CHAPTER 4: MONASTIC VOCATION WITH ECUMENICAL IMPLICATIONS 149 Furthermore, by accepting new brothers from other confessional backgrounds, one also has to accept his church. Reflecting on the first Catholics joining the community in the early 1970s, TB concludes: To accept, that now there is a Catholic brother and that he belongs to the Catholic Church, and the pope and the bishops, and we share... if we have all things in common, we have now the pope and the bishops also in common, and also the Word of God, and also the psalms from Geneva, from the Reforma~ we have all this in common... so, from that point of view, it was… something, sort of enlargement, énergisant, but in the way of life, it didn't change much.365 This is, of course, a bold thing to say. But it is also typical for Taizé to accept the ecclesial reality as it is and to try to find meaning in it in order to be enriched by it. Finally, Brother TA points to the fact that in Taizé so many cultural, linguistic, and ecclesial backgrounds come together. This makes it difficult to engage in fruitful theological discussion.366 But he presents also more spiritual motives for the community to hold back from theological debate. He explains: If you’re all from the same context, then, then you can understand things quickly. But when we are unable… uh, but that there’s also a truly spiritual aspect… because we say, wait a minute, many of the things that take place here are between Christ and this person, and, and that is good. That’s not a problem, we don’t have to figure it all out exactly.367 He also speaks about respecting the “mystery of each person”368 in this context. By referring the intimate questions to the individual conscience, Taizé creates space for different views and interpretations to coexist, not entirely without tension, but at least, it seems, in an ecumenically fruitful way. 4.5 SYNTHESIS The biographic accounts of the monastics show that joining the ecumenical communities resulted in a first or renewed commitment to ecumenism. Even though the ecumenical nature of Taizé and Bose played only a secondary role 365 TB-2,20. 366 TA-2,22a. 367 TA-2,22b. 368 TA-2,22b.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw