Reformátusok Lapja, 1968 (68. évfolyam, 8-12. szám)
1968-12-01 / 12. szám
Hungarian Reformed Religious Paper Founded in 1900 OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE CALVIN SYNOD—UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST The Babe in Swaddling Clothes DR. LÁSZLÓ RAVASZ Translated by Dr. Alexander Havadtőy “And this SHALL be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” Luke 2:12 The babe lying in a manger is a sign. This is the lesson of today’s Christmas Gospel. In the Holy Scripture, sign means an earthly thing which is endowed by God witli a secret and miraculous meaning. Outwardly, a sign is an insignificant thing: a piece of wood — the cross; dry leaf — manna; a few drops of blood — circumcision. But its meaning is immense wisdom which fills heaven and earth. The babe wrapped in swaddling clothes is such a sign. As a matter of fact, it is the only sign in the sense of the definition just given. On the outside it is a very small thing: a tiny life-hud that could he destroyed by a bird of prey; inwardly, however, it holds an enormous, indescribable secret and meaning. If we look at the symbols of this world, at the various signs in which mankind has expressed its entire divine heritage and heavenly expectation, we shall find pictures of animals, the sun, the moon, of men and women, of weapons and sepulchres; but, a child wrapped in swaddling clothes one can find only in Christianity. What is there in this sign? This is our question today? I. First, there is the whole world in it. Something like the center in a circle. A babe in a manger. And with His birth the entire universe is moved. Movement begins in heaven: angels are busy, flying in great hosts, and their wings almost sweep the earth. The planets are moving: a new star intrudes among the others and the old stars fade and tremble, and pay homage before the message of the new one. The eartli is in a commotion: from deep inside of Asia, the secret longing of the East, a ten thousand year old human thirst, sets out to bring its gold, myrrh and frankincense, and to see that habe wrapped in swaddling clothes — because He is tbe king of kings. Shepherds who tend their flocks by silent waters, streams and mud, who are t be most ignorant and simple people of the world, who do not even have any idea that the Roman emperor had conquered the world and ravaged empires and cities: now cannot find sleep; they are conversing with those angels above; and they consider it their most urgent task to get up and go to the city of David to see the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. Herod, the king of the Jews, becomes restless as if an earthquake had moved his throne. He takes hold, of the purple canopy as he staggers, and issues an order which benumbs his frightened empire stiff like a stone. It is possible that not too many know about this sign. See the emperor of the Roman empire undisturbedly pursuing his pleasures which make history. But where will the name and empire of this emperor be when the sovereigns of the earth bow their knees before this child! The mole does not notice the sun either, yet its life and death depends on the fact that there is a sun which warms the earth and creates life and growth on it. Yes, the whole of history is contained in this sign. Centuries and thousands of years march and pass before His face, like ironclad gray legions, and salute Him. They confess that before His birth every nation was longing and yearning for Him; He was the goal of their hope and prophecy; every century which follows Him takes its daily orders from Him; He is directing the whole strategy; from Him comes every initiative and every inspiration. In Him there is space enough for the whole world; He is always timely; He is the greatest issue as long as man lives on earth; and He is the center of the spiritual world wherever souls are found in this immense empire of existence. Those who are born are born for Him, because He is the greatest cause of every living person; those who die are dying for Him, because every deceased person is His harvest. To Him belongs life’s great arable soil, the threshing floor of tears and smiles, enthusiasm and apathy. His name is resounding in the soul’s warm tropical world; and His glory and judgement keep silence on its frozen snow covered fields. The world of ideas and feelings, of wills and visions, is formed around Him. The whole spiritual world is in Him. Why is the world in Him? Because there is in Him H. the man. His birth and His death broadened human fate to unlimited possibilities, and the great contradiction of both (birth and death) is dissolved in a secret which reveals the hitherto imagined glory of human life. In His birth glows with heavenly splendour the source of life. Until now birth was a damned, bloody gate through which the sinful love of parents drove armies of miserable slaves — millions of living persons; now this birth here on earth becomes a royal, triumphal arch through which passes the Child, in a ray of yet unknown glory. I cannot imagine a greater glorification
