beginTZ
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FROM ONE BEGINNING TO ANOTHER
Brother Roger, Munich, 1993/ 1994
The Letter 1994, FROM ONE BEGINNING TO ANOTHER, was written by Brother Roger for the European meeting of young people held at the end of 1993 and the beginning of 1994. This meeting, a stage in the “pilgrimage of trust” animated by Taize, brought together 80,000 young adults from all the countries of Europe in Munich. Translated into 48 languages (including 21 languages of Asia), this letter will be reflected on during the INTERCONTINENTAL MEETINGS OF YOUNG PEOPLE that will be held in Taize week after week during the entire year of 1994.
FROM ONE BEGINNING TO ANOTHER
If, at each dawn, we were able to welcome the new day like a beginning of a new life… “Whoever advances toward God goes from one beginning to another.” (1)
Do we realize that God buries our past in the heart of Christ, and is going to take care of our future?
Were it possible to fathom our human heart, the surprising thing would be to discover there the longing, short-lived or long-lasting, for an invisible presence.
Although there may well be shocks and even upheavals in our lives, the Risen Christ is there. (2) He could say to us, “When you are going through the harshest trials, I am present underneath your despair. And remember: I am also in the depths of your radiant hopes.” (3)
Chase away fleeting troubles like a child blowing on a fallen leaf. Don’t cling to worries like a hand clutching the branch of a thorn bush; let go instead. Surrender to Christ whatever assails your heart. (4)
Whoever lingers over failures and discouragements sees the fibres of the soul become rigid. In new beginnings, peace of heart and a Gospel joy can change our life. (5)
The Holy Spirit fills us with gifts. How can we discern them and dare to believe in them? (6)
Are we being visited by passing doubts? (7) That shouldn’t stop us; there is nothing alarming about doubt. (8)
All who listen, by day as well as in the watches of the night, all who welcome the gifts of the Holy Spirit, will discover that with almost nothing, they have everything.
With a simple heart, almost a child’s soul, (9) happy are they who say to Christ: Risen Christ, you see who I am. I find it necessary not to hide anything in my heart from you. You yourself were a human being. And you welcome me with what I am. My thirsting heart asks you: Christ Jesus, unify my desire and my thirst.
When we pray, even if our lips remain closed, our heart can be open before God. God’s voice makes itself understood – an inner voice, steeped in silence. (10)
And to pray, a single word can suffice.
The trusting of faith does not turn us into irresponsible individuals. On the contrary: a communion with Christ opens us to run the risk of responsibilities.
Like waves coming closer and closer together, societies are changing at an ever faster rate. For a great many people, this means being unsure about what tomorrow will bring. Seeing no way out, some withdraw into themselves. (11)
But what responsibilities can we take on to prepare a different future? (12)
Far from inviting us to withdraw, the Gospel suggests quite concrete ways.
One of them leads to simple gestures of sharing, even with limited resources. And – what surprise! – such gestures have repercussions of incalculable generosity. (13)
Another way is to focus our energies in order to curb all forms of hatred. They can lead to intolerance, and even to wars. Without forgiveness, there is no future for our own self. Without reconciliation, what future is there for a people?
Alleviating human suffering is etched at the heart of the Gospel. And when we allay other people’s trials, we do it for Christ; even more: in that way we encounter the Risen Lord. (14)
The day comes when we realize that God is never the one who causes misfortune or anguish. (15) God is innocent. God is innocence. (16)
When, through the Risen Christ, we understand this luminous reality, “All God can do is give his love,” (17) irresistibly a question arises: how can we communicate to others such a firm hope? (18)
Christ Jesus asks us that ancient and ever new question: “Do you love me?” If so, he invites us to communicate the humble trusting of faith to those he entrusts to us. (19)
To communicate faith in the Risen Christ, what would be the use of readymade answers? We are Christ’s poor. For this reason, it is important never to impose ourselves or to try and take prisoner another’s conscience. But above all, may our life let the Gospel shine through!
Are there not people on this earth who radiate the holiness of the Risen Lord without even daring to believe it?
