by Ken Henke, Princeton Theological Seminary
On Tuesday, August 23, funeral services will be held for Brother Roger of Taizé. At the age of 90, he was attacked with a knife by a woman, most probably mentally disturbed, in the midst of community prayer in the Church of Reconciliation at Taizé, France. He died shortly afterward.
The son of a Swiss Reformed pastor, at age 25 he left his native Switzerland and came bicycling into the tiny, poor hamlet of Taizé in France, seeking a place where he could quietly devote himself to a life of prayer and contemplation. A peasant woman, keeper of the keys to the run-down house and property which Roger Schutz had come to look at, begged him to buy the house and stay. Later on, when asked, “Why Taizé?” Roger Schutz was to say: “I chose Taizé because the woman was poor. Christ speaks through the poor, and it’s good to listen to them. Anyone who begins with the poorest of the poor is not likely to go wrong.”
In the months to come Brother Roger (as he was later to become known) began to work out the details which would set the pattern for life at Taizé. At the heart of this life he placed the traditional monastic practices of regular fervent prayer and simple hospitality. Like the French Carmelite of an earlier century, Brother Lawrence, he sought to live fully in the present moment of God, accepting each day as it came in loving gratitude and attempting to make himself fully available to serve the needs of his neighbors. “Throughout your day let work and rest be quickened by the Word of God,” he later wrote in the Rule of Taizé. “Maintain interior silence in all things, in order to dwell in Christ. Become filled with the spirit of the Beatitudes-joy, simplicity, and mercy.”
Brother Roger stayed alone in his house at Taizé till the autumn of 1942. During this time his home became a place of refuge for Jews and others escaping from Nazi-occupied France. He was finally forced to return to Switzerland when the Gestapo learned of his activities.
After the war Brother Roger came back to Taizé, this time with a few new “brothers” who wished to share in his life. They took in children who had been orphaned, ministered among the German prisoners of war, and helped start a co-op together with the local French farmers. Refusing all gifts, the small community found ways to earn their own living. From time to time brothers went out “on mission,” laboring for awhile among the working classes in the cities of France or sharing the hardships of the dock workers of Algeria. Wherever they went they sought to be quiet “signs of Christ’s presence” and “carriers of joy.” Slowly the community grew.
Taizé was from the beginning concerned with reaching out across denominational barriers to heal the divisions in the Christian family. The brothers of Taizé sought to be a focal point where Christians from various traditions could discover the strengths, beauty, and value of each other’s heritage. Today there are over one hundred brothers from some twenty-five different countries who have made a life-commitment to the work of Taizé. They live not only in France, but in the slums and ghettos of the poor in all parts of the world. They come out of a wide variety of theological and denominational backgrounds-Roman Catholic, Anglican, various Protestant traditions-and have built strong ties with the churches of Eastern Orthodoxy as well. Brother Roger’s ecumenical outreach brought him especially close to Pope John XXIII, and he was invited to be present in Rome during the Second Vatican Council. Even in later years, when things sometimes seemed dark, he liked to remember John XXIII’s advice: “Be joyful, seek the best, and let the sparrows chirp.”
Beginning especially in the 1960’s and swelling to ever greater numbers in the following decades, Taizé has also become a place of pilgrimage for young people. This development, totally unplanned for, altered radically the outward life of the brothers. Once living in quiet seclusion, they now became deluged with visitors all year round. For those unable to make the trip to Taizé, special meetings have been held in East and West Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the U.S. and Canada. These meetings provide opportunities to share and listen, to awaken oneself to the real dimensions of suffering in the world, and to discover anew sources of hope for living a life in solidarity with the poor and for a future of peace, a humanity freed from injustice and violence. Among the many gifts which Taizé has nourished among its visitors are a deeper appreciation for the value of silence and contemplative prayer in public worship and at the depths of one’s life; a realization that faith remains empty if it does not seek to address itself meaningfully to the fundamental issues of our time; a style of Christian witness that shows a concern for honestly acknowledging the genuine questions brought by others rather than seeking to prematurely supply authoritative answers; a concern for the ministry of peace, justice, and reconciliation among all peoples; an open welcome to seekers of every kind; and an attitude of listening which encourages those who come to search for the deepest truth of their own life and allow it to be transfigured in the light of Christ.
Let me close this short tribute with just a few selections for reflection from the writings of Brother Roger:
“Perfect joy is in the laying aside of self in peaceful love; to burst forth, this joy needs all your being.”
“Nothing is disastrous except the loss of love. Discovering a living relationship with God…contemplating God in the faces of others…restoring a human face to those disfigured…all of that is a single struggle, the struggle of love. Without love, what is the good of believing?”
“The spirit of [voluntary] poverty does not consist in pursuing misery but in setting everything in the simple beauty of creation…to live in the gladness of today. If God gives freely the good things of the earth, it is blessed to give what we have received.”
“We live at a time when many people are asking: what is faith? Faith is a simple trust in God, an indispensable surge of trusting undertaken countless times over in the course of our life…A simple heart attempts to live in the present moment, to welcome each day as God’s today…Our personal prayer is also simple. Do we think that many words are needed in order to pray? No. A few words, even inept ones, are enough to entrust everything to God, our fears as well as our hopes. By surrendering ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we will find the way that leads from worry to confident trust.”
“Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Living God, you breathe in us on all that is inadequate and fragile. You make living water spring even from our hurts themselves. And through you, the valley of tears becomes a place of wellsprings. So, in an inner life with neither beginning nor end, your continual presence makes new freshness break through.”
“Seeking you, the Christ, is discovering that you have already loved us and we did not know it. Through the Gospel, you enable us to catch a glimpse of how to love you, right into our innermost solitude. Happy are those who surrender themselves to you. Happy are those who approach you in trust of heart, source of serene joy.”
“O Christ, you take upon yourself all that weighs us down so that, freed of all that holds us back, at every moment we can begin anew to advance from worry towards confident trust, from the shadows towards the clear running waters, from our own will towards the vision of the Kingdom of God. In this way, though we hardly dare hope so, you enable every human being to be a reflection of your face.”
“It is through the heart, in the depths of themselves, that human beings begin to grasp the mystery of faith. Everything is not granted at once. An inner life is developed step by step. When we open the Gospel, each of us can say, ‘These words of Jesus are rather like a very ancient letter written in an unknown language. But since it is written to me by someone who loves me, I am going to try to understand its meaning, and to put into practice right away the little I have grasped’…”
“Faith-trusting in God-is a very simple reality, so simple that everyone could receive it. It is like surging upwards again and again, a thousand times, throughout our life, and until our very last breath.”
And this prayer from the Taizé website, where you can learn further details about Brother Roger, the Taizé community, and the broadcast of his funeral over the internet (http://www.taize.fr):
“Christ of compassion, you enable us to be in communion with those who have gone before us, and who can remain so close to us. We confide into you hands our Brother Roger. He already contemplates the invisible. In his footsteps, you are preparing us to welcome a radiance of your brightness.”