Magyar Egyház, 1963 (42. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1963-12-01 / 11-12. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 13 (Elirtaímas . . . DWELT AMONG US “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (RSV) In olden times there reigned in Persia a great monarch, Shah Abbis, who loved his people. To know them more perfectly he used to mingle with them in various disguises. One day he went as a poor man to the public baths, and there in the tiny cellar he sat beside the fireman who tended the furnace. At mealtime he shared his simple food and talked to the lonely man as a friend. Again and again he visited him, until the man grew to love him. Then one day he told him he was the emperor, and he waited for the man to ask some gift from him. But the fireman sat gazing on him with love and wonder, and at last he spoke: “You left your palace and glory to sit with me in this dark place, to partake of my coarse fare, to care whether my heart was glad or sorry. On others you may bestow rich presents, but to me you have given yourself; and it only remains to pray that you never withdraw the gift of our friendship.” What poverty of knowledge concerning God there would be, if Jesus had never come to this earth! How little we would know about God the Father except as we see Him in Jesus! Man needs to see things in the flesh. Man needs to have things brought down to earth. He needs to be able to see things on his own level. God’s ways are so much higher than man’s ways. They are on a different level. Man has only a finite mind, while God is infinite. The only way the two levels can be brought together in any form, is when one comes from the higher form to the lower, for no one below has ever ascended to the higher to return to report about it. Jesus actually dwelt among men. He mingled with the poor and the needy, the sick and the sinner. Jesus went “slumming” in a real sense. He was not “of the world,” but he lived in the world. Jesus came down to man’s level. The Word is like a name applied to Jesus. A word conveys an idea or a thought, and so Jesus conveys to us the idea, the person of God. Jesus shows God to us. Think of what man saw of God in Jesus Christ! There is so much that cannot be described. Two qualities are mentioned here, namely grace and truth. Grace is the unmerited favor that God bestows upon man. Grace is a gift which man does not deserve, but which God desires to give because of His love. Only Jesus could reveal pure grace. The love of God could never be known in any other way. Truth is another quality that man lacks. Man has too much in him that is not true. Only Jesus could speak the truth in every situation. Only in Jesus can truth be seen in its fulness. This wonderful Word, God in flesh, “came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” (John 1:11-12). What will your attitude be to Him this Christmas? (L. N. N.) IT HAPPENED ONCE AGAIN (A CHRISTMAS STORY) by ANDREW HARSANY1 There were no office hours on the day of Christmas Eve. The low dividing door on the counter in the reception room was open so the visitor could walk freely into the inner office. John Mészáros, Immigration Officer of Church Service Agency was sitting at his desk. From his window he could look out on the large park in front of the Rathaus, the City Hall of Vienna. It was a gray afternoon. It will start snowing before long, John thought, it will be a white Christmas, after all. The desk had a holiday appearance: everything was cleared away, no folders or pads or pencils. A pot of poinsettias was on the corner of the desk. John smiled: the Austrian secretary brought it in yesterday and said she knew this was the Christmas flower for Americans and she wanted to feel him at home at this time of the year. “At home” — said John to himself. “Where is at home for me? Is there such a place for a dead man?” He looked at the leather-framed picture that stood beside the poinsettias. It was the picture of a boy, about fifteen years old. Nice boy, clever eyes, hair parted on the side — not an American haircut at all. The picture was a little blurred, it was apparently the enlargement of a snapshot. John opened the center drawer, took out a folder. The names of the case were written on the top. “Magda Batár and János Mészáros Jr.” He opened the folder. On the top sheet there were two small snapshots, one of them the same as in the frame on the desk. And as he looked at the sheet while the drawer was still open, he reached after the picture, flattened its easel and slid it into the drawer and closed it. John looked at his watch. They should be here any minute now. The Stadtbahn -— Vienna’s rapid suburban train — makes good connection from Hietzing. John’s mind fluttered. He remembered the Railroad Museum in Hietzing he visited first with his mother when he was ten. Back in the twenties. It was his first trip abroad from Budapest and the locomotives and coaches from the early days of railroading in the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy displayed in the museum had been the greatest experience of his childhood. But now Hietzing has become another experience. A confused, painful, and yet happy experience. It started when he finally got hold of the folders of Magda and Little János — as he used to call his son — with their application for emigration in the United States. Or rather it started seventeen years ago, in 1940, at the Christmas Party in the bank in Budapest where
