June 19, 2012      Martin Mallon   (Ireland)       Martin's previous articles

          BAPTISM, ECUMENISM AND VATICAN II

 
Brother Alois Löser, Prior of the Taize Community , France gave the catechesis session on the Monday of the International Eucharistic Congress. He gave a profound and beautiful talk which emphasised the teaching of Vatican II regarding Baptism, that this sacrament “links” the baptised of all denominations:  

“This first day ...wishes to deepen the meaning of our common baptismal faith. Mutual recognition of baptism among the various churches is a great gift that God has given us in the last century. Despite the certainty expressed by the Apostle Paul, “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism”, this recognition has not always been obvious....The Second Vatican Council asserted confidently “Baptism establishes a sacramental bond of unity which links all who have been reborn by it.” (Unitatis Redintegratio, no. 22).  

Löser demonstrated “the meaning of our common baptismal faith” by sharing with us the experience lived by the Taize Community. According to Löser “The life we live in Taize is intimately linked to the rediscovery of our common baptism, as in the words of Vatican II: “A beginning, an inauguration, wholly directed towards the fullness of life in Christ.”  

Brother Roger, the founder of the Taize Community, would “sometimes tell the young people gathered in Taize “If Christ were not risen we would not be here.” Br Löser added that “The Resurrection is central to the faith; it is the sign that God loves without limits...It continues to bring Christians together. It’s first fruit is the new communion born of it’s mystery. The centre of our faith is Christ, the Risen Lord, present here among us, who is in a personal bond of love with us and who by a common baptism brings us together. Br Roger called this reality “the Christ of communion.”  

Br Löser asks “what do the words the “Body of Christ” mean and why is reconciliation in the body of Christ so important? In the letters that St. Paul addressed to various communities of his time, he refers to the Church as the “Body of Christ” to try to help them understand the mystery of the unity between Christ and Christians, and the mystery of unity between Christians…”  

Löser said that this body is united by baptism, which is the reason St Paul writes “In the one spirit we were all baptised into a single body”. (1 Cor 12:13 ) In this way the unity of all Christians is hammered home by St Paul .  

Brother Löser highlights the gifts all the baptised receive from Christ who goes as far as giving us his own life, the Holy Spirit. Löser also emphasises that unity of the baptised was a prayer of Christ; he not only wants the Church and the different denominations to be united, but he wants to bring “us with himself into the communion of the Holy Trinity.”  

The beauty of Christ’s plan is apparent and breathtaking: “The gift that Christ gives to humankind; he bears us within himself; he brings us with himself to the communion of the Holy Trinity, he makes us “sharers in the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4). He does not only pray that all might be one, but that they may be one “in us”.  

This communion in God accomplished through baptism is an exchange. In becoming flesh, God chooses to take on human frailty. He comes to live amidst our divisions and our pain. Christ meets us at the lowest point; he becomes one of us so as better to reach out his hand to us. In him God welcomes our humanity and in exchange he gives us the Holy Spirit, his own life.”  

Baptism makes us all ambassadors, Brother Löser then points out, we have a mission: “Christ makes all the baptized ambassadors of reconciliation in the world. We are the Body of Christ, not in order to feel good together and to withdraw into ourselves, but to reach out to others.”  

Löser insists on the importance of humanity achieving unity in order to achieve unity with God, and the Church is to be the visible sign of this as stated in Vatican II:  

"We cannot receive unity with God without receiving unity among all human beings. The purpose of the Church is to be the visible sign, the sacrament of this. The Second Vatican Council expressed it with great clarity by saying: “The Church is, in Christ, like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race” (Lumen Gentium 1,1)."  

Br Löser then shows us that as we are all baptised in the one spirit then ecumenism cannot simply be a question of us attempting to bring the different denominations into step; it is essential to give baptism priority over denominations:  

“If communion, founded in baptism in one Spirit, is a gift from God, then ecumenism cannot be primarily a human effort to harmonize different traditions. It must situate us within the truth of the redemption of Christ, who prayed: “My wish is that where I am, they too may be with me” (John 17:24 ).”  

Ecumenism requires us to live in communion with God or as Maurice Zundel, a Swiss theologian of the last century stated “ecumenism is just idle chatter.”  

The “Groupe des Dombes,” a group of Protestant and Catholic theologians in France , called “for priority to be accorded to baptismal identity over denominational identity.” This view tied in with the image of Dorotheus of Gaza, in the sixth century that “if God is at the center of a circle, the more the radii approach the center, the closer they come to one another.”

 All the members of the Taize Community, which is made up of different denominations, are permitted by the local bishop, since 1973, to receive communion in the Catholic Church. This is ecumenism, a real sign of unity and hopefully a sign of more unity in the future.  

Baptism must now be given priority over denominations as suggested by Br Löser and Vatican II. This would highlight the unity of the Christian Churches , rather than their divisions, and should bring the desire of Christ, “that they may all be one” (John 17:21 ), closer.  

The full speech can be heard here   

The speech can be read here