CHAPTER 6: TEMPORARY SOLUTION FOR A PERMANENT PROBLEM 191 that’s how others look at it, uh, so both within the community and for those whom we receive, uh, here, well, you know, it is really quite problematic.’ And then I concluded with something that I often say, indeed: ‘but then, it is fitting that it hurts, because it makes us search for, for the thing, we realize that we should continue, that we still haven’t reached the new Jerusalem.’ She responded: ‘well, yes, oh, yes, actually I am disappointed that you said that, for I thought it was rather simple, but it turns out to be very difficult {both laugh}.’ So, I didn’t know if I had done the right thing, or something bad. I didn’t quite know, because, uh….442 From my own experiences in Taizé, the reaction of the woman to the situation in Taizé seems to be representative for a great number of guests. Many of them express a feeling of relief that things seem so uncomplicated and that the usual boundaries between churches seem to have vanished in Taizé. TA contradicts any such perception in this quote. Ecumenical sensitivities or even boundaries are not absent in Taizé. The fact that the community has found a temporary solution that allows them to share the Eucharist does not solve all problems. As TA expresses here, it does not take away the pain of division, nor do the brothers want it to. Brother BF, in Bose, addresses this issue as well, saying: So, it’s not, you, you can’t and we do not say, okay, everything is okay because we obtained this. I um, I think that we say, this is an open wound. And so, receiving something that, an oil, that make the open wound less hard to support is good, but I don’t think that uh, the, uh, the tension, the desire to the full unity is weak because of this, hea~ not healed, but uh, comforted wound, I mean….443 Sharing the Eucharist, then, is not a final solution to the question of Christian division. In the experience of the monastics, though, it is helpful to comfort the pain and to enable them to pursue the goal of full visible unity. Not only do the monastics continue to feel the pain of division themselves, but they also witness and share in the struggle of their guests. BF attests to the Eucharist in Bose: “it has been, and still, a question and a problem for the community, and for me personally.”444 And TA expresses his doubts about Taizé’s practice in the morning prayer in which Communion is distributed. He experiences discomfort explaining it to guests: 442 TA-1,18a. 443 BF-2,6. 444 BF-1,18a.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw