Brother Roger on True Discipleship: A Call for Unqualified Commitment

Unrelentingly, O Christ,

You interrupt me, and you ask:

"Who am I, for you?"

You are the one who loves me thoroughly,

Into the life that has no end.

You open up the path of risk for me, and

You go before me on the way of holiness,

Where happy is the person who dies in loving,

Where the witness of martyrdom is the ultimate response.

There is a "no!" within me;

You transform it day after day into a "yes!"

You do not ask me for a few bribes,

But for the whole of my existence.

And me? Why have I hesitated for so long,

Pleading to be given time to do my own things?

After having put the hand to the plow,

why do I look back?

Without realizing it,

I was becoming unfit to follow you.

Nevertheless, without having seen you I have loved you.

You kept telling me;

"See how little of the Gospel you have understood.

Just tell my life story to the people,

Just light a fire on the earth.

You, follow me."

And finally, one day, I did understand:

You were calling me for my unqualified commitment

(Tu appleais ma resolution sans retour). 

Brother Roger Schutz, Taize

Born: May 12, 1915

Died: August 12, 2005