Taizé: A Call to Reconciliation
I have entitled this talk “Taizé and the call to Reconcilation” because “reconcilation” was Brother
Roger's preferred term when it came to presenting the ecumencial vocation of the Taizé Community.
He was interested in a reconciliation of Christians that could take place without delay and he felt
that such a reconciliation was an indispensable prerequisite for Christians to have any credibility in
the eyers of others.
Understood in this way, it becomes clear that the call to reconciliation cannot be a matter restricted
to ecumenical experts as if “ecumenism” were a separate and isolated chapter in the life of the
Church, as if the Church could be itself and correspond to God's call while remaining divided. Only
a most wretched ecclesiology would view ecumenism as dispensable, reserved to experts who have
time for such activities. For Brother Roger and for us today, working for reconciliation and trying to
make the mystery of the church accessible to today's world, in particiular the new generations
always went hand in hand. The same conviction motivates ud today.
It would be impossible to understand the vocation of Taizé without looking closely at the life of this
founder, Brother Roger. In my presentation, I will be led to mix elements of Brother Roger story
and more generally of Taizé's history with some theological reflection. It's really quite impossible to
separate the two. The realization that certains paths of reconciliation were open occured through
various encounters, conversations, meetings, friendships. Being attentive to the “events” of
everyday life, attentive to “God's today”, has always been an intricate part of the life of Taizé and its
development. It's possible to read the story of the Taizé Community as a way of being present to the
the fault lines (“lignes de fractures”) of humanity.
From a young age
Even at a very young age, the need for reconciliation was impressed upon Brother Roger.
He was born 9 months after the beginning of the First World War. Though his birth took place in
Switzerland, a country that remained neutral during the war, he became keenly aware of its
nightmares through his maternal grandmother who lived in the North of France. A brave woman,
she welcomed people fleeing the bombing, mothers with small children, others that were pregnant
and terrified. Apparently she could hear “Big Bertha” from her home. A bomb actually fell in her
garden, but fortunately did not explode. She was finally forced to leave the north of France onboard
a train for cattle.
One of Brother Roger's oldest memories was the arrival of this remarkable grandmother in
Switzerland. Exhausted by her efforts to welcome those in distress, she said: “No one must ever see
again what I have seen. No what must ever again what I have been through”. And she added: “If
Christians are reconcilied they can prevent the outbreak another war”.
She believed that reconciled Christians could play a major role in the future of Europe.
Brother Roger's grandmother was also profoundly interested in what could foster more political
unity in the world. In this respect she followed closely the creation of the League of Nations in
1919, following the Treaty of Versailles. She saw the need for a world authority. (see text by
Gaulué).
Why can't we be together?
The young boy Roger Schutz-Marsauche, the last of nine children, born in a Calvinist family,
vividly remembered his first encounter with Christians of other denominations. He often spoke of
his inability as a child to understand why, on a Sunday morning in his village, Christians all going
to pray to God were heading in different directions and could not be together. He saw this as a
contradiction with what is found in the Gospel. The child wondered: “How can we all speak of a
God of love and not be together?”
As a student, the young Roger was aware of the inadequacy of words. Christians affirm things, but
what they affirm so confidently rarely becomes visible in real life. At a young age already, he was
aware of the importance of signs, living signs. Later he would speak of living “a parable of
community” or “a parable or reconciliation”.
A Parable of Reconciliation
Last year I spent several months in Switzerland preparing for our annual European Meeting that
took place in Geneva at the end of 2007. I was able to meet with several of Brother Roger's oldest
friends. Some of them showed me letters they had from Brother Roger going to back to the 30's and
early 40's. I was struck by how clearly in those early years Brother Roger envisioned the importance
of the living parable. In one letter, written in 1944, when brother Roger was just 29 years old, he
writes about his conviction that what will speak to people today, people who are often “gavés de
paroles”, “stuffed with words” is a life, more specifically the life of a community.
This was already clear to Brother Roger when he arrived in the small village of Taizé, in Burgundy,
100 km north of Lyon, just 10 km away from the famous monastery of Cluny. Another war had just
started. Brother Roger was seriously contemplatiing the creation of a community of men. A wartorn France was more attractive to the young Brother Roger that the safey of Switzerland because,
as he often explained, a community should be rooted and built in a place where there are many
challenges, where life is not easy. “La facilié empêche la création.” “When life is too easy, creation
is stiffled.”
