I was born a Jew

“I was born a Jew, I have become a Christian by faith and baptism whilst I remained a Jew as the Apostles did. My patrons were the great priest Aaron, Saint John and the Virgin full of grace”. This was written about himself by card. Jean-Marie Lustiger who was the archbishop of Paris between 1981 and 2005, born in 1926 of a Jewish family of Polish origin, converted to Christianity at the age of 14 and dead after a long disease on August 5th. His last public appearance is dated June 1st, the day the emeritus archbishop and member of the French Academy had gone, visibly worn-out and on a wheelchair, to greet his colleagues from the Académie Française. “I will be more diligent with my prayers from heaven that I have been with my presence amidst you”, he had assured as he said goodbye. One month after his death, here is a brief “collection” of his thoughts. TO THE YOUNG. During “the five years of war and occupation, we (aged twenty in 1946, editor’s note ) have been deceived by those who had to tell the truth. Some of us have sunk into cynicism … but the majority wanted to believe in the strength of the truth, and at the bottom of the ordeal we have unearthed a hope, maybe fairly cramped and heavily scarred, maybe poor, but this is what enabled us to commit ourselves to reconstruction. You, who are twenty today, do rummage into your rucksacks; there you will find the same hope, hidden there” by Christ. “Does it look cramped? Do take it anyway and let it grasp you: it will give you the courage of the future and the daring you need”. THE MISSION. “This event (the urban mission of Paris in 2004, editor’s note) kick-starts the new evangelisation of this big city. Our peers understand the questions asked them by the Gospel, even if they reject them. They understand them, not because they have been embellished or adapted, but because they touch the essential points of the human condition … One must push oneself farther and farther out, with daring and perseverance, since God has opened the door of faith”. SCIENCE AND CULTURE. “We are increasingly aware that science is steered by man, and not just according to the wishes of his spirit, but especially according to his interests: money is one of the key factors of research, along with the investments it needs. Such a technological culture as ours stakes its Christian value on the ability to reflect on these investments and make the right decisions … When I say there is a universal Christian culture, I refer to the way of living life in the faith” and in the “freedom which is deployed in the gift of the Spirit”. Nowadays, “the crucial question is to know where this freedom is” and “how can one affect culture, so that its foundations and its choices are more respectful of man’s dignity”. THE COMMON CALLING. “By meeting and measuring their mutual differences, Jews and Christians can better understand” the responsibility that “has been entrusted by them by God’s Word, according to their own calling and tradition”, in order to “lead a fragmented humankind to become aware of its unity, stronger and greater than its huge differences. Suggesting such prospects does not mean to threaten either the Jewish uniqueness or the Christian identity … The meeting of Jews and Christians is essential to both, if they want to understand what God perhaps wants of each one of them”. This “is not just about reducing any potential dispute. It cannot settle for a peaceful mutual understanding nor for a solidarity at the service of mankind. It is the world balance and peace that are at stake here”. THE EUROPEAN PROJECT. “Europe existed before the political constructions that have shaped its face. Europe existed as history, culture, shared fates, much earlier than the project of a European political community that is now being carried out … Different peoples, already united by Athens and Rome, have been born to a new fraternity by receiving baptism … In other words, the political project of Europe”, which began just after the Second World War, “is based on the existence of a family of peoples that God’s Word has created, that its members’ longing for power has divided and that finds the strength of its reconciliation in its very origins (biblical memory and Christian faith)”. ECUMENISM AND EUROPE . “The communion of the Churches and the unity of Europe are indissolubly linked. It is a primary issue that politicians and historians can consider accidental or unimportant, but which in fact deeply steers the behaviour of its peoples. They are actually linked to their historical memory, the organisation of the values that guide their lives and steer their choices… It is a definitely fundamental problem of history and cultures, which for us Europeans is difficult to identity, because it deeply questions us”.