(~) A Future of Peace
Brother Roger of Taize
Stabbed by a deranged woman in front of 2500 young people attending the
daily evening service at his community in the south of Burgundy, France,
Brother Roger Schutz, the 90-year-old founder ofTaize, died on Tuesday,
August 16, 2005.
Since his sudden death, tributes have poured in from world leaders. The
Archbishop of Canterbury called him "one of the best loved religious
leaders of our time," while President Chirac said he was "one of the most
remarkable servants of the values of respect and tolerance." Yet even
though he was awarded aTempleton Prize and aUNESCO prize for peace
education and wrote many books, Brother Roger always kept a low profile.
Brother Roger and the more than 100 brothers who have joined his
ecumenical Christian community since 1940 have devoted their lives to
working for peace, reconciliation and Christian unity. During World War II
they harbored Jewish refugees, just one of many ways they have actively
expressed their love for the downtrodden.
Up to 100,000 young pilgrims visit Taize each year to join the brothers in
their simple prayer, singing, and meditation services - services which
have transformed the way millions of people now worship (See an article on
this,"How Taize Changed the Church").
Thefollowing letter was written by Brother Roger last December and
translated into 55 different languages, andhas been used for reflection
throughout the year in Taize (below) and around the world:
God has plans for a future of peace for you, not of misfortune; God wants
to give you a future and a hope.1
Today, a great many people are longing for a future of peace, for humanity
to be freed from threats of violence.
If some are gripped by worry about the future and find themselves at a
standstill, there are also young people all over the world who are
inventive and creative.
These young people do not let themselves be caught up in a spiral of
gloom. They know that God did not create us to be passive. For them, life
is not subject to a blind destiny. They are aware that skepticism and
discouragement have the power to paralyze human beings.
And so they are searching, with their whole soul, to prepare a future of
peace and not of misfortune. More than they realize, they are already
making of their lives a light that shines around them.
Some are bearers of peace and trust in situations of crisis and conflict.
They keep going even when trials or failures weigh heavily on their
shoulders.2
On some summer evenings in Taize, under a sky laden with stars, we can
hear the young people through our open windows. We are constantly
astonished that there are so many of them. They search; they pray. And we
say to ourselves: their aspirations to peace and trust are like these
stars, points of lights that shine in the night.
We live at a time when many people are asking: what is faith? Faith is a
simple trust in God, an indispensable surge of trusting undertaken
countless times over in the course of our life.
All of us can have doubts. They are nothing to worry about. Our deepest
desire is to listen to Christ who whispers in our hearts, Do you have
hesitations? Dont worry; the Holy Spirit remains with you always.3
Some, to their surprise, have made this discovery: Gods love can come to
fulfilment even in a heart touched by doubts.4
One of the first things Christ says in the Gospel is this: Happy the
simple-hearted!5Yes, happy those who head towards simplicity, simplicity
of heart and simplicity of life.
A simple heart attempts to live in the present moment, to welcome each day
as Gods today.
Does not the spirit of simplicity shine out in serene joy, and also in
cheerfulness?
A simple heart does not claim to understand everything about faith on its
own. It says to itself, Others understand better what I have trouble
grasping and they help me to continue on my way.6
Simplifying our life enables us to share with the least fortunate, in
order to alleviate suffering where there is disease, poverty, famine7 Our
personal prayer is also simple. Do we think that many words are needed in
order to pray?8No. A few words, even inept ones, are enough to entrust
everything to God, our fears as well as our hopes.
By surrendering ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we will find the way that
leads from worry to confident trust.9And we tell him:
Holy Spirit, enable us
to turn to you at every moment.
So often we forget that you dwell within us,
that you pray in us, that you love in us.
Your presence in us is trust
and constant forgiveness.
Yes, the Holy Spirit kindles a glimmer of light within us. However faint
it may be, it awakens in our hearts the desire for God. And the simple
desire for God is already prayer. Prayer does not make us less involved in
the world. On the contrary, nothing is more responsible than to pray. The
more we make our own a prayer which is simple and humble, the more we are
led to love and to express it with our life.
Where can we find the simplicity indispensable for living out the Gospel?
Some words of Christ enlighten us. One day he said to his disciples, Let
the little children come to me; the realities of God are for those who are
like them.10
Who can express adequately what some children can communicate by their
trusting?11 And so we would like to say to God: God, you love us: turn us
into people who are humble; give us great simplicity in our prayer, in
human relationships, in welcoming others
Jesus, the Christ, came to earth not to condemn anyone but to open paths
of communion for human beings.
For two thousand years Christ has been present through the Holy
Spirit,12and his mysterious presence is made tangible in a visible
communion13 that brings together women, men and young people who are
called to go forward together, without separating from one another.14And
yet throughout their history Christians have experienced many upheavals:
separations have arisen between those who nonetheless professed faith in
the same God of love.