The First Years at Taizé
From 1940 to 1942 Brother Roger began welcomed Jewish refugees. In 1942 he himself was forced
to flee after his activities were reported to the police. Had he stayed the story of Taizé would have
probably ended on the 11th of November 1942, when the German armies invaded what had been up
to that date “la zone libre”. On the very first day they came to Taizé to see if the could find Brother
Roger.
The war was not quite over when Brother Roger returned to Taizé. He came back with three young
students who had started to share his life and vision already in Geneva in 1942. When they arrived
in Taizé in 1944, they began to live a community life, offering hospitality to the German soldiers
who were now prisoners in the area in camps that were poorly organised.
We can see from this last example, that involves the welcome of German soldiers, how the vocation
to reconciliation was already present at the beginning of the community, a reconciliation that was
not limited to liturgy or dogma or the internal life of the churches. Throughout his life Brother
Roger consistently saw the unity of Christians as a kind of “prerequisite” in order to be a leaven of
reconciliation in the human family.
Some years laters, when a German organisation heard of what was being built at Taizé, they came to
see the community to offer to build a church that would stand in France a sign of reconciliation. A
Taizé brother who is an architect drew up plans for a church that was opened in 1962 and that bears
the name “Church of Reconciliation.”
One of the great French protagonists for the reconciliation of Christians, Father Paul Couturier,
visited Brother Roger in Taizé already in 1941. Maurice Villain, who just like Father Couturier
spared no efforts to work for Christian Unity, accompanied him. It was Father Couturier who,
during the war, when publishing was difficult, found the necessary paper to print Brother Roger's
first booklet on Community life published in 1941.
Father Couturier was deeply aware that some of the reasons for separation are not always
theological. They are what he called “psychological”, they have to do with a a long story of many
hurts, wounds and rejection. That is why he was convinced that a community of prayer could play a
role in healing some of these wounds.
First Contacts with Rome
Paul Couturier was instrumental in creating a relationshiop of trust with Cardinal Gerlier,
archbishop of Lyon. It was Cardinal Gerlier who encouraged the brothers to go to Rome, as early as
1949, to explain their calling directly to the Pope. They did so and returned a year later.
Even if these first contacts with Rome did not produce many visible fruits, they were important for
Taizé's future. In 1958, when Pope John XXIII was elected, Cardinal Gerlier once again urged the
brothers to Rome to meet with the Pope right at the beginning of his pontificate. Brother Roger
often spoke of Pope John's welcome, how he applauded the words they spoke and encouraged them
to return to see him. It was not difficult to convince the brothers to do so. When asked who is the
person who had the deepest influence on Taizé, Brother Roger would always answer without
hesitation: “Pope John XXIII”.
Pope John had only been Pope for a very short time when the idea of bringing together a Council
came to him. Pope John invited Brother Roger and another Taizé brother to be present in Rome for
the Council. When it was about to open, Pope John spoke words that were to remain with Brother
Roger for the rest of his life. He said: “We will not seek to find out who was right and who was
wrong. We will simply say: “Let us be reconciled”.
Vatican II
The life of the Taizé community in Rome during the Vatican II has become part of the council's
history. The brothers went each day to St. Peter's basilica, taking part in all four sessions of the
Vatican II. Each day they would invite bishops and cardinals.
It was during the Council that Brother Roger developped close friendships with several bishops
from South America. In the recently published correspondence of Dom Helder Camara there are
many moving passages concerning their talks in Rome and at Taizé.
It was because of Dom Helder that Taizé brothers went to live in Brazil where they have now been
for over 42 years. Other “fraternities” of brothers were created a few years later in Bangladesh,
South Korea and Africa. These fraternities are meant to express another dimension of
reconciliation, extending it to the entire human family, simply by sharing the life of the poor, being
present among believers of other religions, creating bonds of friendship and trust.
Returning to the life in Rome during the Council, special mention should be made of a young Polish
who came to share a meal with the brothers in their apartement. His name is Karol Woytila. Shortlty
after the Council he visited Taizé wice and returned as Pope in 1986.
As the Council progressed, bishops would talk with each other about their visits to the Taizé
brothers. Word got around that if you are invited by the Taizé brothers for a meal, it's better to eat
first! It's true that money was scarce and that the meals were not always very plentiful.