And the Holy Spirit keeps us alert. Choosing Christ means walking along just one road, (20) not two at the same time. Such a choice can entail giving things up; it leads to indispensable detachment. (21) But in our weakness, we are made strong in God. (22)
One day, Jesus spoke grave words regarding “those who lay heavy burdens on other people’s shoulders, but are unwilling to lift a finger themselves to move them.” (23)
In that communion of love that is the Body of Christ, his Church, how can we lighten the burdens of those entrusted to us? How can we open the gates of forgiveness and an inexhaustible goodness of heart? (24) These two realities are among the most astounding in the Gospel. (25)
Inconsistencies and inflexible attitudes can find their way into this communion. They cause a lot of suffering.
In addition, without even knowing why, multitudes of Christians in the course of history found that they were divided. Today, multitudes of Christians are innocent of the divisions that persist or that are created.
So then, are we going to run away from that communion which is the Church? No. To make Christ who is communion credible, all we can do is to run towards it, from the ends of the earth if need be, and discern the miracle of a presence. (26)
Even if we have very little faith, will we say to Christ: what do you expect of me?
May we always remember this: the wellsprings of jubilation will never run dry when a heart that trusts goes from one beginning to another.
NOTES
1 Saint Gregory of Nyssa, fourth century.
2 If Jesus had not lived among us, God would seem far away, unattainable. But, by his birth and his life on earth, Jesus let who God was shine through. God’s trust in human beings was so great that he hoped they would recognize him in a newborn baby and in a crucified man.
And if Christ were not risen, he would not be present today alongside us. He would remain one exceptional individual among others in the history of humanity. But it would not be possible to converse with him in prayer.
3 Christ does not only wait for us in light, in peace, in joy. He is also present in the distress of those who grope along to find a way out. There can be moments when things look dark. But such obscurity is not pitchdarkness. It is not the dead of night. The light of Christ still penetrates it.
4 Inner silence is not a forced attitude to create a kind of emptiness within. It consists in abandoning ourselves to Christ. And inner silence leads to a maturity, to self-mastery. Of course there are trials in every life; they can be very hard to bear. But it can happen that in some cases a trial may seek to convince us that we are the victims of fate. Are we going to make use of trials in order to call attention to ourselves? No, this would mean making suffering the basis of human relations; it would mean imposing the full weight of our own distress and using it as a lever to put pressure on others.
5 Peace of heart is as deep as the sea. Sometimes we may be agitated, like the sea when it is stirred up by a gust of wind. But this disturbance only affects the surface. Silent happiness, peace, remain close by and are so much greater.
One of the things Christians are called to do is to welcome the joy of Easter, born at the heart of the seemingly greatest failure, the cross, and to be bearers of that joy.
6 On the eve of his death, Jesus said to those around him, “I will send you the Holy Spirit to be your Comfort, your Support” (John 16,5-7). Invisible to our eyes, the Holy Spirit provides unexpected intuitions.
7 There are people for whom God is so dazzling that they are blinded and consider themselves agnostics; what they know of God is above all his silence.
8 Even when Jesus was on earth, there were people close to him who doubted. Almost all of us have to set out again and again on the road from hesitation and doubt toward the humble trusting of faith. This trust is sometimes viewed as gullibility or a lack of responsibility. Then faith no longer dares to present itself as a joyful and generous reality, but clothes itself in serious and silent, measured and prudent garments, as if to prove its relevance. And yet the Gospel invites us to a happiness of faith, to a freedom of faith.
9 The spirit of childhood has nothing childish about it. It keeps wonder and simplicity alive into adulthood.
10 We are awakened above all in prayer. But when we pray and nothing seems to happen, does this mean our prayers are not answered? No, there is no prayer that is not fulfilled. God answers us first and foremost within ourselves. When, for example, we entrust to God those who have hurt us, we already enter upon a way of peace.
11 These days institutions, whether political, economic or even religious ones, are losing their audience.
12 There are different kinds of responsibilities. Why should an elderly, ill or handicapped person worry and say, “I am not doing anything to make the earth a better place” They persevere in hospitality, in prayer, and also in that goodness of heart and forgiveness which are at the centre of the Gospel.
13 As Christians, we belong to a spiritual family in which, from the time of the apostles, the Virgin Mary and the believers of the early days, there was a call to live in great simplicity and to share. Today, economists think that in the most prosperous regions of the world there will be no alternative but to accept a simpler standard of living in order to avoid tensions and excessive inequalities in the human family.
