[AI translation] Once a serious, praying man told me that when he recites the Lord's Prayer to himself and comes to this part, which I read as the basic prayer, he always thinks of Hungary. He said happily that this was how he prayed for his country. I thought about this statement at the time and, as a theologian, I immediately concluded that, however beautiful it might be, it was not dogmatically correct. For this word, which we say "kingdom", is the exact translation of the original text, which means the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God, the sovereign rule of God over the world! The spiritual kingdom which entered this world with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and which, with His coming again, will become complete and universal in the whole created universe. And yet, in the last two weeks, when, amidst so much anxious doubt and trembling hope, a new Hungary was born almost before our eyes in the throes of a bloody struggle for freedom, I confess: dogmatic doubt or not, I myself have begged our country into the power of God at this time, and I have received sincere reassurance and encouragement from above when I have said: 'The kingdom, the power and the glory are yours! For it is possible to say this prayer in a way that is theologically true! This part of the Lord's Prayer is, as you know, a profession of faith and, on the other hand, a commitment to a programme on our part! And if I make this profession of faith with a true heart and undertake this programme, which is contained in this prayer, then it is very closely connected with the destiny of the earthly kingdom in which we live! This is the connection I would like to talk about now.1) So, first of all, a profession of faith. We make a profession of faith that the Lord owns the earth and all its fullness, the whole world and all that is in it. That this world is not abandoned to itself, but belongs to God, our heavenly Father as known in Jesus Christ, who is the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of this world, the eternal Lord and King. This is why history is not an arbitrary game of free forces, but the arena of God's reign at work for salvation, in which His will unfolds and moves towards its final destiny! Or at least we have seen something of it. There is a time in history, sometimes just a moment, sometimes a week, when God shows in such a breathtaking way, so obviously, that despite all other appearances, He really does own the earth, He is the supreme power, that the astonished man prostrates himself before Him and sings with the angels: 'Yours, O Lord, is the glory! So it is happening now. We have been enriched with an incredibly precious experience: we have met a gracious God, a God who listens to prayer, who has compassion on His disobedient children, a God who loves us very much and cares for us. We have all been deeply affected by the events of the last few days, so much so that the memory of them fills our souls at almost every moment of the day. Who would have dared to predict, to dream even two weeks ago, that today, in a free country, we would freely praise the Lord?! We are witnessing events of such dizzying magnitude every day that it almost makes our eyes glaze over, as if we were dreaming! One thing is certain: our late descendants will look back on this struggle for freedom with tearful emotion and fervent pride, as one of the most glorious pages in our thousand-year history. And we, the present generation, who witnessed these glorious events, will fall on God's fatherly hand and thank Him with a grateful heart for having dealt so mightily with us, and for having dealt with our fate with far greater grace and love than we deserved.
We have received a bloody, glorious lesson from what we confess in this prayer-end: 'Thine, O Lord, is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever'. We have been strengthened in our belief that the Lord truly owns the land, this piece of land on which we live. The Lord holds this kingdom in his hands as it was, is and ever shall be. This nation, too, with all its joys and sorrows, all its excellences and defects, all its national virtues and sins, belongs to the gracious God. It is His power that guides its history, its whole life is for His glory! It is not the storm of blindness that has thrown this nation upon this earth: it is its appointed resting-place. It is not by chance that it has survived the long series of storms of a millennium: God has sent it to a hard school! He punishes it and He has mercy on it, He strikes it down and He lifts it up again.
He is obviously needed on earth - no one else can replace what he offers to humanity - he has a mission, a mission among the nations, a vocation to which he must dedicate himself. I do not love my country because I was born here by chance, because I eat the bread of this land, but because I am here by God's will, and because I am what I am, and thus part of the mission of the entire Hungarian nation. I acknowledge the omnipotence of God when I take on the Hungarian destiny, no matter how difficult the circumstances, when I work for the glory of God, when I sacrifice time, prayer, service and blood for the benefit of my people and my country. I would be denying God if I denied the Hungarian life for which God predestined me. In these current events, we see more clearly God's paternal care and love, and in seeing this, we can more consciously make a profession of faith that "Yours, Lord, is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever!"
