Calvin Synod Herald, 1976 (76. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1976-01-01 / 1-2. szám

REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA

5

Bálint Kocsi Csergő and Ferenc Otrokocsi Foris. Plays, paintings, plaques and other memorials also commemorate their sufferings. Perhaps the most beautiful memorial is the white marbel monument erected by a widow, Mrs. Mihály Hegyi in Debrecen (1895) behind the Great Reformed Church and in front of the Reformed College. From year to year the theological students of Debrecen gather around this monument on October 31, the Day of Reformation and recall the text engraved under the bronze galley and the names of the galley slaves: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” It is befitting that we, too, place there the wreath of our gratitude and commitment.---------------*• » »»---------------\~jrace

First you cry.

Then you curse.

Then you pray.

Then you strain to the breaking point your left-over energies.

You will with a will storming heaven’s gates, but you smash your bloody skull on the stubborn wall of the impossible.

Then you faint.

And when you come to, you start everything all over again.

At the end in dazed torpor voicelessly, mindlessly you keep repeating to yourself: what’s the difference, all is in vain: from the dungeon of sin, sickness, suffering, of this dreadful daily drudgery there is no, there is no escape.

Then — by itself — the gates

that resisted the onslaught of

curse and prayer, and strength and will,

and despair and penitence — the gates yield,

by itself heaven opens,

and a tiny star is walking toward you,

coming so close with a pretty smile

that you can catch it in the palm of your hand.

Then — by itself — the storm subsides, then — by itself — calm descends, then — by itself — hope revives.

Every golden bough of the tree of your dreams brings forth fresh fruit — by itself.

This by itself — this is grace.

Sándor Reményik

Nov. 15, 1975

PUT OFF THY SHOES

Exodus 3:5

God the sovereign Lord of all reveals His holy will not for passing time but for eternity. He is powerful enough to wait for the right moment and a fit man. Thus it happened in the life of the chosen people. The revelation of God leads us to the significant period of the life of Israel. These people had been living in Egypt for four hundred years. The foreign land was a blessed instrument in the hands of Almighty God to keep His people alive. They saw many good days there, especially in the time of Joseph, but after his death they lived under many hardships, even starvation. The constant struggle required all their time, all their bodily strength and spiritual power — their entire being. They had no opportunity to lift their hearts unto God. In building cities in the delta of the Nile, they built with their perspiration and blood, and even hope, in the culture of the land of Pharaohs. In these tragic days, a man, Moses, was sent by God, as a leader for the chosen people and as a foe for the oppressor. The outside events of the life of Moses are precipitations and reflections of the inner life of the chosen people. In the life of Moses, four hundred years of suffering and desperation, faith and hope, sorrow and pain were compressed. The straight consequence of these things was that he — defending “one of his brethren” (Ex.2:ll) — in his excitement killed an Egyptian foreman (Ex. 2:12). Thus he became a killer in the very sense of both divine and human law (Ex. 20:13; 21:12; Matthew 19:18). With such a past in his life, such a burden in his soul he escaped toward an uncertain future. According to his fixed plan he arrived at Midian (Ex. 2:15). This double Kenite-Midianite branch of the tribe of Abraham was a true worshipper of Jehovah from the very beginning. Among these Jehovah-believers, whose leader was Jethro, he found a sure refuge. So instead of the rule of a tyrant he placed himself under the law of the one true God: Jehovah. Jethro means: “Jehovah is his law.” It is an official title of this shepherd-king who was originally called: Reuel — “friend of God.” In this new milieu new surprises waited for his life and soul. After such preliminaries as having saved the flock of his father-in-law, he arrived at the mount of God, at Horeb (Ex. 3:1) where he heard the divine warning: “Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest, is holy ground.” Many explanations of this passage were given by investigators. One of these interpretations is that of the representatives of the “School of the Comparative Religion-History”. They guess that the sense of this verse, in the customs of the modem pagan religions; according to the order of these it was not and it is not allowed to enter into a holy place with shoes, that is with unclean feet and being.

But the meaning of this admonition is completely different. It is good to know that in the

Translated by Andrew Hamza