14 Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, sick and you visited me, a prisoner and you came to see me… Every time you did this for one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it for me.” (Matthew 25,35-40)
15 God wants neither wars, nor earthquakes, nor famines, nor accidents. God does not want the fighting in Bosnia or elsewhere. God is the cause neither of illness, nor fear, nor misfortune. God never comes to torment the human conscience. But Christ suffers with the innocent, with those experiencing distress.
16 For many years now, several brothers of Taize have been living in Bangladesh, sharing the existence of the poorest of the poor. The heart bleeds to see ten-to twelve-year-old children working so hard, for example as bearers. Children with no families live in the railway station, sleeping on the platforms. In the station they are already like adults who must fight to survive. How marvellous, then, that when they come to see the brothers and find something to eat they become little children again; they like to play and to draw. These railway-station children know how to share the little they have, for instance with one of them who is in hospital with tuberculosis.
One day I was with my brothers in Bangladesh and we were invited to a meeting with Muslims in a poor neighbourhood. One of these Muslims, returning with me as darkness was falling, said to me, “All human beings have the same Master. This is still a secret that has not been revealed. But later on, people will find out.” And he walked off into the night.
17 Saint Isaac of Nineveh, seventh century.
18 When a child has been brought to a place of prayer, a flame is kindled in that child. Perhaps it will be forgotten but it is possible that, later on, it will burn again. To communicate trust in Christ to a child, many words are not necessary: by placing one’s hand on the forehead of a child, reminding him or her of the peace of Christ, the inner being of that child can be touched by the glow of an invisible presence that will leave its mark on them.
19 John 21,15-17.
20 Recently, after the death of our brother Robert, I found a letter from him. He wrote to me, “I feel more than ever that hunger for holiness I spoke to you about. That is the only true road. We must walk along it together.”
21 Such a conversion of heart calls for a resolution with no turning back. When human beings no longer respond to the thirst for the absolute which is in them, their energies are depleted in monotony, in running away, in boredom. Responding to Jesus’ words “Come, follow me” can express the deepest aspiration of a heart that desires everything and that wishes to give everything. Coming closer and closer to Christ’s holiness thus becomes our identity at its point of greatest fulfilment.
22 II Corinthians 12,9.
23 Matthew 23,4.
24 Praying Christ’s last prayer: “Forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23,34) brings to birth in us this other prayer: “Forgive me, it happens that I too hurt others without knowing it.”
25 Christ is communion. He did not come to create a new religion but to offer a communion in himself. It can never be emphasized enough that no one can rely only on their own faith. Loving Christ in that communion which is the Church means disposing ourselves inwardly to place our trust in the Mystery of the Faith, in the humble trusting which was that of the apostles, the Virgin Mary, and the whole cloud of witnesses down to the Christians of today.
For different reasons, some may find themselves in a situation where they do not receive the Eucharist. So, for centuries now, the story of the multiplication of the loaves has been a point of reference: one day Christ blessed five loaves of bread and distributed them to the crowd, to all without distinction (Mark 6,30-44). This generosity has been translated by the gesture of offering blessed bread. This is an expression of the Church’s motherly love. Rather than becoming upset about this or that impossibility of receiving Holy Communion, why not offer blessed bread to everyone? In this way, each and every person present at the celebration of the Eucharist, without exception, can receive this sign of sharing.
26 Would it be possible to prepare a common prayer on the last Friday of every month, an intense prayer, open to all, with the beauty of singing? It would be especially good to invite sick people to take part. This prayer could be preceded by a simple meal and a time of sharing. The way the inside of a church is arranged is so important in sustaining a common prayer. This does not mean restoring a church, but fixing it up within using very simple means, with no fund-raising. If the seats are placed along the walls, an empty space, with no pews, is opened up where people can sit or kneel on old carpets. A roll of inexpensive cotton cloth can easily be found; it can be dyed, orange for example, and hung in the sanctuary. It takes very little for a church to be made hospitable: a few small candles, some icons…
[ email addresses: brother.roy@almac.co.uk or taize@dkauni2.bitnet ]