2) As I said before, there are times when God shows us in breathtaking ways that He has the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. But then there are also times when God gives us the same as a program and a task to be accomplished. That is, to live out His kingdom ourselves, to exercise His power over ourselves, and to serve His glory ourselves, consciously, with all our efforts. And now the time for us to do this has begun. God has now given us the great grace of a new beginning. Indeed, he has opened a whole new and now still clean page in the book of our history. What shall we write in it? It is an unspeakable responsibility to be Hungarian and Christian now, at this new beginning! Old words are now being given new meaning. Let us now remember the heroic dead and wounded whose blood has truly fertilised this land. I have seen, as you have seen, new piles of graves scattered around the city, inscribed with the words: lived 15 years or lived 20 years. I've been in hospitals, among the wounded. They were wounded in battle, during rescue work or while walking unsuspectingly. I felt, you must have felt, how much strength, how much commitment, how much new life comes from the sacrifice of these heroes! Well: if even human sacrifice and human blood can be such an astonishing and engaging source of strength for us: how much more so the sacrifice and the blood that God gave for us there on Calvary?! Hence the grace of every true new beginning! That is why it is possible to start something afresh, because that sacrifice and that holy blood covers and wipes away the past and gives heavenly strength for the programme, for the task that this prayer is: "Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory!"
"Thine is the kingdom!" What does this mean now as a task? This was Jesus' very first word to this world. "Repent and repent of your sins, for the kingdom of God is at hand." What does this mean? It means that, although we are now praised and admired by the whole world, and this is undoubtedly good for our Hungarian hearts, we should not now begin a new life with our heads held high in pride, but with our heads bowed in humility and repentance. Let us not forget that we are sinners. Specifically, over the past 12 years we have sinned unspeakably by not carrying ourselves as Christians of faith, worthy of the gospel of Christ. In the face of a god-denying worldview and domination, we have failed to bear credible witness to the difference of a believing, redeemed life. We have not raised the voice of Christ in protest against class hatred, cruelty, injustice, public evil. Out of cowardice, out of fear for our skin, our job, our bread, we have kept quiet, we have been dumb dogs! It is not only the sinner who preached error, but also the one who remained silent! And especially guilty of this silence is the Church, that is, all of us! I am well aware that many excuses could be made in our defence, but that will come after we have repented of the sin of silence, of our negative, powerless, insecure Christianity, confused with the world! For a new beginning can only come from this depth of repentance, this humility! Repent and repent of your sins, and then the Kingdom of God that began with Jesus Christ on this earth will begin to become a reality! Not until then!
"The power is yours", we say every day, but it will remain an empty phrase until we personally do everything we can to bring this power of God into our lives, so that every manifestation of our lives comes under His power. In this new beginning, let us finally take seriously the fact that Jesus Christ wants to have complete control over our lives. Jesus Christ must have unlimited authority over the lives of Christian people. We must become people who confess Jesus Christ with mouth and heart, with the stamp of their whole life and with devotion, martyrs, leaving it to God to decide whether He wants to use their testimony by their faithful life or by their courageous death. I believe that churches can be a source of healing in this country. But to do this, we must stop caring whether the world wants to be a protector or an enemy of the church, whether it wants to protect it or oppress it, and only care that the spirit of obedience is washing through the church. Let every Christian man be obedience incarnate to the commands of the supreme Leader of the faith, Jesus Christ. We are to become soldiers of Christ, not in the literal sense of the word, of course, but in the tangible form of a diverse community of life and work, whose members look to the Lord and are ready to do all things in His service! So, unreserved devotion and total commitment to obedience and service to Christ: this is the cardinal point of the renewal of our lives.
And "to you be the glory!" The glory of God shines forth in sanctified human lives on this earth. For our church, for our parishioners, presbyters and pastors, there is only one way forward: the way of sanctification by faith. Either we will have pastors and members of our Church with sanctified hearts and lives, who will therefore be able to stand their ground in the world, or the very existence and survival of the Church will be in doubt. If our merciful God can use us at all, He can only use us in this way: in sanctified life. If the world respects us, accepts us, only in this way: By being transformed into the image of Christ. There is such a Scripture in the Bible: because of you the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles (Rom 2:24). But there is also this Word: let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works... (Mt 5,16a) This is the programme of our future. This people has fought for its freedom with truly admirable heroism, determination and selflessness. It is with the same heroism, determination and selflessness that we are continuing on the very difficult path of peaceful unfolding. Let us make it clear that the first goal is not to redress individual grievances, but to strengthen the country and the nation. Let no one who has so far selflessly and with self-discipline suffered the setback or even the battle, not seek to profit from the victory that has been won, not immediately hold on to it for a reward. The time for that will come! The second thing is to make it public that there is a big difference between justice and vengeful retribution when it comes to accountability. Better that ten guilty people escape than one innocent suffer! Let us not soil this new, clean slate with the blood of the innocent! We must do everything in our power to ensure that we do not give foreign powers a reason to interfere in the internal affairs of our country on the pretext of cleaning up our country! Above all, however, we must strive to do so, because it is our duty in this great new beginning to say with a pure heart in everything that happens: 'To you, Lord, be the glory! Forever and ever!"
Amen
Date: 11 November 1956.
Lesson
Róm 6,1-14