CHAPTER 8: POSITIONING OF THE EUCHARIST 239 the meantime, we can cry for this, we can appeal for this, we can uh, repeat and repeat that it’s unsustainable, that it is not worth of the Gospel to do this.529 BF realizes that the Eucharist does not erase the problems or the wounds from the past. In his view, sharing the Eucharist does not solve the problem of division altogether. The wounds and the pain remain, yet in a bearable way. The oil or salve that is a shared Eucharist comforts the wounds without fully healing them. It keeps the pain of division from paralyzing ecumenical efforts, without taking away the pain stimulus that inspires further commitment. This experience of the Eucharist as a comforting oil/salve, which is a distinct interpretation of the Eucharist as a medicine, indicates a particular role that the sacrament can play as a source for the restoration of unity. In the experience of Brother BF, it eases the pain, enabling further reconciliation and healing of wounds. Healing takes time and effort, for which a shared Eucharist provides nourishment. Brother BF and Brother TC reflect on their experience theologically. TC does so by referring to Orthodox theologian Olivier Clément: “when we… when we immerse ourselves in the mystery of Christ, the Easter mystery of death and resurrection... when we go deep enough, then something of the undivided church can appear.... And I think, that's a little bit of what the experience is here, no?”530 Celebrating the mystery of the resurrection in the Eucharist allows the undivided church to appear. By celebrating the depths of unity embedded in the Gospel and the heart of the church itself, such unity is enabled to become manifest. This is what TC experiences in Taizé. BF answered one of my questions in a similar spirit. Asked if he has experienced the Eucharist to help overcome divisions,531 he contemplates: Well, I hope so. I hope that it could offer, not a solution, but perhaps a, a support to Christian division, and personally I feel that when we can share the Eucharist, uh… we, I receive a sort of encouragement uh… a new hope that it could be possible in my lifetime to see full unity, full visible unity among the churches. Because uh… during the Eucharist we are um… we are made contemporary to the Christ offering his life for his disciples. But uh, in a double sense. Traditionally we think~ we think, we believe that the Christ came~ comes and is present in our celebration, uh, but there is also the other 529 BF-1,2h. 530 TC-1,22. 531 BF-1,21.
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