Part 3
Catechesis on Communion and Baptism: A Passion for the Unity of Christ's Body
Brother Alois Löser, Prior of the Taizé Community
Monday, June 11 - 2pm
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| Br. Alois giving us our daily catechesis (teaching moment) in the Main Arena of the RDS |
"Without the Resurrection, we would not be here," Brother Roger said. "Christ is communion. He did not come to earth to start a new church but to gather all the communion in God."
Br. Alois (check out this brief bio for a better insight into the 2nd Prior in the history of Taizé) was maybe my favorite speaker of the Congress. His unique perspective as the prior of the globally preeminent ecumenical community was integral to the Monday's theme of Christian Unity. He is clearly an idealist and a staunch optimist, preaching the greatest of ecumenical hopes as realizable to a crowd of many different Christians. On the whole, I think he might be aiming higher than is realistic, but I think it is part of his personal call and the unique call of leading that community. I believe he is answering this call from God with incredible, inspiring faithfulness.
Unlike the first prior of Taizé, Alois is a Catholic. He told us, though, that he most conclusively discovered the Catholicity of the Church and his Catholic-Christian faith through the way he experienced it as lived in the Taizé Community.
Citing St. Paul, Alois points to the truth that there is only one baptism, that which initiates us into Christ. This emphasis by Alois has been popularized by one of the many mantra-based, circular prayer songs that has emerged from the Taizé Prayer music, the music that the brothers and their pilgrims sing together in prayer at Taize that has radiated outward all around the world. Its use of simple lyrics with realistically singable melodies have spread far and wide, due in part also to the songs' inclusion of many languages, sometimes adapting songs' refrains to work in several languages. "There is one God, one faith, one baptism..."
Br. Alois suggested to us that, when we are asked what religion we are, our answer should be, "I am a baptized Christian." Alois believes that the first and primary way that we should identify ourselves is as a person who has been baptized into Christ. He feels that this is at the root of some of the disunity among Christians.
My understanding of Alois is that we must seek to make the default setting for all Christians an emphasis on baptism, the one baptism. I don't think we can just say "it's all the same Christianity" or "we all believe in Jesus" and just leave it at that; regardless of who/what is right or wrong, the divisions within Christianity are both theological and emotional - the schisms created rivalry and tension on top of doctrinal or ritual discrepancies. So before we set out to unifying our theology and belief into a more united Christian catholic Church, we need to focus on our shared baptism and what it means.
A repeated theme of our ministry this year in Ireland has been the almost non-existent catechesis around baptism, both now for newly baptized babies and for adults who have grown up with no understanding of their baptism. Unfortunately, I found myself with much of the same ignorance that we are witnessing. The core root of it is that we need to realize the dignity of our baptism. The way that I personally summarize this is that we have been baptized into someone and something bigger than us.
We are initiated into Christ, and we must live as His love. As we live Christian lives, we can live in Him, as His Body, the Body of Christ, many members sharing together in the One who gave us eternal life and the gift of Love. We can start from there, deciding that as Christians, our primary identification lies in Christ. Perhaps from there, we can build toward fuller unity based on our shared study and prayer in the Bible; the 2008 Catholic Synod of Bishops affirms Baptism and the Word as the existing unities for Christians to share and build upon. Alois believes that lived faith and lived community are trailblazers toward theological communion.
When I studied ecumenism in London (here's links to 2 posts I wrote during the study: A Chat with a Monsignor and an intro to the project), my main takeaway - the thesis to my summary paper - was that ecumenism breeds a troublesome lack of identity, a genericized/vanilla Christianity that becomes too watery. Alois pointed to the foundations laid by his predecessor Roger, saying he never felt a loss or lack of identity in the Taize endeavors. To him, identity is communion with Christ, as realized in interaction with brothers and sisters. Roger found reconciliation between "the faith of his origins" and Catholic and Orthodox faith. And thus reconciliation became the charism of Taizé, bringing Christians together into fuller communion. He taught that Taizé must be "a parable of community" to the world.