Shorlty before his death, there was one last audience with Pope John XXIII. Brother Roger asked
him: “What is the place of Taizé in the Church?” In reply, the Pope spoke of the Church as
consituted by circles that are ever greater. He wanted the brothers to understand that, just as they
were, they were part of it. Pope John's answer remained with Brother Roger forever. It took him
many years to find words to express how this could be lived, but I will return to this later.
A Divided Europe
I cannot talk about the sixties without signalling another divide that appeared in 1961: the erecting
of the Berlin wall. Europe was beign separated in two. A Taizé brother of German origin, who had
himself been a prisoner in Russia during the second world war, approached Brother Roger about
what could be done to express solidarity with Christians of Eastern Europe. Brother Roger
encouraged him to travel to Eastern Europe. Soon this brother's journeys were followed by many
others: various brothers of the community at Taizé, and also a number of young people who offered
weeks or months to be at Taizé or to travel. These visits were uninterrupted from the sixties until the
fall of the Berlin wall (and even to this day) and concerned nearly all the countries of Eastern
Europe and what was then the USSR. For many of those who were sent to Eastern Europe, these
contacts with Christians from Eastern Europe in times of persecution were life-changing. Brother
Alois himself, our present Prior, was not yet a brother but was sent as a young person of 19 years
old to what was then Czechoslovakia. When he first arrived at Taizé in the early seventies a brother
was leaving that very same day for East Germany. He has said in various interviews how as a young
German this totally surprised him. “Things are possible that I had not imagined to be possible.” He
said of Brother Roger: “He went about things as if certain walls simply did not exist.”
No one imagined that these simple visits would develop into thousands and hundreds of thousands
of friendships. The important thing was to lend support to the Christians of Eastern Europe, prevent
any fatalistic tempation to believe that nothing could changed.
In the early 1980's it was possible to bring together several thousand young people in several cities
East Germany. These gatherings were tolerated by the regime, even though it tried to intimidate
participants, for example by photgraphing them as they entered the church. Similar gatherings were
held in Poland, in Prague. In the Spring of 1989 it was possible to hold an East-West meeting which
20 000 people participants in the city of Pecs in southern Hungary.
A few months earlier the preparation for a larger European Meeting got off the ground in Poland.
We began preparation under the communist goverment in Poland and finished it with the first
Mazowiecki governement. 50, 000 young people took part in the Eurpean Meeting in Wroclaw,
Poland. A year later, Prague welcomed 80, 000 participants.
In the early nineties Brother Roger sometimes spoke of the future of Europe and how forgiveness
was necessary to make that future possible. It was not an invitation to settle for some “cheap
reconciliation”, but to struggle with a reconcilied heart.
With the war in the Balkans in the early nineties it seemed urgent more than ever to make this
message heard. Even during the war, brothers travelled to Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia. Young people
from the Balkans often took part in our European meetings. For many it was their first contact with
other young peope with whose country they were at war. Many could say, “I have never spoken
before to a Croatian or I have never spoken to a Serb”.
The the President of the Supreme Court in Hungary, Pal Solt, addressed the young people who
participated in our European meeting in Vienna in 1992, saying: “The challenge for you is not to
pass on to the next generation the prejudices and hatred of the past.”
Helping others, in particular those who have suffered, to believe that “something new” is possible is
vital in this regard.
Allowing Something New to Emerge
Forgiveness is what allows that “something new” to emerge. Sometimes only a small number of
people are able to go in this direction.
Michal Camdessus wrote a few years ago: « We can affirm that it is above all the iniatives of
reconciliation that have in the last few decades shaped the politial and social evolution of our
continent. One thinks naturally of the French-German, of the German-Polish reconciliation, the
reconciliation of the two Spains, and all of the worksites that have been opened for future
reconciliations in the Balkans, in Eastern Europe, in Ireland, in the Basque country.... It's the actions
of those who have preceded us, their acts of faith and hope that have allowed Europe to be what it is
today. »1
What Michel Camdessus is referring to is actually a capacity to “anticipate”, which is a
characteristic of those who live in hope and trust. I think this represents quite well an idea that
Brother Roger cherished and that many young people have responded to. In this regard, I was very
struck recently by the words of young girl from Belgium who is interviewed in the preparation
video for the Brussels meeting. She says: “Trust is what makes it possible to create new things.”
