Glavin: Notre-Dame's long story of redemption

It is a peculiar thing, the way some stories are told and retold down through the ages, the way history coils around itself and unspools again as the Earth hurtles through the firmament. And every now and then, humanity quietly redeems itself in some small way, as it did this week, when a horrific cloud of smoke blackened the skies above the 4th arrondissement of Paris.
We need to start about 3,000 years ago, in the vicinity of what is now the Palestinian village of Nabi Samwil, just a few kilom