[AI translation] A huge tree has fallen in the great Hungarian crowd. The forest shook with its fall. Every Hungarian heart mourns Lőrinc Szabó with a shaken heart. Indeed, we are now burying the greatest Hungarian poet since János Arany. Oh, how many beautiful and yet good, great and yet true things could be said beside this sad coffin, who he was, what a giant of spirit, what a true Hungarian soul, what his poetry meant, how proud of him was everyone who could claim him as their own... but who can still today measure his true greatness, who can still today truly appreciate his literary value, that will be the work of decades to come... but that is not my task! My task is different: to preach the Gospel. And the gospel in Hungarian means good news, good news from God. And could there be a more urgent time to hear a truly comforting good news than right now, in this time of great mourning?!What consolation can we have in the face of this sad fact of death? The fact that Lőrinc Szabó has entered human immortality with his eternal works? Is it that he has left behind an intellectual heritage that will enrich our lives? That his precious memory, his brilliant spirit, his artistic creation will live on in the memory of a grateful posterity? All of this is true, but it is little consolation, especially for those among us whose loss and pain are greatest now. There is much greater consolation than faith: the bold certainty that Lőrinc Szabó's memory lives on, not only his poetry, not only because he will be talked about for a very long time to come: but that he himself lives on, his dear person, his beloved being! I know this is a bold statement, but it has a basis: the Word, the Word, the promise of God! This is precisely what the Scripture reads: 'I know that my Saviour lives, and that he shall stand at the last upon my dust...' This was said by a man who had suffered much, the biblical old Job, when all human consolation, strength and power had failed.
I know that my Saviour lives! The happiest and most certain news in all the Bible is that Jesus lives! The Jesus who died a redemptive death on the cross for us, in our place and for us: LIVES! He is not alive as great men are said to be alive after death. Jesus is not alive in spirit, not alive in memory, not alive in his teachings, not alive because he is spoken of: but alive and alive because he is risen! He conquered death. And by the resurrection, the Christ of the past became the living reality of the eternal present, the historical reality of Jesus of Nazareth became the reality of the Christ of faith above history! And I absolutely believe that it is as true now as it is here, as once upon a time old Job said, "I know that my Savior lives!" That is to say: here now, besides us, Someone else is standing at this tomb: the Prince of Life! His holy person here, in this sad place of death and mourning: the harbinger of eternal life and eternal happiness! Here is that Jesus, that Saviour, for Whom she stretched out her hand so longingly from spiritual loneliness, unbelief, suffering, Whom she so clamorously implored, "Abide with me, for it is finished." The same Jesus stands here, above these dusts, Whom all his life he sought and Whom I believe he found, Whom he knows now is no longer a fleeting "shadow": a living Reality, the only certain Reality, Who now truly looks upon him "as a brother, as a child," - and extends his hand to one who, oh, so "needed faith, communion, love!" This Jesus Christ is the only sure foundation of all our hope against death. We believe in Him, as it were, and we believe that Lőrinc Szabó, though dead, is alive, not only in memory, not only in his many beautiful poems: he and he personally, himself, truly happy and glorious, are ALIVE!
The important thing about a gramophone record is not the material, but the song that is engraved on it. When the record grows old, the sound becomes crackling, perhaps even broken: no matter, because the song was taken over in time and is still being played by a heart that loves it so much that it rewrites the record and reinserts the precious melody. Our body is the record, our soul is the melody. Now that the record is broken, it is painful but not tragic. For this song that was sung by Lőrinc Szabó will be sung on by a grateful nation - and the song that was Lőrinc Szabó will be sung on by Christ the Saviour for eternity, until one day, at the resurrection, He will put it back into the re-cast record, into the redeemed, resurrected body! Yes: that is our consolation, the consolation of faith.
"I know that my Saviour liveth..." He sees how big the void is, how great your pain, what it means to accompany him on his last journey... Mourning loved ones, you say, "I know my Savior lives..." He leads you to where life is.
Amen
Date: 8 October 1957, Budapest-Kerepesi út.