Cardinal Lustiger

This homily was delivered by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, on the occasion of the visit of an Eastern patriarch — most likely the Patriarch of Antioch — and the joint celebration of Vespers. The text takes the form of a liturgical homily of an ecumenical and ecclesiological character. The central idea is that the Eucharist constitutes the fundamental sacrament of the unity of the Church: in it, God gives himself to humanity and human beings are given to one another. This eucharistic unity calls Christians to transcend their historical divisions and to work toward reconciliation, particularly in the Middle East, where the Churches suffer from serious conflicts. On the theological level, the homily articulates eucharistic ecclesiology, the Ignatian tradition of Antioch, and the pastoral responsibility of the Archbishop of Paris toward Eastern Christian communities in France, emphasizing their full belonging to catholicity.