Magyar Egyház, 1980 (59. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
1980-01-01 / 1-2. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 9 seem to advance and profit by it. It is so easy for this businessman to say, “Why should I hold my banner high? Why not live by their code and get rich?” Here is a politician who still believes that his call to office is by the mandate of the people. He believes that public office is a public trust. He determines that he shall seek the highest interest of those whom he serves. But there are those less scrupulous in office who give people what they want and thereby get themselves reelected. It is so easy for him to say, “Why should I burn myself up ? Why not give people what they want and so get reelected? The person is not normal who is not sometimes staggered by these closed doors, whose soul is not chilled by cruel and undeserving reversals. It is a cheap thing to run up the white flag and say, “It is only a figment of the imagnation.” You cannot dodge hours like that. They come to all alike, old and young, rich and poor. They haunt like a vise and follow like a shadow. There are times when we must cry with the poet: Leave me not weary and dying, Lost and in pain Like a forgotten thing, lying alone In the rain. Whether or not you set your heart on the search for happiness or health or ambition or friendship, sooner or later we all face these closed doors. Circumstances beyond our control and which we could never foresee keep us from realizing our goals. Life has a 6trange way of throwing road blocks. What do you do when things like that happen? What can you make of this experience? How can one face these dilemmas? What has the religion of Jesus to say to people in an hour like that? By the ability to stand steadfast, life is always tested. Impetuous Peter never revealed the grandeur of his soul more than in the hour when he continued knocking. The worth of a person is laid hare in, “and having done all, to stand.” Those who take counsel of fear and frustration never build a better tomorrow. Fidelity to some high purpose, whatever the odds may be, marks the value of one’s inner being. Before these closed doors life is always asking, can you keep sweet in the face of bitterness?—patient in the face of frustration?—tolerant in the face of disillusionment? Can you toil without reward, and labor without returns? There is that inner voice which is always raising the inquiry, will you stand your ground?—will you see it through?— “are y ou able to drink the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” It is the person who stands his ground, refuses to give up and is determined to see it through who lifts the level of life and writes his name across immortality. The high achievements which history relates belong to those who refuse to turn their backs on some high adventure. All the progress in science, all advancement in civilization and all the enrichment of our culture has come to pass through those who refused to take no for an answer. That was the glory of Jesus. There has never walked this earth one who gave himself so completely to the needs of men. He dragged the sorrows of this generation across his soul. He identified himself with all in distress. He was the most compassionate person who ever lived. He went about helping and healing and doing good. But the harder he tried, the more was he entangled by a hostile generation. But he did not walk out on the adventure. He stayed with it to the end of the end. No more magnificent sentence was ever written about him than this: “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.” Something of that we must recover for our time. Much is said of the hoplessness of our present world. If it is true that on the continent one finds much of nihilism, then it is also true that we in our land have more than our share of cynicism. Many will tell you goodwill is a wonderful thing, but it won’t work. They have convinced themselves that hunger will always gnaw, disease will always ravage. It is so easy to shrug the shoulders, walk out on the adventure and say, “It is no use.” Many today are disposed to abandon the high adventure of freedom, justice and goodwill. That is the great peril of our time. We desperately need men and women who will face these dilemmas without fear and see them through until the barriers break down. Believe me, the hope of the world is in the hands of those who will not take counsel of despair. So I say to you when life tumbles in and the doors close, when the lamps go out and the lights begin to flicker; when hope no longer sees a star and love no longer sees the rustling of the leaves; when it is touch and go; remember there is the love of God to enhearten; the hand of God to hold; the strength of God to sustain and the light of God to guide. So may one stand steadfast before life’s closed doors unafraid. * ★
