Cardinal Roger Etchegaray

Who is Jesus Christ for me? To tell the truth in my many years as a priest and bishop, this question has been put to me often, by young people especially ... and quite openly. And in actual fact every time I find myself hedging a little, because this is in some way my personal mystery. I am tempted to reply: go and ask Christ himself! It was he who took hold of me, I just let him do so. I can hardly assume, as an adult man, the baptism of my infancy, I can only affirm that it is He, always He who takes the first step, his the step of love, his the step of forgiving.

To this singular question I would first of all reply .. in the plural, that is, with the words of the Church which are those of the Creed of all Christians: He is "true God and true man". Alone, I would never have been able to imagine this. He is the icon of the invisible God and in his light I see the Light. He is the man who said he knows what is in man and I can assure you that he knows what is in me..., poor sinner grown old in sin, but jumping with joy to welcome his forgiveness. What is more, I have the impression that God himself takes part in the dance because he simply loves to forgive, since, on the other hand, he has no other way of loving us, sinners as we are.

But Jesus Christ is not for me alone, he projects me even outside myself to seek him ... and I find him in the face of every human person, particularly the poor, the sick, the oppressed. Twelve years have passed since Pope John Paul II called me from Marseilles to his side, and this he did that I might travel the world in search of justice and peace. I must confess that I now understand better, to what point the religion of Christ is the religion of human faces. In this civilization which makes us run and wear masks, we lose the best opportunity we have, that of taking time to look at one another. What use is it to man if he travels the universe but does not encounter his brother? It is one of my greatest joys to take time to sit beside another person, to listen to them, to love them, with all their differences and to discover in them the face of Christ.