Calvin Synod Herald, 1985 (85. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1985-02-01 / 1. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 5 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA From Mount A vas to Mount A vas Necrology on Dr. László Harangi by Dr. Stephen Szabó In the necrology I wrote on our beloved Laci Harangi in the recent issue of the “Reformátusok Lapja” I said: “His pilgrimage on this earth could be phrased: ‘From Mount Avas to Mount Avas’. In spite of the fact that Laci was born a decade after me, we were twin brothers. The exactly parallel tracks of our lives made us twins. MISKOLC. We both were raised in the city of Miskolc, under the legendary Mount Avas, elevating high from the heart of the city, crowning the second largest city of Hungary. Mount Avas remained at the center of his life until death. His sudden and unexpected death came as a lightning on the street of this native city of his. He was interned on the hill side of Mount Avas, in the ancient cemetery surrounding the Avas-church, the magnificent medieval landmark cathedral. He was buried in the grave just a few yards from the grave of my own beloved parents. His will and wish foretold was actually and mysteriously fulfilled. SÁROSPATAK. We both had our higher education in the more than four century old Sárospatak Kollégium, nestled under the shadow of the impressive Rákoczy Fortress-castle so rich in history on bank of the Bodrog river. Laci, in his total being and in all his actions, always remained the perfect embodiment of what we so proudly call ‘The Spirit of Sárospatak’. ENGLAND. We both completed our post-graduate studies in England’s most famous universities: he in Cambridge and I in Oxford. Cambridge and Oxford are eternal rivals, but we were not! We stayed true and good friends throughour all our life in perfect harmony. We both returned from England to Miskolc. Soon after an Englishman met his accidental death in our native town. He was the resident receiving engineer of England at the Diósgyőr Vasgyár. In those days huge shipments of railroad tracks were ordered by England for India and shipped directly from Miskolc to the Far-East. This receiving Englishman one day had a fatal fall from the steep rocks of Mount Avas. His widow requested an English funereal strictly conducted by the ritual of the Church of England. The British Embassy at Budapest asked me to perform the special service. Laci Harangi attended that service and all his life quoted to me and to others the unusual funeral on Hungarian soil. Now he himself is buried there in the same Avas Cemetery just at a short distance from the Englishman’s grave. What strange coincidents can life on earth produce much to our sorrow! FAR-EAST. Both of us had the extraordinary priviledge to travel through the Far-East. Very few Hungarians ever do, though the cradle of our race had been oscillating in that part of the world long-long ago. He did by his own choice, I by the compulsion of history. The Himalaya Mountains of far-away Tibet had a strong ‘call of the wild’ on his soul. He made a pilgrimage to the grave of our great Körösi Csorna Sándor, the Hungarian Marco Polo, and placed an abiding gravemarker on the monument of the immortal explorer. In this present two-hundredth anniversary year of Körösi Csorna’s birth numerous celebrations were held and books published in Hungary honoring that chapter of World History. Our László Harangi long time before these commemorations made his historic journey and held great number of lectures all over about our Körösi Csorna. AMERICA. We both spent the second half of our lives here in America. Again, he by choice and I by the drastic turn of History. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh. At the same place I received two of my masters before returning to Debrecen for my Ph.D. During his ministry in Pittsburgh and after I had great many intimate contacts with him and his family as Synod President and then as Dean of the Lakeside Classis. At the death of Dr. Alexander Tóth our László became fulltime editor of our ‘Reformátusok Lapja’ in Oberline, OH. When the National Church unfortunately ceased to grant subsidy to our Synod for the fine publication, László gave up the editorship. I was drafted by Synod to save the Paper, so I succeeded him. While in Oberlin the great tragedy struck the Harangi family. Antóka, while driving, got involved in a serious car-crash. I will never forget the fatal night I spent with László in prayers by the hospital bed-side of the dying wife and injured children. I officiated at the sorrowful funeral of his first wife the same way as he did at the funeral of my first. Life by no means is all sunshine, often it is cloud and thunder-storm! Then after the thunder-storm came sunshine again. God’s grace gave him his second wife, Rózsa Búzás by her maiden name, who in the last nineteen years of his life became his guardian angel, devout and loyal partner. What a golden chapter at the close of a wonderful Book of Life?! Here again our two lives ran on parallel tracks! What unbelievable and mysterious parallel tracks of two different lives running side by side throughout seven decades of the century?! I would not be true either to the blessed memory of my dear ‘twin-brother’ László, nor to myself, if now at the end as a ‘finale’ of this necrology, I would not turn to the language that was the dearest to his heart, as it is to mine and to the heart of most of us here present. One more and final parallel, but in Hungarian! Meglepően találó párhuzamaink végső akkordjaként Babits Mihály drámai szépségű költeményének néhány sorával zárom. Címe: Isten Gyertyája. Isten Gyertyája volt a költő, Isten Gyertyája volt a mi eltávozott drága Harang Lászlónk, ugyanannak érzem én is jó magamat az O kegyelméből. Engem nem tudnak eloltani: élek és itt vagyok, itten!