What Christians have to offer society is perhaps of this nature.
We are a people of the “early morning” (John 20, 1), of the First Day as Justin wrote in the second
century. In contrast, we can remember the words of Hegel when describing the role of philosophy :
"the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk". The human sciences
understand and analyse with hindsight. They are important in that respect and bring an
indispensable contribution to the understanding of reality. But all of reality is not in the analysis of
the past and its tendencies. Something new can emerge that can surprise, open unexpected ways for
the future of a nation and perhaps in the case of Europe, of a continent. It can take some time before
that which is new is integrated and acknowleges as part of what is real.
A Way of Reconciliation
It is in this context that I would like to say more about Taizé's ecumenical vocation.
In the sixties Catholic brothers were allowed to enter the community. The Community became more
truly ecumenical. Today there are roughly 100 brothers from about thirty different countries.
I mentioned earlier how Brother Roger was deeply influenced by Pope John XXIII. What was
perhaps still embryonic at the end of Vatican II, Brother Roger expressed in Rome in 1980, during
our fist European Meeting in Italy. During a prayer at St. Peter's Basilica, in which Pope John Paul
the Iind was present, Brother Roger said:
1
Michel Camdessus, Président des Semaines Sociales de France, in La Lettre, avril 2002
“Ik heb mijn eigen christelijke identiteit gevonden door in mijzelf een verzoening tot stand te
brengen tussen het geloof van mijn wortels en het Mysterie van het katholieke geloof, zonder de
verbondenheid met wie dan ook te verbreken.”
“I have found my own Christian identity by reconciling within myself the faith of my origins with the
Mystery of the Catholic faith, without breaking fellowship with anyone.”
From the start what interested the Taizé Community was not to find a small common denominator
on which to build. Having studied the history of the Reformation and the subsequent Catholic
Counter Reformation, the brothers knew that many false oppositions stemmed from mutual
ignorance and the almost systematic antagonism that followed the outbreak of violence in the
second half of the 16th century. Instead of seeking the smallest common denominator the brothers
saw, and see to this day, reconciliation as an exchange of gifts, a call to open up to all the gifts that
God has placed in his people for the last 2000 years.
Denomational identity was often conceived in opposition to another denomination. What was true
in the other denomination and could have been integrated was left aside and caricatured.
Cardinal Suenens described this well, quoting the words from the Reformed theologian JeanJacques Von Allmen who said: “The Counter Reformation developed a stereotype of the
Reformation. A century later, Protestants took this stereotype to be their identity.”
You have in Leuven a college that bears the name of a remarkable Pope who was not at all like this.
Sadly the pontificate of Adrian VI was brief.
A Call to Move On
The path of reconciliation that Brother Roger walked on and that is ours today took some time to be
understood. It seems to me that since his death in 2005, much progress had been made, even though
misunderstandings can still occur.
I would like to quote a few people who each in their own way have shed some light on this path of
reconciliation, without necessarily using the same vocabulary or concepts as Brother Roger.
Firstly a pastor from Switzerland, Godfried Hamman, who published an article in « La Vie
Protestante de Genève » some days before our European Meeting in Geneva at the end of 2007.
Godfried Hamman, a Protestant theologian from Neuchâtel, is also a member of the « groupe des
Dombes ».
« To what Church does Taizé belong?» asked Pastor Hamman. He continues: « The question, that
has been put to Brother Roger a countless number of times by the institutional churches, has
accompanied the Community throughout its journey. It places in the spotlight the problem of
identity that the denominational churches, Protestant or Roman Catholic, have projected on the
work of Brother Roger from the beginning. A history of identity that is specific to the Christian
Churches, that has conferred on them their status of denominational Churches, giving priority to
what is divisive.
The problem is that because of the divise dynamic that is at work, these Churches have lost their
ecclesial unity and have each confined themselves to a status in which a denominational identity is
given priority over their status of Christian ecclesial identity: organically, visibly, we are firstly the
Reformed Church or the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church before being the united
Church of Christ.
