226 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT BF felt very uncomfortable with the latter’s faith community. His sense of communion with that community was rather abstract and intellectual, while his relationship with others felt more authentic. The discrepancies between his theological understanding of communion and the experiences in real life leave himpuzzled as to how he should understand the concept as well as his own lived reality. BF is unable to provide a satisfying answer to this problem. His experience serves as a prime example of the challenge the ecumenical communities face in interpreting their relationships with the different faith traditions and the heart of the challenge presented to theology by lived ecumenism. 7.5 SYNTHESIS This chapter reflects a deep sense of faithfulness the monastics have towards the Roman Catholic Church, as well as to other Christians or towards their denomination of origin in the cases of the non-Catholics. On the one hand, this fidelity, in combination with a sincere desire to be in communion with their Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, urges them to remain members of their respective churches and to seek the fullest communion possible at the same time, especially in the form of sharing the Eucharist. They understand their participation in Eucharistic hospitality to be an expression of unity as a fundamental characteristic of the church. Eucharistic sharing while the ecumenical process is still not concluded is not only a form of anticipation of a restored fully visible unity between the denominations but also appeals to the unity that was established in the founding of the church and the sacrament of the table during the last supper, and, hence, to the extratemporal character of both the unity of the church and the Eucharist. In addition, participation in one tradition enriches the life of the other. In this sense, double belonging seems to enable the monastics to experience the riches of their own denominations even more. On the other hand, it poses important questions to their understanding of Baptismal and denominational identities and the concepts of church membership and ecclesial communion. The monastics indicate that they have experienced a shift in their thinking about these topics parallel to their process of initiation in the ecumenical communities. They have come to value Baptismal identity over denominational belonging, understanding the former to express a more inclusive ecclesiology than the latter: Baptism, in their view, constitutes a level of communion that transcends denominational divisions. As
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw