Magyar Egyház, 1972 (51. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1972-03-01 / 3. szám
10 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ is for. It tells us how Jesus reconciled the love and justice of God, taking on Himself on the cross the punishment for our sins, the penalty for man’s mistakes. The rest is up to us. God’s work of love and reconciliation on the cross is accomplished. We can be sons, not strangers, if like the prodigal we will return in faith and love to the Father. All it takes is an act of the will, a step of faith. The barriers are down. He took the punishment, and ours can be the peace. I have heard how one old Christian saint put it. She was crippled with disease. A friend asked her, “Do you suffer much?” “Yes,” she said, “but there is no nail here,” and she pointed to her hand. “He had the nails, I have the peace.” She pointed to her head. “There are no thorns here. He had the thorns, I have the peace.” She touched her side. “There is no spear here. He had the spear, I have the peace.” This is part of our salvation, a glorious part of what the apostle meant when he wrote of Jesus Christ: “making peace by the blood of his cross.” The Very Rev. Tibor Dömötör with Géza Benko chief elder and Tibor Dolinsky vice chief elder of our Hollywood, Cal. church. LOVE Love.— What does that word mean to you? To me it means many things: warmth, happiness, security, peace. I think of my husband, my children, my mother, my home, also the home I left when I married — the new family I entered into. Special relatives and friends. My mind drifts on to beautiful music, beautiful passages and stories, places I’ve visited, daisies. I remember pets I’ve had — vacations to Grandma’s house, special experiences. There are also some painful thoughts. I could go on and on. There are many kinds of love: Christian love, parental love, sexual love, brotherly love. Is there no greater love than ... a mother and father’s love for their children . .. grandparents’ love for their grandchildren ... a child’s innocent love for “mommy and daddy” ... for “grandma and grandpa” ... for a special relative ... for a toy or a pet... the love between a wife and her husband,. . . the love between a boy and his girl,... the love between friends, relatives or in-laws ... Is there no greater love than these ... ? YES, there is a greater love: GOD’S LOVE! God first loved us. He made the world, He made man, He made a companion for man, He gave them children, He gave them all the things they needed. He gave us His onlybegotten Son to die for our sins! LOVE. Heavenly Love. The most important building ingredient of all the various manifestations of God’s Power. Love, the Church’s most effective weapon, anyone’s most effective weapon. Love, the essence of God’s nature. Love, the perfection of Human Character, — Love, the most Powerful Ultimate Force in the Universe. If we give all we have to the poor, if we give up our lives, if we have not Love, it profits us nothing. If we can speak all truths well and have all knowledge, if we have the faith that moves mountains, if we have charity to our last dollar, all of these are useless, unless we have the spirit of Christian Love. CHRISTIAN LOVE should be the basis for our every day living. Our every thought and action should be influenced by Christian Love. Our God who first loved us, commands that we in turn, love our neighbor as ourselves. This means reaching out beyond our own family circle, letting our every word and action be inspired by his perfect love. We show the world how we love God by how we treat each other. The how and when and what of all we do should immediately give the impression to others that Christ is the center of our lives, that we truly act with Christ at our side. Do we? . . . Do our actions show Christian love or something else? .. . John writes “And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also” (2. John 4:21). Love can be shown in many ways, yet without love there would be no meaning to life — No Life At All. Mrs. Sharon Nagy (Used as a meditation for Women's Club meeting.) The Very Rev. Tibor Dömötör, dean visiting our congregation in Ontario, California, where Rev. Bertalan Negyesy is the pastor.