Now this identity, denominational since the second half of the 16th century, that is since the violent
confrontations, political and institutional, is always divisive. This means that no Church can be
faithful to its denominational identity without being, at the same time, faithful to a large extent to
the dynamic of division that prevents its from (re) living its fundamental ecclesial unity. »
Pastor Hamman concludes: « It's this historical and ecclesiological reality that Brother Roger
refused to perpetuate with its theological and practical contradictions. His vocation and his will to
live the Church as a project of unity, that is of reconciliation, bears witness to this. »
If Brother Roger and Pope John XXIII understood each other so well, it's not doubt because Pope
John had this same vision in which the Church is firstly a place of the Church of reconciliation. In
this light it's interesting to recall once again his words: « We will not try to find out who was right
and who was wrong, we will simply say: « Let us be reconciled. »
Now I want to quote from a text that Pope John Paul II left us when he came to Taizé in October
1986. Pope John Paul said to the brothers of Taizé : By desiring to be yourselves a “parable of community”,
you will help all whom you meet to be faithful to their denominational ties, the fruit of their education and their choice
in conscience, but also to enter more and more deeply into the mystery of communion that the Church is in God's plan.
Doordat u zelf een ‘gelijkenis van gemeenschap’ wilt zijn, zult u allen die u ontmoet, helpen om trouw te blijven aan de kerk waartoe zij vanuit hun
opvoeding en gewetenskeuze behoren, maar ook om steeds dieper door te dringen in het geheim van gemeenschap, dat de Kerk is in de ogen van God.
An Interview with Cardinal Kapser
The same approach full of respect for Brother Roger's vocation was shown more recently, in August
2008, for the third anniversary of Brother Roger's death, in an interview with Cardinal Walter
Kapser that was published on August 15th in the Osservatore Romano. Cardinal Kasper who
President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity said:
Frère Roger kwam uit een gereformeerd gezin. Hij studeerde theologie en werd later dominee in diezelfde gereformeerde traditie. Wanneer hij sprak
over ‘het geloof van mijn wortels’, dan bedoelde hij die prachtige combinatie van catechese, devotie, theologische vorming en christelijk getuigenis,
zoals hij die in de gereformeerde traditie ontving. Hij deelde dit erfgoed met al zijn broeders en zusters van protestantse afkomst, waarmee hij zich
altijd diep verbonden heeft gevoeld. Al sinds zijn jonge jaren als dominee, liet frère Roger echter tegelijkertijd zijn geloof en zijn geestelijk leven
voeden door bronnen uit andere christelijke tradities. Hierdoor overschreed hij bepaalde confessionele afbakeningen. Het feit dat hij zich geroepen
voelde om een monastiek leven te leiden en daartoe een nieuwe monastieke gemeenschap wilde stichten met christenen uit de reformatie, zegt al veel
over zijn zoektocht.
In de loop van de tijd verrijkte de prior van Taizé zijn geloof steeds meer met het geloof van de katholieke kerk. Zoals hij zelf zei, hielp de verbintenis
met het mysterie van het katholieke geloof hem om sommige elementen van het geloof beter te kunnen begrijpen. Als voorbeeld gaf hij de rol van
Maria in de heilsgeschiedenis, de reële tegenwoordigheid van Christus in de eucharistische gaven en het apostolische ambt in de Kerk, inclusief het
ambt van eenheid van de bisschop van Rome. Als antwoord hierop, vond de katholieke kerk het goed dat hij de communie ontving bij de
eucharistieviering, zoals hij dat sindsdien elke ochtend deed in de grote kerk van Taizé. Frère Roger heeft daarnaast ook diverse keren de communie
ontvangen uit handen van paus Johannes Paulus II, die met hem bevriend was sinds het Tweede Vaticaans Concilie en die goed op de hoogte was van
de geestelijke weg die hij op het gebied van het katholieke geloof bewandelde. In die zin werd er niets geheim of verborgen gehouden wat betreft de
houding van de katholieke kerk, noch in Taizé, noch in Rome. Op het moment van de uitvaart van paus Johannes Paulus II, deed kardinaal Ratzinger
niets anders dan herhalen wat er daarvoor al was gebeurd in de Sint Pietersbasiliek, in de tijd van de overleden paus. Het gebaar van de kardinaal was
dus in geen enkel opzicht nieuw of uitgedacht.
