TAIZÉ | PART 4 + BONUS
If I sound like I am promoting the Taizé community, I am. I do not think I am either blinded by my romanticized memory of Taizé or believing naively that the community is perfect. In my estimation, they have embodied and promulgated around the world an open and hospitable space. What may have started out as a commitment to serving the poor and doing so through forging an amicable relationship between the Catholic and Protestant traditions is a living testament that we are from the same root. I like what the late Thich Nhat Hanh captured, applying to this situation, “We are all the leaves of one tree. We are all the waves of one sea.” Personally, it serves as an apt reminder for me to embrace the Catholic tradition as part of my tradition and that Christianity did not start with the Protestant Reformation. I have lived long enough to know and have learned to hold that there are incredible blessings and crippling baggages in both Protestant and Catholic traditions. On a personal note, the embrace of the contemplative or mystical Catholic tradition as part of my tradition saved me during the darkest days of my life. I liken it to be a hidden deep well (hidden from me) which I discovered restored my soul when I most needed it.
The pursuit of discovering one’s true self is best facilitated and nurtured in a safe space where souls can be authentic and free. Taizé community has become one of those spaces where earnest seeking souls can come to. I believe we need more of those spaces everywhere including and foremostly cultivating our own souls to be safe to attract other souls. Each of us can become that safe harbor where other souls can come to dock without judgment and simple prescribed answers. Souls need expansive and hospitable space to explore and probe. No one soul is born ready to connect with God and with oneself. This space is essentially called “life” where we get to discover or uncover who we already are before God’s eyes. But it needs space, time, and process of life experiences to get there. What I have witnessed in Taizé is the radical acceptance and generous inclusivity at work starting from the brothers. It is not that I was not aware of this before Taizé but what Taizé did was to accentuate and speed up our desire to see alternative and safe communities rise up around the world, including cultivating and prepping our souls to be one such community wherever we are and wherever we go.
The cultivated space of Taizé stands at odds with the world. The world says to go faster, produce more, gain more, and be more famous. Taizé also lives as a gentle and yet firm critique of the Church. The Church says to perform or serve better, believe more firmly (mostly concerning doctrines or belief systems at head level), and be good (meaning don’t ask questions and be morally good). Being morally good is something we all need to aspire to but understanding the motivation for morality is crucial. It seems to me that there is a significant lacuna between what the institutional churches and organizations have become and what God has already ushered in through Christ, the upside-down Kingdom. What Taizé has tried to embody is a new way of being in the world, which was ultimately what Jesus was after.
BONUS
As I shared in the first part of this Taizé series, after our visit to Taizé, we drove to Brittany for a full week of rest and renewal. The hosts, Mike and Valerie, American missionaries working as bed and breakfast hosts, welcomed us warmly upon our arrival on a pitch-dark night. Since it was late, we were promptly directed to the entire wing of an exquisitely renovated 400-year-old manor, since we were the only guests at the time. Including a simple and yet elegant breakfast that featured at least half a dozen homemade jams and an amazing spread of assorted croissants and baguettes, we paid 30 euros per night for both of us. This was part of their gift and care for missionaries to come and simply rest and enjoy the secluded French countryside. Upon checking the website recently, I am pleasantly surprised that the rate has not changed since our visit.
Mike and Valerie were generous hospitable hosts, and we exchanged plenty of our stories during the breakfast hours and a couple of dinner hours, in which they served us 5-course meals. The spirit of Taizé persisted and its afterglow lingered through Mike and Valerie. We told them we would come back later. I think the time is coming . . .
For more info on the bed and breakfast, here is the link. They would love to host and pamper you. And tell them Chong Kim sent you.
