Magyar Egyház, 1970 (49. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1970-04-01 / 4. szám

10

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

Joseph S. Nemeth:

LIGHT FROM MAGYAR LAMPS

I’m happy to be home again as you celebrate and enjoy this important and historic occasion.

As I look about me here at your proud faces and as I look at the majesty, grace and beauty of this magnificant house of worship, I am conscious of two things. First, I am conscious of the justifiable pride of the members of this church who have sacrificed and struggled together to erect this monument to our Lord and to the traditional worship of him. Secondly, I am aware that this church building is built in the best of Magyar traditions.

The building itself was built for the ancient purpose of worship in the traditional Magyar custom. Incorporated into its structure are the best of modern building methods, materials and techniques. Our Magyar tradition is to hold fast to what is good and true of the old, and to build on to old the best of that which is good and true of the new. Traditionally Magyars have always been builders, taking the best from old and new.

That tradition began around 1000 A.D. with that first great Christian king and founder of Magyarország, Szent István. While his father still lived in an old tent, István began building new castles and churches and welded his loosely connected, wandering people into a great nation. István was doing just what the builders of this church were doing when he accepted Christianity for Hungary and worked all his life to plant it in the hearts of our people. For it was Christianity, the new religion, grafted to the old Hungarian patterns of valor and loyalty that raised up our ancient nation, and made it, for a thousand years, the champion and guardian of Christendom and freedom.

Ever since the time of Szent István, all nations of Europe have looked to the Magyars for the defense of Christianity against the aggression of the Anti- Christian forces. Hungary has always been a bulwark against oriental aggression. When converted to Christianity, the nation became fully aware of her mission as a defender of western culture.

Hungarians have never forgotten that mission. We have never let anyone down. For example, in 1241 Béla IV. defended Hungary against the Tartars. Who can forget the bloody Battle of Mohács in 1526 where Lajos II, the cream of the Army, the Aristocracy and the high clergy perished and the terrible 150 year Turkish occupation began?

And most recently, all the world saw our brethren in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, struggle valiantly against the modern day Anti-Christians of the Communist block.

We in the United States were not surprised. The light of liberty has ever burned in the Magyar. We Magyar descendents who stand on this shore did not expect that it had gone out. Nor do we think for one moment it will ever go out. It is our prayer that the next time we see it glimmering in the darkness of that other shore, we might have the opportunity to help it blaze into a bright flame of freedom.

I have spoken to you of the Hungarian genius of weeding the best of the old and new, and we have remembered together the glory which this has brought we Magyars. Let us now turn our minds forward to our children. I see young faces in this audience. When we as parents pass on that which is Református and that which is Magyar to our children, what will we choose to pass on of the old? I believe that there is much of the old that we must pass on, for much is strong and good.

Of those traditions which are our heritage and our children’s birthright, the first which we must pass on to our sons is courage. Courage is that firmness of spirit that resolve to meet danger without fear. Though our children are born far from where the first Magyar Hussars stood fast against the fury of the Turk, they too will need a Hussar’s courage. For there are times in all our lives when we must stand up for right, and truth, and principle. At such times we must fight fearlessly even though we are ringed by hundreds of yelping enemies who howl for blood. At times we must see right and defend it. The power to see and the courage to defend are part of our heritage. And this precious part of the Magyar tradition must he passed on to our children.

There is another kind of courage in the tradition of our people. This courage does not ride like the Hussar on horseback. This courage is the courage of the common man. It is the courage our sons and daughters will need when the going gets rough. Things have been rough for Hungarians before. We have been subjugated by Orientals, Tartars, Turks and Communists. We have been beaten. We have been abused. But we have always come back. That is the kind of courage our children will need. The courage to come back ... the courage to endure ... the courage to do without. The courage to come hack again and again and again. Nor let us forget the courage of Szent István. We must remember to have the courage to turn our backs on the old and to try something new, not because it is new, but because after wise and careful deliberation we know that it is better.

Courage is important. It enabled our ancestors to survive. It enabled our forefathers to preserve Christianity. It enabled our fathers to turn their backs on the old country and risk everything they had or