Magyar Egyház, 1972 (51. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1972-08-01 / 8-9. szám
16 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ MAGYAR CHURCH It Is Written It is written that man shall not live by bread alone. Nearly two thousand years ago the Son of God challenged the people of his day to live for something of eternal value. For the most part, his words fell on deaf ears. The response given them through the centuries has been less than enthusiastic. And in our own time, the majority of people consider Christ to be an idealistic and impractical visionary. The dedicated service of a minority of believers led, over the years, to the construction of billions of dollars worth of churches, homes for orphans and the aging and hospitals. But these are but the outward signs of Christ’s influence. Behind them we see the demonic powers at work: national anarchy and international chaos, suffering and need in a world of plenty. Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, noted wryly that Christ was the only real Christian. He claimed that those who called themselves Christians, followers of Christ, were individuals who clung to the framework of organized religion but had long since lost sight of the inner meaning of faith. According to D. Elton Trueblood the crisis of our age is a profoundly spiritual one. At its very center is the Church — no longer able to speak with certainty, no longer free to be itself, but serving as a tool of the society it once helped to liberate. The new movements among the young may be prophetic in nature. The “Jesus cult” is essentially a radical criticism of the existing religious structures. It tells of a generation disillusioned by the failure of the Christian faith to relate itself meaningfully to a world gone mad. It is a challenge to all believers and a warning to those who still think that the Church can be so much a part of the world that it can retain its freedom to be a part of God’s redeeming community. “Man does not live by bread alone!” And, if in our quest for fulfillment we find ourselves overcome by despair and loneliness, we will necessarily discover that our spiritual integrity is bought at a terribly high price. But then, Calvary’s Cross stands before us as the symbol of the price God himself had to pay. Let us not be misled, the Christian faith suffers when it lives in a time of outward prosperity. The way of martyrdom, tragic though it be, may well become the price we must pay for acting as though the bread of life is less than the Incarnate Lord himself. Charles A. Darocy AT THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW church in McKeesport, pa. Excerpts from the speech of Judge Albert A. Fiok, at the banquet: July 23rd, 1972 When we consider the tremendous changes, which have taken place in this community during the last half century, and consider that institutions and famous landmarks have disappeared within such period, we begin to appreciate more the continued existence of this congregation, which has withstood those pressures which have caused others to fold. It is not my calling or desire to relate the history of the founding of this church. Like so many of our Hungarian institutions, the answer simply lies with the exodus of Hungarians from the old country, particularly after the turn of this century. Many came without families. They heard of the dreams of this country as the land of plenty, of opportunity to make money unheard of in their land of birth. They came and settled in cities such as New York, Trenton, Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and McKeesport. They came with hopes and aspirations to find that the only work for most of them was in coal mines, coke ovens, steel-mills, and the farms. They worked with their muscles and the sweat of their brows, living in boarding houses, and hoping and praying, that they could save enough to purchase a little land back home and return to the “mother country.” But the First World War changed that. Contacts with their families became impossible, and after the war, return was inadvisable and they began to think in terms of permanent residency here.