In een toespraak tijdens de Europese jongerenontmoeting in Rome in 1980 in de Sint Pietersbasiliek, waarbij ook paus Johannes Paulus II aanwezig
was, beschreef de prior van Taizé zijn eigen geloofsweg en zijn christelijke identiteit met deze woorden: “Ik heb mijn eigen christelijke identiteit
gevonden door in mijzelf een verzoening tot stand te brengen tussen het geloof van mijn wortels en het Mysterie van het katholieke geloof, zonder de
verbondenheid met wie dan ook te verbreken.” Inderdaad, frère Roger wilde nooit breken “met wie dan ook”, om redenen die noodzakelijkerwijs
voortkwamen uit zijn eigen verlangen naar eenheid en uit de oecumenische roeping van de gemeenschap van Taizé. Daarom gaf hij er de voorkeur
aan om geen termen te gebruiken als ‘bekering’ of ‘officiële toetreding’ om zijn band met de katholieke kerk te beschrijven. In zijn beleving was hij
binnengegaan in het mysterie van het katholieke geloof zoals iemand ergens ‘ingroeit’, zonder te hoeven ‘breken’ met dat wat hij daarvóór had
geleefd en ontvangen. Je zou in dit verband lang kunnen discussiëren over de precieze betekenis van theologische en canoniekrechtelijke termen.
Maar uit respect voor de geloofsweg van frère Roger zou het beter zijn om geen termen op hem toe te willen passen die hijzelf niet geschikt achtte
voor zijn ervaring en die de katholieke kerk overigens ook nooit aan hem heeft willen opleggen. Ook op dit punt zouden wij ons tevreden moeten
stellen met frère Rogers eigen woorden.
(Same text in English,
Note for the Translator, please see the English version for the short introductions to the various
pagragraphs)
“Born in a Reformed family, Brother Roger had studied theology and had become a pastor in that
same Reformed tradition. When he spoke of “the faith of his origins,” he was referring to that
beautiful blend of catechesis, devotion, theological formation and Christian witness received in the
Reformed tradition. He shared that patrimony with all his brothers and sisters of Protestant
affiliation, with whom he always felt himself deeply linked. Since his early years as a pastor,
however, Brother Roger sought at the same time to nourish his faith and his spiritual life at the
wellsprings of other Christian traditions, crossing certain confessional limits in doing so. His desire
to follow a monastic vocation and to found for this purpose a new monastic community with
Christians of the Reformation already said a lot about this search of his.
As the years passed, the faith of the prior of Taizé was progressively enriched by the patrimony of
faith of the Catholic Church. According to his own testimony, it was with reference to the mystery
of the Catholic faith that he understood some of the elements of the faith, such as the role of the
Virgin Mary in salvation history, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharistic gifts and the apostolic
ministry in the Church, including the ministry of unity exercised by the Bishop of Rome. In
response to this, the Catholic Church had accepted that he take communion at the Eucharist, as he
did every morning in the large church at Taizé. Brother Roger also received communion several
times from the hands of Pope John Paul II, who had become friends with him from the days of the
Second Vatican Council and who was well acquainted with his personal journey with respect to the
Catholic Church. In this sense, there was nothing secret or hidden in the attitude of the Catholic
Church, neither at Taizé or in Rome. During the funeral of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger
only repeated what had already been done before him in Saint Peter’s Basilica, at the time of the
late Pope. There was nothing new or premeditated in the Cardinal’s act. »
Cardinal Kasper continues by quoting the words of Brother Roger: « In a talk he gave in the
presence of Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter’s Basilica during the young adult European meeting in
Rome in 1980, the prior of Taizé described his own personal journey and his Christian identity with
these words: “I have found my own Christian identity by reconciling within myself the faith of my
origins with the Mystery of the Catholic faith, without breaking fellowship with anyone.”
And this is how Cardinal Kasper understands these words:
« In fact, Brother Roger never wanted to break “with anyone,” for reasons which were essentially
linked to his own desire for unity and to the ecumenical vocation of the Taizé Community. For that
reason, he preferred not to use certain expressions like “conversion” or “formal” membership to
describe his communion with the Catholic Church. In his conscience, he had entered into the
mystery of the Catholic faith like someone who grows into it, without having to “abandon” or
“break” with what he had received and lived beforehand. The meaning of some theological or
canonical terms could be discussed endlessly. Out of respect for the faith-journey of Brother Roger,
however, it would be preferable not to apply to him categories which he himself considered
inappropriate for his experience and which, moreover, the Catholic Church never wanted to impose
upon him. Here too, the words of Brother Roger himself should suffice for us.”
