Magyar Egyház, 1959 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-03-01 / 3. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 11 happened. Just a few years, maybe less, the sad disciples must have been thinking, and the memory of the gentle Master would fade away. He was so young. Not an old, wise teacher who was with his disciples for decades and created a well trained group of followers. Followers who having made careful recordings of his teaching would be able to continue and develop it. The death, the unfortunate, miserable, terrible death of this young teacher was so sudden that it shattered all chances of the future. Reality number two: the Church. Beginning at Pentecost, the first three-thousand following the bold preaching of the disciples. They did not go back to their former jobs. No more disappointment, resignation, slowly fading memory; but joyous, unshakeable and bold witness to a living Lord. The underlying reason was reality number three: the resurrection of Christ. Of course, realities number two and three should be interchanged in order to make the logical sequence straight. For without the real experience of their living Master the disciples could not possibly have received the power, the courage, the conviction for their witnessing. No imagination and no conspiracy would have been able to bring about what has become the Church of Jesus Christ. And since He had died on Good Friday the only way the disciples could have a real experience of Him was that He rose on the third day. Reality number four: if He is risen then our relationship to Christ can only be to one living. Not to a person who once lived in history, not to a memory and not to an idea developed by someone who now has been dead for 2,000 years — but to a living Lord. We certainly cannot meet Him in the body He had 2,000 years ago, in Palestine. We can meet Him wherever and whenever his Spirit is manifested. In His Gospel, in the Lord’s Supper, in the Church. Not by merely reading the Scriptures, not merely by going through a ritual, not by merly joining the membership of an institution called Church. Rather by becoming so filled by His Gospel that we start acting like Him; by doing this not alone but as a fellowship, together; and by drawing others into this fellowship. Think about these things, therefore. Enjoy the fragrance of spring and the beauty of the Easter lilies, they belong to Easter, too. But only after you have experienced the reality of Easter. After having met your living Lord. You shall find Him is His Word, in His Sacrament and in His Church. ANDREW HARSANYI THE SACRAMENTS After the discussion of preaching and prayer, we now have a few words about the sacraments of the Christian Church. In this article we shall discuss the sacraments in a general way, and later we shall examine each sacrament separately. The Church of Jesus Christ has only two sacraments: Holy Baptism and the Lords Supper. Both were instituted by Jesus Christ himself. So, when we baptize a person we obey the commandment of Jesus who said: “go and baptize all nations.” And when we administer the Lord’s Supper, again, we obey the Lord, for He said: “This do in remembrance of Me.” For what purpose did Jesus institute these two sacraments? First, our Lord Jesus Christ instituted these two sacraments to be reminders of His sacrifice on the cross. The communion broken bread should symbolize for us His broken body which was indeed broken by sufferings and death on the cross. And the baptismal water and the communion wine should make us remember His blood which was shed on the cross from His broken body. Second, through these two sacraments Jesus wants us to be in a real union with Him. According to His words, if we worthily partake in the sacraments, we shall be so truly united with His broken body and shed blood as our body is united with the water, bread and wine of the sacraments. This union with Jesus Christ in the sacraments cannot be described with human words. Although He is is heaven, yet the true participants of the sacraments are truly united with His body and blood. This is a great mystery. However, it can be well understood from the Bible that this mysterious union with Jesus Christ in the sacraments bestows upon us great blessings. The blessings which we receive in the sacraments are those which Jesus obtained for us through his sufferings and death on the cross. What did Jesus obtain for us through his sufferings and death on the cross? Most briefly we can say He made the almighty, righteous, majestic God our loving heavenly Father. And our heavenly Father shows his love to us by forgiving our sins, helping us with the Holy Spirit to keep our faith and fight against our sins, assuring us our resurrection from the dead and our entrance into heaven. It is also important to keep in mind that that blessed, mysterious union with Jesus in the sacraments, and the blessings of this union (as mentioned above) will be ours only if we partake in the sacraments worthily. That person partakes in the sacraments worthily who most sincerely admits his total sinfulness, and believes that without the sacrifice of Jesus there would be no forgiveness, nor an eternal heavenly life for him after death, but eternal damnation in hell. And also, the true participants of the sacraments will show with their converted every day life that they are grateful for what Jesus did for them and they will see the true goal of their earthly life in serving and glorifying God, living by his holy commandments. Finally, we can say that our participation in the sacraments is a visible sign of our belonging to the true believers of Jesus Christ, that is, to the Christian Church. Only those can be regarded as true members of the Christian Church who are baptized and are worthy guests of the Lord’s Supper. STEPHEN KOVÁCS Infeld, the well-known Polish scientist made this remark while attending a congress of scientists at Vienna, Austria: “I was bom in Krakow. Fifty years ago my father took me along to Vienna to see the sixtieth anniversary of Emperor Francis Joseph. It took us seven hours to get from Krakow to Vienna by rail. Today you need fourteen hours to make the same trip. This is what I call progress...” The champion of this "progress” bears this name: Iron Curtain. 1
