The cathedrals have become one of
the masterpieces and legacy from the Christendom or medieval civilization. It
expresses the architecture of the medieval period such that it also expresses
the worldview of their civilization since one of the way to see the worldview
of a civilization is by observing their architecture. Almost all of the
cathedrals that we see today were able to sustain for thousands of years since
it was built in the period of the medieval; moreover, most of them still
function as the place where the service or mass is held. These masterpieces
were able to stand strong for a long time because of the right mindset of the
builders having the right purpose; therefore, they were not forgotten by their
following generations. The right purpose of the cathedral builders are
multigenerational purpose such that they consider about their following
generations.
In the modern world today,
architecture is very contradictory to the medieval architecture seen in the
cathedrals. Some physical distinct of the modern and medieval architectures are
the details. The cathedral architecture has many details in their design; on
the other hand, the modern architecture contemporarily focuses on the idea of
minimalism. Mainly, the modern architecture was not build based on the right
multigenerational purpose; the modern architecture mostly focuses on
contemporary trends not considering about the following generations. With this
mindset, therefore, we were only able to build only for ourselves rather than
for our future generation; consequently, the future generations will also
forget about our generation such that our existence is insignificant.
As a Christians, we should be
able to set an example to other people to live a significant life by being
considerate towards our future generations such that we could be remarkable by
our achievements. In other words, we should be able to leave a legacy to the
next generations. Leaving a legacy should not only apply to the form of
architectures, but it could be other forms such as innovations that could be
useful for the future generations as long as we have the right
multigenerational purpose. Many inventors form the past have proved to us how
they live a significant life by contributing for the next generations. We
should not only focus towards ourselves and being selfish that we have nothing
to contribute to the next generation. If we have nothing significant to be
remembered of, we could not expect anyone to remember us in the future.
As a personal application, I
often have a wrong mindset which is selfish such that I only care about my
contemporary world and forsaking about my future generations, although I still
might consider about my children and my grandchildren. My wrong mindset is
clearly shown when I’m exposed to the problems the world will face at the
future; I don’t care about the future problems since I will not be there by
then. With this mindset, I will not have the right multigenerational purpose in
my life; consequently, I will not be able to leave a legacy for the future
generations and my life will be insignificant. To be able to have a significant
life rather than wasting my life, I should, therefore, change my mindset such
that I should care for my next generations so that I could have the right
multigenerational purpose. With a multigenerational purpose, I will be able to
create something, just like the cathedral builders, that could become a legacy
towards my following generations. Some legacy that I could leave for my future
generations are my writings and journals; therefore, I would practice writing a
better journal so that I would become a stronger legacy to my future generations.
As a conclusion, the cathedrals
have become a legacy of the medieval or Christendom era since the masterpiece
was still able to stand strong for thousands of years until this day. This is
caused by their multigenerational purpose such that the builders were
considerate towards their following generations. Nowadays, people were being
selfish. They only care about their contemporary world and forsake about their
future generations; as a result, the future generations will not remember us
since we’re insignificant to them. When we’re insignificant to our future
generations, our life has been wasted and insignificant; therefore, we should
be able to change our mindset so that we don’t waste our life. We should have
the right multigenerational purpose through our life considering about our
future generation so that our life will be significant to our following
generations.