Magyar Egyház, 1988 (67. évfolyam, 2-4. szám)
1988-03-01 / 2. szám
6. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ THE BISHOP'S EASTERN MESSAGE MAKE THE LOVE OF CHRIST A DYNAMIC FORCE Year after year we celebrate Easter. The holiday in the church is marked by special music, an abundance of flowers, women in the old country used to parade in new hats and new dresses, and we have a particularly dignified service. But thinking of all this we may have a vexing notion: are we not dressing up the holiday because its spiritual dynamics are weak? For modern man, for us, that is. We faithfully repeat the 2000 year old Easter gospel story but the events of the story do not seem to come closer but rather more remote every passing year. I do not want to examine what our Easter experience was ten or even two years ago. Truly important is this year, now. Could it be true that for modern man Easter has become a "sentimental decoration" — as someone resignedly put it? What is it for us? Maybe we are looking at the passion story and Easter the wrong way. We are trying to go back twothousand years and put ourselves into that world and that situation. Then we uncomfortably discover that we do not fit into it. I propose we must do it the other way: bring Christ and the Easter-event into our world. We are too much occupied with examining the historic events of Christ's passion and death and the "how" of his resurrection easily missing the focal point of the Easter-event: liberated from the dominion of death Christ became a living reality to his disciples which ransformed them into men. We firmly believe that resurrection on Easter morn was an historic event. But instead of going back to search, examine and speculate to prove the physical truth of that event let us rather search and pray for the presence of the love of Christ today for the sake of our world encompassed by so much evil and misery. If we make the love of Christ a dynamic force in today's world through us we shall need no more proof of the resurrection. It will be proved that Christ is the Risen Lord! May the Lord's blessing rest upon you all. Bishop Andrew Harsanyi EASTER If we do not like to get old it is not because our youthful appearance and strength gradually disappear or because we have past the great experiences and expectations of our life. It is because we know that the days of our life are numbered. The time given to us on earth is running out. "The past gets larger and the future smaller like the sand in the top of an egg timer, until one day, the last grain will have dropped and there will be none left." We should look at death as a transition from a temporary present to an eternal future. Easter is a historical fact of the Man who was raised by God from death. What God had done for Christ He is willing to do it for us too. There is only one condition to it: we have to identify ourselves with Christ. We can have certainty that there is life beyond death. Christ's resurrection is the proof and promise of our own resurrection. If we follow Him in our earthly life, in spite of our imperfection He is ready to accept us, to change and transform us — to become perfect in His presence. Who will follow Him in sufferings, will follow Him in His glory. What kind of a life is awaiting for us after resurrection? We do not know the details. It is enough to know that the life which we are going to be partakers of will be lived in His presence in eternal activity, peace and love. The reality of resurrection is a matter of faith and not of speculation. Christ's victory over death will be our victory. Let us celebrate with the resurrected Christ, praising Him with joyful heart as His redeemed ones to eternal life. May God bless your Easter celebration with spiritual gifts and strengthen your faith in eternal life through the Lord of Life. Yours in his service Zoltán Király, Bishop ZSIGMOND HORVATH Zsigmond Horvath, bishop of the Hungarian Reformed Church in Slovakia (the present “official” name is Reformed Christian Church in Slovakia) died in Komarom. Also died, the same week, Mr. Bertalan Csaji, past chief elder of the Church. Bishop Harsanyi sent a cable to the Reformed Synodal Office of the Reformed Church in Slovakia expressing the condolences of the clergy and people of the Hungarian Reformed Church in America. ORDINATION OF REFORMED PASTORS IN SLOVAKIA Keston News Service reports that twenty-three pastors of the Reformed Church of Slovakia were ordained in November in Komarom (now Komamo). These were the first ordinations in the Church since 1976. All 23 candidates for the ministry were already providing pastoral service. About 95% of the members of the Reformed Church in Slovakia are ethnic Hungarians. Estimates of total membership vary from 130,000 to 225,000.
