried to make sense of what I saw. As we kept walking on the streets of Paris, I truly fell in love with the city. The city’s art and architecture, with beautifully decorated gardens everywhere in the midst of the city, came together and made me wonder if these could be glimpses of what the true garden-city our Lord meant to create through our vocations in the world of creation—in the world that was meant to be.
Yet beneath the city’s beauty, signs of brokenness were visible everywhere—homeless people on the streets, refugee families with babies seeking assistance, and crowds gathering for riots and protests—reminding me that this is the world that “is” at the moment, beautiful, but also broken and deeply wounded by the cosmic plague of sin. Seeing both the beauty and brokenness of the city, I questioned where hope is in the world that has become, the world that currently “is.”
You can continue reading at https://washingtoninst.org/from-fall-to-grace-rekindling-hope-in-the-world-of-brokenness/
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