I have taken some time to speak of ecumenism and the problems of identity because I'm aware that
many questions have been asked over the years. Efforts to undertand Taizé by simply referring to
the past, the categories that are familiar to a situation of division fail to take into account what is
new and specific. How sad it would be if our minds were closed to the possibility of God creating
something new!
Pastor Gil Daudé from the French Protestant Federation, realizing that Brother Roger lived
something that goes beyond what some people are able to imagine: wrote about Brother Roger:
“Als wij iemand die zichzelf niet in een hokje plaatste, in een hokje gaan zetten, is dat een goedkope manier om ons niet te laten verstoren door een
voor ons verontrustende daad van verzoening. Deze stap roept ook ons immers op tot verandering.”
“Categorizing what he did not wish to categorize is a convenient way of avoiding letting ourselves
be questioned by a step of reconciliation that disturbs us because it calls on us to move.”
When the Chrisitan Faith Becomes Abstract...
Now I would like to go back to an idea I mentioned in my opening remarks about how ecumenism,
the call to reconciliation, and visible unity of Christians, must go hand in hand with attempts o
make the Gospel accessible today.
For centuries Christianity has suffered from being exceedindly abstract. This a problem in particular
for young people, but I believe it is not a difficulty limited to the young.
In the early Church, the first sign of the Resurrection was community in which there was real
sharing, material and spiritual. When the experience of community is offered in this way, then the
faith is not abstract. The level of abstraction grows in proportion to the absence of real community.
The need to experience community, experience reconciliation with God and with others is stronger
than ever.
Young people today are wary of words. Verbosity heigthens their skepticism. Once again I would
not restrict this problem to the youth of today. It's a skepticism that is shared by all generations.
We may launch urgent appeals to do the right thing for our planet, for relations with other countries,
other churches. We may speak out against racism, against fear of difference, denounce economic
injustice. Exhorting and denouncing will prove insufficient. If we are to refuse the reign of fear we
must find ways that go beyond moral exhortation. There is no shortage of analyses these days.
Everybody knows that something should be done, that we should live differently, not give in to the
temptation of self-withdrawal, which always looms when fear takes root. The present context
highlights some vital questions: What can arouse wills that are weak and easily discouraged? What
is able to make derision and those who ask “what’s the point?” capitulate? How can we make the
attitudes of hope, openness and fraternity palatable, strong and alluring?
The answers to these complex questions are, I believe, inseparable fromp the experience of
community. The Church as a mystery of communion is not limited to our empirical experience of it;
it goes beyond feelings. Nevertheless communion should find expression in our communities and
that communion needs to be experienced at times. It cannot simply be declared (pas incantatoire).
The weekly meetings that now go on at Taizé and the meetings outside of Taizé like the European
Meetings and the other gatherings that are part of our « Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth » are I believe
an experience of communion. The diveristy of participants, the diversity of origins, raise the
question where does this communion, « humanly improbable » come from? What is its source?
Seeking an answer to this question has led many to discover Christ, the « Christ of communion » as
Brother Roger liked to refer to him.
In Taizé, from March to November hundreds and even thousands gather each week. In a few days
times, over 7,000 young people, many from Belgium, will be in Taizé for the Feast of All Saints.
Young people have been coming for half a century, in ever growing numbers. They pray thee times
a day in the church of reconcilation, that has to be extended several times. They are given time to go
to the sources of faith, studying Bible texts, sharing with others, spiritually and materially.
The European Meetings that started in 1978 can be likened to a parable, we could perhaps say a
parable of hope and a parable of reconciliation. We have seen over the years that the parable can be
more efficient than speeches about hope.
It's a great joy for us to prepare the next European Meeting in Belgium.
How can we make the attitudes of hope, openness and fraternity palatable, strong and alluring?
Allowing young people to be part of parable can be one way.
In this way we are led to feed the forces of life, to give them their full chance. When people
rediscover a zest for life (« l e goût de la vie »), they are often led to a rediscovery of a sense of
God.
I thank you for your invitation.
Brother Emile, Taizé
emile@taize.fr