Perspectives on TaizéOn Sunday morning, Brother Alois prayed the following prayer:
Christ Jesus, we praise you for our brother Roger whom we remember today. He led countless persons to the wellsprings of trust in God. He taught us that at every moment of our life, we can turn to God to welcome his love. There we find peace of heart. That peace of heart leads us not to live for ourselves any longer, but to live for others. And we sense that, in the final analysis, every human being lives for God.
Thursday evening August 13th, meeting with Brother Alois
Like every Thursday evening, Brother Alois spoke to all the young people present at Taizé. He spoke to them of Brother Roger:
This week is a special week. On August 16th, this coming Sunday, we will recall the memory of Brother Roger. He founded our community with uncommon perseverance. Over the years he held out in the face of so many difficulties. Four years ago, he was killed here in this church during evening prayer. Many of you did not know him. You cannot possibly imagine how much our entire life here is still marked by his being. The legacy he left us is still alive.
The prayer here in this church is perhaps the greatest expression of this legacy. With its simplicity, the singing, the silence and the Bible readings, this prayer leads us straight to the essential, to the love of God. In this prayer we can receive what Brother Roger tried hard to find throughout his life: peace of heart.
We cannot give this inner peace to ourselves, but we can receive it from God at all times. The first words that the Risen Christ addressed to his disciples, distraught by the experience of the Cross, were: “Peace be with you!”
The disciples had forsaken Christ and yet he did not reproach them. Instead, he took their fault upon himself. That is the source of peace of heart. We receive it when we know that we are loved with an unconditional love.
Yes, our life counts in God’s eyes; for him it has a price that we dare not even imagine. Let us therefore not be worried about the value of our life; it is hidden in God. Freed from this worry, we can live not only for ourselves, but for others. And we sense that in the final analysis every human being lives for God.
Of course prayer is not always a haven of peace or a feeling of fullness. Sometimes there is a lot of noise in us, even tension. So how can we find inner peace? Let us dare turn to God at any time: if our mind is too busy, we are already praying with our body, by our simple presence.
Following Christ also means accepting that we cannot always feel God’s presence. For Brother Roger, to find peace of heart implied a struggle. For him peace was not a constant state; it came from the inner decision to welcome the love of God despite everything that could hinder it.
That inner decision also makes us able truly to welcome those we meet. Yes, peace begins within us, but it impels us well beyond the limits and the habitual reference-points behind which we so easily hide ourselves.
Frère Roger liked to quote these words of Seraphim of Sarov, a monk of the Russian Orthodox Church: “Find inner peace and thousands around you will find salvation.” And Brother Roger often continued by saying: “Nothing is more responsible than to pray.”
When we realize that God is here right now and he loves us, our view of the situations we are experiencing changes. And unsuspected energies are born in us.
We brothers who lived with Brother Roger saw that he could make surprising decisions at any time, sometimes with an impatience to move forward. He wanted to make every effort to ensure that the presence of God and his love could be manifested to all, especially to those who feel abandoned.
Peace of heart did not lead Brother Roger to withdraw inward. On many occasions he went off to live for a time among the most destitute.
Brother Roger did not have ready-made answers in the face of great injustices. But far from seeking to protect himself, he wanted to be personally affected by the suffering of the world.
Over twenty-five years ago, a few of us were with him in a very poor district of Haiti. That country full of vitality and proud to have found its independence very early unfortunately has experienced widespread poverty.
There, our ability to help materially was very limited. Yet I understood one thing that marked me deeply: people were waiting not just for something, but also for someone. Yes, material aid, however necessary it may be, can never replace a personal presence alongside those who suffer.
Not protecting ourselves, but letting ourselves be exposed: this requirement of the Gospel becomes increasingly relevant with the globalization that makes us so dependent on each other. We can only understand the Gospel in all its implications if we get up and go towards those who suffer, those far away, but also sometimes those very close to us. In this way the peace of the Risen Christ can transform our lives and our societies in depth.
And now the children are going to give flowers to the countries represented this week in Taizé …
A child:
There are flowers for those from Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
For those from Russia, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark.
For those from Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland.
For those from Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and France.
For those from Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
There are flowers for those from Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Bangladesh and Lebanon.
For those from Canada, United States, Australia, New Zealand.
For those from Egypt, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Brother Alois continues:
We will now continue the prayer with singing. But before that I want to pray this prayer with you that Brother Roger liked to say. We pray it in communion with the young people meeting now in Tlemcen, Algeria, from many African countries. They cannot all come here, so they are holding a week-long meeting like us in Taizé:
"Jesus Christ, you give peace of heart to those who seek you. That peace is here, close at hand, in the look of compassion with which you contemplate each of our lives."