Magyar Egyház, 1971 (50. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1971-10-01 / 10. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ coming flesh). There seem to be four steps in this pattern, or four aspects to the process of incarnation. In the first place we begin with a love, a respect (we can even go so far as to say a reverence) for things of this world. For all these things are good and religion is concerned with them. Not many of us, if any at all, do not deal with real physical things all week, whether it’s in the task of housekeeping (working with pots and pans, food, washing machines, irons, etc.) or the task of holding down a job (working with papers, trucks, machines, tools, etc.). We’re living a terrible contradiction if we spend six or six and one-half days a week witli things and then are called upon on Sunday to believe that tilings aren’t important, aren’t good, or that the best things are spiritual. We’re trying to do the impossible if we work all week with things of the world and then are expected to believe on Sunday that we ought to be separated from the world. The witness of the Bible, not least in John 2:1-10, is that all of creation is good. Every part of it is at least potentially an instrument of God’s purpose. All things of this world are either holy or they’re not yet holy but will one day be holy, be consecrated, set apart for divine purposes. The division in life is not between the holy and the not holy, hut between the holy and the not yet holy. We are to love and respect the things of this world, for they are potentially holy things. These humble, common things, loved and respected for what they are (potentially holy things) are then to be lifted up, offered, used by the hands of love. So much depends on who handles these common things, who offers these things of the world, and in what spirit they are used and offered. Perhaps the example of the love found at the wedding at Cana — love made flesh, Himself loving the things he handled, himself taking them up and offering them in a concern of love — perhaps this is the greatest argument, the ultimate explanation of every gift, every action: 1 do what I do because love tells me to. The pattern of giving then follows to offering the gifts for the sake of the beloved (the neighbor) according to his need. At the wedding the wine runs out. The guests will be disappointed, the party will be a flop. Yet for the sake of the others (the guests) Jesus offers his gift of the best wine. Bessie offers her cup of chicken soup. It’s the kind of attitude shown when one starving beggar tells a second starving beggar where to find food. We don’t give honestly for any other reason, basically, than that the other person (the neighbor) has need. That’s reason enough. And we give according to need: a starving beggar doesn’t need his soul saved when he’s starving, he needs food for his body, for if his body dies, he dies. After all this, the mystery takes place. First the gift, loved and reverenced for its own sake (because it is what it is, potentially a holy thing) ; the gift then taken up and offered in the hands of love; the gift then offered to the beloved for his own sake, for his or her use; then the mystery — the material things become more than material, the earthly becomes more than earthly, more than simply a thing of this world. It becomes sacramental, truly holy. It has the power of God (heaven) contained in it. The common, humble, meager physical things of this world are suddenly vehicles for God’s invasion — vehicles with power to forgive and accept, to bind up and make new; vehicles witli power to come between God and man and between man and his brother and to heal. Something like this ought to happen to you in the regular giving of your gifts at the altar during the offertory where in our worship we have the opportunity, the obligation, to respond in gratitude to all our Lord has done for us. Our tainted money, our limited talents, our insufficient time, everything that makes up you and me, when offered in the spirit of love, becomes sacramental, truly rich, truly holy. This happens when we handle the things of this world with love. Later on in Salinger’s book Franny is pining away on the sofa in her emotional collapse. She yet listens to the advice of her older brother Zooey as he bawls her out. He says: “You’re missing out on every single religious action that’s going on around this house. You don’t even have enough sense to drink when someone brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup, which is the only kind of chicken soup Bessie ever brings to anybody around this madhouse.” Consecrated Chicken Soup, chicken soup made holy because it’s offered by the hands of love for the sake of the beloved, the one in need. Chicken soup participating in the real meaning of sacrament. The pattern of the incarnation changes and consecrates everything you touch — every gift, every word, every action. \ou live a holy life when you offer these things of the world through hands of love to a beloved one (a neighbor) in need. And then the mystery occurs. It is a holy action. Lester D. Helmeczi
