TAIZÉWelcome to all of you who are with us this week in Taizé. You have come from Portugal to Romania, from Italy to the north of England and from much further afield as well. It is a great joy have the families of two of our Indonesian brothers with us during this time from the islands of Sulawesi and Java. I would like to say to them : your presence is so important for us!
We are all so different from one another and yet we have a common desire: to journey together with God and with each other. Is there not an inner thirst deep within that draws us forward? Even without seeing the end point, as pilgrims we seek meaning in each step of the journey. We sense intuitively the direction.
During this week, many of you have experienced the challenges, but also the beauty of life in community. Can that experience help you as you return home at the end of the week? Some of you have come with Church groups, others have perhaps discovered for the first time what life in Christ with others means.
As Taizé is not perfect, neither are our Churches perfect, but we are journeying together to discover that fullness of life in Christ. The reading we heard this evening from Matthew 13 helps us understand this better.
Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But to his surprise, an enemy comes and sows weeds which grow among the wheat. However, instead of letting his servants rip out the weeds and risk destroying the wheat, he tells them to let everything grow together until the harvest when what is good will be preserved.
Can this parable can encourage us in the weeks to come? Can it lead us to trust that God is at work in our lives and around us, despite the real difficulties we encounter? When you return home, are you ready to ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to discern the signs of God around you? You may be surprised as you do this at what you see.
And what joy it is to be together in our diversity as Christians. We are so happy to have among us Bishop Olivia and Bishop Smitha from the Church of England this week. Tomorrow arrives Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York who will preach during the Eucharist on Sunday. Sister Nathalie Becquart, of the Secretariat of the Synod in Rome, will also come tomorrow. And two weeks ago Metropolitan Dimitrios of Paris celebrated the Orthodox Divine Liturgy with us in this church as part of our week dedicated the testimony of Orthodox faith.
Is there not already a unity that is given to us in Christ that is beyond our expectations, even though our communion may not yet be perfect? In the words of the Orthodox theologian, Olivier Clément, are there not moments when we glimpse the undivided Church in the mystery of communion that is the body of Christ?
It was on August 20, 1940, that a 25 year old Swiss, Roger Schutz, arrived in Taizé. As Brother Roger, he founded our Taizé Community. He began with almost nothing, but embraced the challenge of the Gospel and was ready to risk everything on this adventure of trust in God. We give thanks to God for the beauty of what we can live today here.
This evening and yesterday evening, I shared supper with two of the groups of volunteers who have been in Taizé these past weeks. To all of our volunteers, I would like to say a huge thank you! Without you, it would be impossible for us to welcome so many young people from all over the world.
Many of the volunteers are now preparing to leave Taizé and I wanted to ask two of them, Theresa from Germany and Julio from Spain, what has been important for them during their stay.
Theresa: First of all, Taizé is a very special place for me. When I’m here as a volunteer it is very important for me that I have time; time for me to discover my faith and time to spend with all the different people I can meet here.
It is so wonderful to see how my faith is growing here and that we get the chance to ask questions and to find the answers, sometimes on our own or during talks with other people.
I am also very happy to have the opportunity to contribute to the experience that many seek when they come to Taizé when I help with the meetings.
I’m so grateful that I can meet people here from all over the world and talk with them about nearly anything.
It is so eye opening to see how the different traditions of the faith vary, particularly concerning our lifestyles and how we experience our faith.
Julio: What I would like to emphasize in my experience as a volunteer is the simplicity that the brothers show us every time we take meals with them in community, and in spite of what the brothers are trying to live, they give themselves to the service of the volunteers.
Also that spirituality that I once had, I lost it and thanks to Taizé and its 3 daily prayers I have recovered it.
And finally that life in community, where what remains above all is love, service and
dedication to others. It reminds me of those first Christian communities.
Taizé is a place where you go to the root of the essential, where less is more, where it
doesn’t matter where you come from and of which I am proud to be a part of it
Last week, we had around 150 young Ukrainians with us in Taizé. Among them was Alla. Some time ago she lost her son on the front. On Friday came the news that her husband had died after a long illness. Faced with situations like hers, we could ask ourselves, “Where is God?”. But the kindness on the face of Alla pointed us to something greater than our questions.
To be close to people who suffer great loss is not easy, but as we listen to them, it is often they who help us to rediscover a trust.
Please come tomorrow at 8pm to pray with us as we do every Friday evening for peace in our world. We will not forget the people of Ukraine and those suffering also in the Holy Land and in so many of the troubled zones across the earth.
At the end of the year, we will pray for peace in Tallinn during our annual European meeting from December 28 to January 1. Estonia is a small country, where Christians are not so numerous. But they are preparing a fine welcome for us. Come and join us there!