MADRID, Spain.
To celebrate the centenary of the birth of Brother Roger of Taizé, founder of the Ecumenical Community of Taizé, and the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican II, called by Pope John XXIII, the ECUDIR Group of the Teresian Association (TA) organized an act of thanksgiving for the gift of the lives of these two great men, witnesses of faith and reconciliation in the Church and in the world. The event took place on February 19 at the Headquarters of the TA in Madrid.
The meeting was attended by over one hundred people from different Christian groups including: representatives of Young ACIT of Madrid, the youth group of Taizé in Madrid, ACIT Association Madrid-La Mancha, the Spanish Evangelical Church, the German-speaking Evangelical Church, the International Ecumenical Association, Acoger y Compartir Association, Missionaries of Unity Ecumenical Center, Pentecost Ecumenical Forum, members of DIM (Monastic Interreligious Dialogue) and the Baha'i Community. Other attendees were: the delegate of the Episcopal Commission for Interfaith Relations, Mr. Manuel Barrios; Máximo García, Pastor of the Baptist Church, and members of various parishes in Madrid, Fuenlabrada, Alcorcón and Boadilla del Monte.
The event began with the screening of a video that showed the testimony of Brother Roger on the meaning his close relationship with John XXIII had for him and for the Community of Taizé. That testimony becomes stronger when commemorating this year, also the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Community and the tenth of the death of Brother Roger.
Bringing to mind the presence of John XXIII made us aware of the opening of Vatican II and the Copernican revolution it meant for the universal Church. Through the Council the Roman Catholic Church was able to open a new path to ecumenism and dialogue with the world and with the various non-Christian traditions.
In her welcoming remarks, Inmaculada González said that this event has its origin in a meeting they had last May with Brother Alois in Taizé. At that time they promised to organize something in Madrid in tribute to Brother Roger on the centenary of his birth. This event was the first step of that commitment. There will be another moment of greater ecumenical significance on May 12, 2015, the anniversary of the birth of Brother Roger. Everyone is invited to this celebration.
José Miguel de Haro, a Redemptorist missionary priest and a great connoisseur of Brother Roger and the Taizé Community, spoke about "John XXIII and Roger of Taizé: that everyone may believe." He presented unfamiliar dimensions of both figures and stressed the future prospects of their legacy of hope and commitment to work for unity among Christians, to be leaven for healing and unity in the world.
Jose Miguel said that perhaps the best of the Taizé Community is not Brother Roger, but what his creation is: the Ecumenical Community of Taizé, the spirit that he has been able to convey to his followers, his passion and love the Church from the perspective of the undivided Church. From the beginning he knew the ministry God had entrusted to him for the world.
Contemplating Brother Roger and John XXIII is to recover the concept of "mediation." Both Roger and John XXIII were people of great kindness, able to discover in everyone the plan of God who dwells in each person. In the presence of John XXIII, Brother Roger felt the awe of being welcomed by the Catholic Church. The prejudices of the past no longer existed. In John XXIII he discovered a man who is sent to serve. This privileged encounter between the two calls us to be attentive to the itinerary that friendship may open to us beyond affective relationships, with eyes of faith to discover friendship as a mediation of God to bring about his project in history. There are people, like Roger and John XXIII, who have been called to open roads, to open windows so that the reality of God can have a deep presence in our world.
During wartime, in that painful situation, Roger is in Taizé, near the line of occupied France, which allowed him to welcome Jews fleeing the Nazi persecution. After the war, he finds that the persecuted at that time were the Germans. In this historical experience he discovers the deep meaning of reconciliation, something he had already learned from his grandmother and his grandfather, a Calvinist pastor. Here he understands the depth of the need for reconciliation, and its essential requirement for a Christian. From here he will begin to build his own spiritual journey, desiring to be a reconciled man capable of generating peace and reconciliation.
John XXIII shares the faith with Roger, their faith in Christ and the call to make the Gospel credible in a historical moment in which Christians were killing each other. His eight-year stay in France coincides with the process of Roger to carry out his call to found the Community of Taizé.
Roger, with his eyes on the undivided Church, understands that reconciliation in the Church is not possible if a reconciliation with the Universal Pastor is not a reality and, at the same time, he understand that Rome should look with new eyes at those Churches born out of the Reformation. Changing the way Rome saw the Reformation was not easy; however, this will be one of the things Roger achieved through his friendship with John XXIII. When there are people living with a reconciled heart, it is possible to open new avenues for reconciliation. Through this experience, as he was seeing what would sprout, Roger said that it was like watching the lifting of the veil that covers the mystery of the Church.
Roger and John XXIII were instruments of this new way of reconciliation because they were able to love. The Gospel passes through the path of love, forgiveness, creativity, daring to walk new and unexpected ways. These two men were able to get into the newness of the Spirit, open to read the signs of the times.
In Roger his simple and transparent heart exulted, able to perceive and express what he was to propose in a new language, with words that flowed from a greater depth, with new meaning. So he dared to speak and write in a language that reached everyone’s heart. Let us go to the essential, he said many times, and the essential is Jesus Christ and his Gospel, his love, his empathy, his mercy, the feast of Jesus.
With this same experience, John XXIII would convene the Second Vatican Council, impregnated by an ecumenical spirit. To advance in this way, he created the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, now the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
José Miguel ended his lecture with a claim. Benedict XVI said of Brother Roger: "tireless witness of the Gospel of peace and reconciliation. Brother Roger was a pioneer in the difficult paths toward unity among the Disciples of Christ. May his witness of an ecumenism of holiness inspire us in our journey towards unity."
If Roger has been a prophet in the ecumenism of holiness, when will it be possible for the Church to recognize a holiness which embraces every human being, man or woman, where the community discovers that God, in the midst of history, has acted beyond confessional religions, and receives within herself witnesses such as Brother Roger, Martin Luther King, Gandhi etc.? Church, open up and break down the walls that keep you from recognizing God's work and action in history.
We finished the event with a meaningful time of prayer prepared by the youth group of Taizé. We gave thanks for the lives of Brother Roger and John XXIII. We also had very present all the Christians and believers persecuted at this time in the world simply and solely because of being Christians, because of being believers.
ECUDIR Group of the Teresian Association