Re-establishing communion is urgent today; it cannot continually be put
off until later, until the end of time.15Will we do all we can for
Christians to awaken to the spirit of communion?16
There are Christians who, without waiting, are already in communion with
one another in the places where they live, quite humbly, quite simply.17
Through their own life, they would like to make Christ present for many
others. They know that the Church does not exist for itself but for the
world, to place within it a ferment of peace.
Communion is one of the most beautiful names of the Church. In it, there
can be no harsh words exchanged but only transparency, heartfelt kindness,
compassionand the gates of holiness swing open.
The Gospel lets us discover this surprising reality: God creates neither
fear nor worry. All God can do is love us.
By the presence of the Holy Spirit, God comes to transfigure our hearts.
And in a simple prayer, we can sense that we are never alone: the Holy
Spirit sustains in us a communion with God, not just for a fleeting moment
but right on into the life which never ends.
__________
(1) These words were written six hundred years before Christ. See Jeremiah
29:11 and 31:17.
(2) This year when ten new countries have joined the European Union, many
young Europeans are aware that they live on a continent which, after
having suffered from divisions and conflicts for many years, is now
searching for unity and moving forward on the road of peace. Tensions
remain, of course, as well as forms of injustice and even violence, which
awaken doubts. The important thing is not to stop ahead of time: the
search for peace lies at the very foundation of the building up of Europe.
But this would be of no interest if its only purpose were to create a
stronger, richer continent, and if Europe succumbed to the temptation to
withdraw within its own borders. Europe becomes fully itself when it is
open to other continents, in solidarity with poor nations. Its
construction has meaning when it is seen as a step forward in the service
of peace for the entire human family. That is why, if our meeting at the
end of the year is called a European meeting, we prefer to view it as a
pilgrimage of trust on earth.
(3) See John 14:16-18, 27. God exists independently of our faith or our
doubts. When there is doubt within us, that does not mean that God has
left us.
(4) One day Dostoevsky wrote in his Notebook: I am a child of doubt and
unbelief. What terrible suffering it has cost me and still costs me, this
longing to believe, which is so much the stronger in my soul as more
arguments against it rise up within me. My hosanna has passed through the
crucible of doubt. And yet Dostoevsky could also write: There is nothing
more beautiful, more profound and more perfect than Christ. Not only is
there nothing, but there can be nothing. When that man of God suggests
that the non-believer coexists in him with the believer, his passionate
love for Christ still remains undiminished.
(5) Matthew 5:3.
(6) Even if our trust remains fragile, we do not rely only on our own
faith but on the trust of all those who have gone before us as well as
those who are around us.
(7) The UN World Food Program recently published a map of world hunger.
Despite the progress accomplished in the last few years, 840 million
people suffer from hunger, including 180 million children under the age of
five.
(8) See Matthew 6:7-8.
(9) This road of surrender can be sustained by simple songs, sung over and
over again, such as this one: My soul finds rest and peace in God alone.
While we work or when we rest, these songs keep echoing within our hearts.
(10) Matthew 19:14.
(11) A nine-year-old boy who came to pray with us for a week said to me
one day, My father left us. I never see him, but I still love him and at
night I pray for him.
(12) See 1 Peter 3:18; Romans 1:4; 1 Timothy 3:16.
(13) That communion is called the Church. In the heart of God, the Church
is one; it cannot be divided.
(14) The closer we come to the Gospel, the closer we come to one another.
And the separations that tear us apart draw to an end.
(15) Christ calls us to be reconciled without delay. We cannot forget his
words in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew: When you are offering your
gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has
something against you, first go and be reconciled (5:23-24). First go not
Put it off till later.
(16) In Damascus, in the Middle East beset by trials, there lives the
Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, Ignatius IV. He has written these
striking words: The ecumenical movement is going backwards. What remains
of the prophetic event of the early days incarnated in figures like Pope
John XXIII and Patriarch Athenagoras? Our divisions make Christ
unrecognizable; they are contrary to his will to see us be one so that the
world may believe. We have an urgent need for prophetic initiatives in
order to bring ecumenism out of the twists and turns in which I fear it is
getting stuck. We have an urgent need for prophets and saints to help our
Churches to be converted by mutual forgiveness.
(17) During his visit to Taize on October 5th, 1986, Pope John Paul II
suggested a path to communion by saying to our community: 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 Gods plan.
Letter Ateliers et Presses de Taize
Reprinted from http://www.bruderhof.com/, used with pernission
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Pax Christi,
• Ninure Saunders aka Rainbow Christian
Jesus is my Shepherd and He knows I'm Gay
http://Ninure-Saunders.tk
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