You have all come here with a desire, a longing to spend time with others and also on your own. Is not each one of you seeking something? If Jesus was to ask you, “What are you seeking?” how would you answer? These were the first words he said in John’s Gospel and were addressed to two people who wanted to follow him.

During this time, I am preparing the Letter which will accompany the meetings in Taizé next year. To help me prepare it, I asked six of our volunteers to react to these words of Jesus. What they shared gave the framework to the text. Then I asked our new brothers to reread what was written with me.

This past two evenings, we have been following the story of the meeting between Jesus and someone called Nicodemus in John’s Gospel. Though he has heard of Jesus, it was difficult for him to raise his questions in public and he comes to Jesus during the night. Was he afraid? And when Jesus answers him, he doesn’t fully understand what Jesus said.

Jesus tries to explain to Nicodemus that there is a freedom in God, that like the wind that blows where it wills, so it is with those who are led by Spirit. Jesus offers a new and eternal life for all who put their trust in him.

During this week, here in the church a young person asked me how to pray, another was trying to find how to rediscover the faith he had experienced in his childhood, a third wondered if she was on the right path though she was doing something she always had wanted to do.

As I listened and asked some questions, I tried to say to each one “Dare to listen to what is deepest within you. Let your intuitions lead you.” Is it not there that the Spirit is blowing in each of us, bringing to birth something which enables us to hope beyond all hope?

Our deepest questions about authentic faith, life and death, meaning and purpose remain unspoken and, as long as they do, like Nicodemus, something in us is not satisfied. A fault line stretches between what he lived during the day and what he wondered about at night.

As we seek, will we follow our questions until they bring us to the source of life? We thirst for meaning. When we follow Christ, we come to a point where we have to throw ourselves God as if into an abyss. But we’re astonished when we do that to discover that this abyss is filled with love and goodness.

Tomorrow we will hear that the meaning of Jesus’ life was not to judge the world but to enable every human being to understand that they are loved by God. He comes to show us the path of a greater love. Is that not his secret?

Later Nicodemus became part of the group of Jesus’ friends. In fact, when they were dispersed, together with someone else, he showed great courage. That courage led him to belong and into community.

As you leave Taizé, will you continue to seek God in prayer, in silence, through God’s word and in your local church communities? If we can journey together with others, our hope can be renewed and give us new courage as we support each other.

Questions

Great is our joy this week as peace came to the Gaza Strip after two years of war. We give thanks to God for the hope of peace and for the safe return of the hostages who are still alive to their families. May the Holy Spirit inspire a desire for a lasting and just peace in the hearts of all in Palestine and Israel, and discernment for the common good of all in those with political responsibilities.

We do not forget the war in Ukraine, nor all who suffer the effects of violence in Sudan, Haiti, Myanmar and so many other places in our world. Please come and join us tomorrow evening as we pray for peace at 8pm here in the church. Our prayer will be in silence, in communion with those who have no words faced with what they must go through.

At the end of this year, our annual European meeting will take place in Paris and the surrounding Île de France region​. A team of volunteers is preparing this gathering together with some St Andrew’s sisters and Taizé brothers. If you are aged between 18 and 35, please come and join us as we will live what we hope will be a very humble sign of prayer, peace and reconciliation in today’s world.