158 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT For me it would not be, it would make no sense. Because if we share all the life, the daily life, why couldn’t we share also the sacrament of what is our unity, which means the sacrament of the Eucharist [-] of Christ. If we share everything, if we’re not able to share what, the basis on which is groun~, the ground on which is based the, our common life, it would be~ for me, it would be a nonsense… … ….377 Positive experiences The same experience can, of course, be articulated in a positive sense. Apparently, BF would experience a shared Eucharist as corresponding with a shared life. Indeed, BF does remark that, if scandal was avoided, he would happily receive Communion in an Anglican service.378 This resonates with what TA says about the Eucharistic practice of Taizé. He says: For me, it was something rather natural, but that may have been because here I…because I saw, indeed, that what happened here may certainly not be perfect, and I am sure of that now, I mean, that has been confirmed indeed that what we do here is not perfect… um…but it is… that the community is consistent, or that the community, indeed that it is coherent what we um… what we practice here….379 TA indicates that he experiences in the life of the Taizé community the continuity between common life and the Eucharist, which BF found lacking in his stories. Sister BG agrees, saying: “I feel it’s right, because we had the life together, so, we are a communion of life.”380 And Brother TB points to the desire of Brother Roger for a common celebration of the Eucharist when the first Catholics joined the Taizé community. Finally, I want to present another quote from Brother TB’s interview. He, too, speaks of this continuity. Yet, in his quote, we encounter the complexity of the relationship between the common life and the Eucharist. As such, it marks the transition to the other side of the coin: TB starts by indicating that the Eucharist is inevitably part of the Christian common life but then continues by arguing that the common life flows from the Eucharist. Speaking about the place and significance of the Eucharistic practice of Taizé for the ecumenical process at large, TB contemplates: 377 BE-1,90. 378 BF-1,24. 379 TA-1,16a. 380 BG-1,28.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw