Notre Dame Cathedral begins centuries-old Lenten Conference cycle

Paris, France, Mar 14, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Last week, Archbishop Vingt-Trois of Paris, began the traditional cycle of Lenten teachings which are given each Sunday at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, a tradition which goes back to 1835.

This year’s theme is “Here is the man” (Ecce Homo), which hearkens back to the exclamation of Pontius Pilate, presenting Jesus to the crowd. This week, the Archbishop will explore the question “How can we live our humanity more deeply, truly and in its full dignity?”

The first conference was presented last week by physician Axel Kahn, along with
Jean Vanier, founder of the Community l’Arche, which is dedicated to assisting handicapped people. They both reflected on the great human experience of difference.

This week, the reflection explored the question of “becoming” and the constant realization of man throughout his whole life.

"Through the reflection proposed today, we can measure better that human becoming is not just a simple chronology from which humanity is striving to escape in avoiding the question of death, " said Archbishop Vingt-Trois.

"With the death and resurrection of Christ, it’s the proper sense of history that falls into death and becomes a source of life, it is the origin of a new filiation that goes beyond the transmission of flesh and blood."

Referring back to the previous Sunday’s Gospel on Jesus’ Transfiguration, he said that “The transfiguring illumination on the mountain is also a reading of human life, it manifests what is invisible to our eyes: the everlasting presence of God compared to the historical swiftness of our humanity.”

In the light of this transformation, he said, it is not only the person of Jesus who is transfigured but the whole of human history.

The Cathedral announced that next week’s theme will be on the question of human suffering.