Letter for the yearWe come from so many different countries. The communion that we are able to live on the hill is a continual wonder. In a world where we are often disconcerted by violence in all its forms and by the contempt for human dignity, the experience of our communion rekindles hope.
Yet many of us wonder: How can I continue to live the way I do here once I am back home? How can I refer to God in my daily life? The impression can be strong that, in our everyday lives, we are left to ourselves. God can seem very far away.
Furthermore, we see that the world is changing completely. It is less and less possible to predict the future, even the near future. Many of you are studying or receiving training without having any idea what this might lead to. There is a lack of visibility regarding our personal future and also regarding life in our societies.
We are in a paradoxical situation: the new media give us almost unlimited access to information and contacts and, at the same time, finding an orientation for our whole life is less and less evident. How then can we work out a plan for our life?
Of course, in Taizé we have no easy solutions to offer. But we brothers want you to find here the inner strength that makes you able to consider your future with courage and with joy.
When the support our societies offer us falters, it becomes even more important to find in ourselves an inner strength that enables us to go forward.
But where can we find this inner strength? Can trust in God awaken it? Yes, I am convinced that this is possible. We are not condemned to remain passive. Trust is more than a feeling; we can make a conscious decision to trust.
To support this decision we must, as for human friendship, invest ourselves fully in discovering a personal relationship with God. And we can go forward by seeking better to look towards Christ.
When he was young, Jesus made a fundamental choice that oriented his existence decisively. He put all his trust in God’s love. He trusted God even in failures, which he also experienced.
And he never obscured the love of God that was shining through him. We obscure it by our faults. Our life only radiates God’s love partially. In Jesus, the love of God became visible in its entirety.
We should meditate more on this. What amazing news! Jesus allowed God’s love to shine forth through a very simple life. He was the Son of God: he was not a superman above us; he was much more human than us.
Yes, what incredible news! God, who is beyond anything we can imagine, communicated himself through a fully human life, the life of Jesus. In this way God enables us to trust in our humanity.
Trusting in Jesus is one with trusting in humanity. Faith in God leads us to become more human, to refuse anything that dehumanizes both ourselves and others.
Jesus believed that God was always with him. He saw his life as a return to God. A Christian of the first generation meditated on this. He imagined that, after the suffering of the cross, the Risen Christ said to his Father: "Here we are, I and the children you have given me." (Heb 2:13)
Christ does not want to return to God alone, but accompanied by all humanity. Until the end of the world, he suffers with whoever suffers, with whoever thinks they are far from God, with whoever does not know that he or she is a child of God.
With Christ, we are all children of God. Renewing that trust every day gives us the inner strength and tenacity which is part of the spirit of childhood. They can orient our whole life, underlie the large and small decisions we make.
In this way, even with reduced freedom, even in the midst of material difficulties, even with little certainty about the future, we find the taste and the courage to take charge of our future.
And we can listen, as if they were addressed to each of us, the words the apostle Paul wrote to a young man, the head of a Christian community: “Fan into flame the gift of God that is within you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of strength, love and self-control.” (2 Tim 1: 6-7)