Taizé

Taizé is an ecumenical community in mid-France near to the city of Lyon in which I had the pleasure of spending a week. It was an ineffable experience but I will try my best to do it justice; a task I simply will not achieve.

Despite being a Christian run community, including daily bible talks and prayers three times a day, the atmosphere was very welcoming of those of other belief systems. Everyone we encountered was calm and accepting, this may have been something intrinsic to Taizé or simply a fundamental characteristic of the patrons, or possibly a numinous movement by the Holy Spirit. There was a lot of time given to us for silent reflection and personal growth, I maximised this time by considering some theological issues I have with Christianity, although I did not come back a converted Christian I did manage to overcome some obstacles in the way. Some of these came through systematic theology and others from conversations with fellow visitors.

There were two main issues I resolved internally and they are as follows;

Loving God by reason: Most people will conclude that it is not rational to say “God loves me” but it is just as irrational to say “my mother loves me”. In both instances despite ones mother being a physical being that one can interact with, the answer we get from this question still requires a certain level of belief and trust in the honesty of the answer, so in this way it is just as reasonable (or irrational depending on your viewpoint) to accept this answer, in both cases we are accepting the love from someone who brought us into creation.

God's presence: I have historically held the position that one should not accept a belief in God in times of weakness and vulnerability, as in these times we are more susceptible to things we don’t really believe in. However if God were to reach out to man he would reach out to him in these times of weakness as in strength we often feel as if we don’t need God.  God will find the hungry, the sick and the poor more than the rich the fed and the healthy. (John 6:35, Luke 1:53)

The head brother also resolved an issue I have with the division in the Church, it is common to see every denomination trying to take God for themselves, but Brother Alois believes that the Church will always find a unity as “Christ is united”. I found myself agreeing with this as Jesus is in hypostatic union with his humanity and divinity and Christ is the Church that never falls so in this way the Church is always united.

During this week I met many new people from all walks of life, I gained a lot from them and I would hope that they too gained something from me in return, sometimes it was a major revelation and sometimes it was simply them setting the first cogs in motion that led to a greater conclusion. During this week I discovered the real meaning of Christian discipleship, and what it means to “love thy neighbour”. Taizé is a prime example of the genuine visible community of Christ, whether by their own righteousness or not, in any case I have never been more content than I am after this visit.

"Taizé is a little piece of the garden of Eden. Everyone respects each other, everyone is equal and we are all friends even if we have never met before."