Magyar Egyház, 1966 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1966-05-01 / 5. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 7 MAGYAR CHURCH "THE HOLY SPIRIT OUR HELPER" Pentecost Message fom the Presidents of the World Council of Churches As Presidents of the World Council of Churches it is our privilege once again to declare the message of Pente­cost and especially to echo its note of assurance that God is with us as an ever-present helper. We would catch again the meaning which lies behind the old translation of “Comforter.” The Holy Spirit has come, still comes and will come to our aid and our rescue. We call to your remembrance what our Lord said as He anticipated God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. In the darkened world of His day when the shadows were lengthening over His own life He said to His disciples: “but the Comforter, whom the Father will send in My name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). Pentecost confirms the historical reality of our faith. Whatever men may do or may not do they cannot alter the fact that our world was the scene of God’s great re­deeming acts, and that in a human life He manifested the fullness of His grace and glory. Having come into our world and our life, God has never forsaken them. In our common life, witness and activity, God, through the continuing presence and activity of His Holy Spirit, is our helper. When we reflect on our common calling to work for the unity of the Church and of all mankind, for social, economic justice and for the peace of the world, and when we size up the magnitude of the tasks we thus confront, we become aware of our in­adequacy. It is in such a moment that the message of Pentecost sounds in our ears with relevance and clarity. We did not choose these tasks, we were chosen for them. The reason why we are engaged in them at all is because God called us by the Holy Spirit to attempt them and by that same Spirit evoked the response of obedience in us. The Spirit is ever helping our infirmities, making His strength pefect in our weakness. Pentecost with its mes­sage of the Holy Spirit, the Helper, sounds for us here and now, and even in the darkest hour a great “Sursum Corda.” “Lift up your Hearts.” Pentecost is not only an assurance about the past and the present, but also about the future; “When the spirit of truth comes ... he will declare to you things that are to come” (John 16:13). The truth about the future, the future of our world, of each one of us, is in the mind of the Spirit. Power to possess the future in the name of Jesus, the Christ, this is the gift of the same Spirit and of Him alone. We pray that through the message of Pentecost, that God is our Helper, Churches and Christian people every­where may be given new heart and confidence and find in Him the source of the only lasting hope. The Presidents of the World Council of Churches: Honorary President: J.H. Oldham — St. Leonards-on-Sea, United Kingdom Archbishop Iakovos — New York Sir Francis Ibiam — Enugu, Nigeria The Archbishop of Canterbury — London Principal David G. Moses — Nagpur, India Dr. Martin Niemoeller — Wiesbaden, Germany Charles Parlin —- New York Bishop Louis Nagy: “Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me . . (Psalms 51:11) At Pentecost the Christian world gives thanks for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for the birth of the Christian Church. I will repeat King David’s penitent prayer: “. . . take not Thy Holy Spirit from me . . .” When King David had Uriah killed in order to take his wife, Bathsheba, Nathan, the prophet of the Lord reproached him of his sin. Then, David confessed his sin, admitted that he deserved God’s judgment, and was waiting for the resultant punishment from God. He was not afraid of death but his soul was trembling at the thought that God might cast him away from His presence and that He might take His Holy Spirit from him. He who cannot stand before the presence of God is a con­demned castaway. Even the Holy Spirit has been taken from such a man, for it is the Holy Spirit that brings us before God. Damnation and hell can be described thus: spiritually orphaned, a world without hope, in which there is no more chance to stand in the sight of God. The man who is deprived of the Holy Spirit steps into a world where all hope is dead. Dante called this world without hope: hell. Our prayer should be everyday of our lives, not only at Pentecost: “. . .take not Thy Holy Spirit from me . ..” Without the Holy Spirit there is no life, neither is there any church life, because a man without the Holy Spirit has no God. * King David knew well, that man cannot live without the Holy Spirit. No psalms grow in the heart, no prayers rise from the lips, the strings of the harp don’t vibrate anymore, there is no more longing in the heart to stand in the presence of the Lord. He from whom the Holy Spirit has been taken, has no God, that man is dead while he lives. Don’t pity the poor, the suffering, those who groan under sorrow’s weight, the prisoner, but pity the man from whom the Holy Spirit has been taken away. The Holy Spirit can open prison doors, can bring deliverance to the captives, can console those in great sorrow, and can relieve the sufferer’s pain. Weep for the man who is without the Holy Spirit, for he is the most forlorn and orphaned even in the crowd and he is the poorest even when he lives in abundance. He may be honored by everyone but he is a forgotten man by God. Have you ever seen a color-blind man before whose eyes the symphony of the colors of a miraculous spring have

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