Alois told us, "In the heart of God, the Church is one." It is up to us to discover ways to live and experience this reality of God. When it came to Roger and cultivating such an endeavor at Taizé, he sought full communion among Christians by having all members of the community (made up of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox men) receive Catholic Eucharist (under dispensation from the local bishop) and seeking to utilize the Pope as a unifying leader, a practice that John Paul II had advocated, offering himself to other Christians. Roger and Alois have done well over the years to build positive relationships with the popes in Rome as well patriarchs and bishops from several other Christian denominations. Taizé exists as a concrete example of something that Christians across the lines have agreed upon, not just in negotiated statements but also in significant practice.
Some other nuggets:
My understanding of Alois is that we must seek to make the default setting for all Christians an emphasis on baptism, the one baptism. I don't think we can just say "it's all the same Christianity" or "we all believe in Jesus" and just leave it at that; regardless of who/what is right or wrong, the divisions within Christianity are both theological and emotional - the schisms created rivalry and tension on top of doctrinal or ritual discrepancies. So before we set out to unifying our theology and belief into a more united Christian catholic Church, we need to focus on our shared baptism and what it means.
A repeated theme of our ministry this year in Ireland has been the almost non-existent catechesis around baptism, both now for newly baptized babies and for adults who have grown up with no understanding of their baptism. Unfortunately, I found myself with much of the same ignorance that we are witnessing. The core root of it is that we need to realize the dignity of our baptism. The way that I personally summarize this is that we have been baptized into someone and something bigger than us.
We are initiated into Christ, and we must live as His love. As we live Christian lives, we can live in Him, as His Body, the Body of Christ, many members sharing together in the One who gave us eternal life and the gift of Love. We can start from there, deciding that as Christians, our primary identification lies in Christ. Perhaps from there, we can build toward fuller unity based on our shared study and prayer in the Bible; the 2008 Catholic Synod of Bishops affirms Baptism and the Word as the existing unities for Christians to share and build upon. Alois believes that lived faith and lived community are trailblazers toward theological communion.
When I studied ecumenism in London (here's links to 2 posts I wrote during the study: A Chat with a Monsignor and an intro to the project), my main takeaway - the thesis to my summary paper - was that ecumenism breeds a troublesome lack of identity, a genericized/vanilla Christianity that becomes too watery. Alois pointed to the foundations laid by his predecessor Roger, saying he never felt a loss or lack of identity in the Taize endeavors. To him, identity is communion with Christ, as realized in interaction with brothers and sisters. Roger found reconciliation between "the faith of his origins" and Catholic and Orthodox faith. And thus reconciliation became the charism of Taizé, bringing Christians together into fuller communion. He taught that Taizé must be "a parable of community" to the world.
Alois told us, "In the heart of God, the Church is one." It is up to us to discover ways to live and experience this reality of God. When it came to Roger and cultivating such an endeavor at Taizé, he sought full communion among Christians by having all members of the community (made up of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox men) receive Catholic Eucharist (under dispensation from the local bishop) and seeking to utilize the Pope as a unifying leader, a practice that John Paul II had advocated, offering himself to other Christians. Roger and Alois have done well over the years to build positive relationships with the popes in Rome as well patriarchs and bishops from several other Christian denominations. Taizé exists as a concrete example of something that Christians across the lines have agreed upon, not just in negotiated statements but also in significant practice.
Some other nuggets:
- At Taizé, the prayer and worship consists of three daily prayer services, biblical teaching, and group discussions. They celebrate mostly Catholic masses for their Sunday prayer with occasional Orthodox or other Christian Sunday services instead.
- He admits that new Taizé-inspired communities may not have orthodox doctrines and beliefs, existing in some area even more shadowy than the place where Taizé sits in the scene of Christianity. Always the visionary, Alois still upholds these communities as places of utmost hope.
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