"In my father's house..."

[AI translation] My Christian Brothers and Sisters! On the threshold of a new year, and especially at the open door of 1943, it is especially good to hear the divine exhortation.In the heat of a fever dream, a very sick man can only see such disturbing, fearful images as those that are now before us at this new bend in the road. There is unrest, suffering, and storms everywhere in this noisy, noisy world, and the battle is going on not only on the battlefields, but also at home, where the war of passions, and especially of nerves, is raging more and more!
Now, into this turmoil, a still, calm voice speaks: 'Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, in my Father's house there are many mansions, where I will give you my peace. Jesus warns us that there is in this world a dwelling place, a home, where a believer in God can escape from the noise of the world and where he can always find the peace of Christ and be filled with it! Jesus says that this place is "my Father's house". On this New Year's Day, let the message of the three different forms of this house, this home, be spoken among us!
1) The smallest form of the house of God is the Christian family home
This is the expression of the ancient human instinct, created in us by God, that, just as the bird builds itself a nest to gather and protect its young, so man tries to build a wall around his nest, to make his home warm and attractive. Homelessness is one of the greatest human tragedies, and the absence of a home is the birthplace of new tragedies. There is an English proverb: my home is my castle. Do we not all long for a home whose walls are like a castle, keeping out the noise, sin, dirt, envy and malice of the world? How much more temptation, more danger of falling, more occasion for separation from God, more contagion of moral vice, more anxiety, more fear, than at home in the house!
A true home is a refuge, a tent and fortress of salvation, where I can retreat from the evil tempest of the world. A true home is like an oasis in the desert of earth's aridity, like a small island in the ocean of the world. In the family home, life is quieter, calmer, more balanced, the noise of the struggle for life not as loud, not as nerve-wracking as outside. Within the walls of the home, we hear more clearly the quiet voice of conscience, the praises of the angels of God, the voice of the living God. Yes, such a home is longed for by every human soul, and there is scarcely a more heart-rending sight than to have a home, and yet not have one, because the restlessness of the world outside has penetrated the walls of one's home and turned into hell one of God's most precious gifts, the home. That is why many people seek relief outside the home, outside the family, after a full day's work. No use having a beautiful home, a museum-worthy interior, if it is only there to be enjoyed by guests and not to be a soft, warm nest for the people who live in it, a happy little family!
At a time when enemies from more and more sides are conspiring to attack the family home, when the neglect of the home is becoming the prevailing public attitude, I feel that one of the most important commands God places on our hearts in the New Year is precisely the sanctification of our homes. There is no doubt that the fate of an entire nation depends on the peace and purity of the family home. As one of God's commandments, make it one of your most urgent duties to make your home a true home for you and for all those who live with you: your spouse, your children, your parents, your brothers and sisters and your employees. Jesus speaks of His Father's house, where the weary soul finds peace in the noise of the world. Why not make your home a house of God, all the more so because Jesus promises that only in this way can your home become a true home. Home is a gift of God's grace, given to you to be a foretaste of the heavenly home where Jesus is preparing a place for us, where the peace of Christ fills every corner and every inhabitant. Let Christ also arrange your earthly home and make it an earthly copy of the heavenly home, let Him prepare the place for you at home, in your house. In the New Year, pray more for Hungarian families, for your home and for those who live in it. This is one of the Lord's most important messages to you today!
2) A wider form of God's house is the temple, and for you it is the temple
Maybe other churches in Budapest are more beautiful than this one, bigger, more ornate, maybe in other churches the message of the Word is more clear and powerful than in this one - but for you this is your spiritual home, this is your spiritual family, this is where your heavenly Father is waiting for you, this is where Jesus has prepared a place for you, and this is where He wants to give you His peace! Believe me, the rest of us are always very sad when your place here among us remains empty. Without this temple you are without a home, and there is no more pitiful pariah (outcast, oppressed) than a homeless soul.
Soldiers returning home from the Russian battlefield tell of one of the most unforgettable experiences of their lives: the scene of Russian peasants crossing the threshold of their church, which had opened for the first time in a long time, with a reverent, holy joy. There were many things missing in the lives of those pious believers that the Soviet rulers had deprived them of, but the most painful was the absence of a church. I recently received a letter from one of our parishioners on the Russian front, who wrote that his first stop was the church, and that he would never again avoid the house of God. Brother, who on a few big holidays a year, or on your wedding anniversary, or on New Year's Day, you walk to church in great comfort, on the last night of the old year, rather just to listen to the usual end-of-year statistics: you don't know what a precious gift God has given you this little church, you don't know what you lose when you are not here!
Oh, it is not our own human wisdom that we ministers attach so much importance to, for we pray that our person, our knowledge, our thought, may not drown out the voice of God speaking through our words. It is not that we preach to you from the pulpit, from on high, but that the preacher, together with the congregation, longs for the great miracle: the speaking of God. God speaks not always in the most beautiful and wise sermon, but very often in the most stilted testimony, which rhetorically and stylistically would not hit the mark of what an educated, intelligent audience would expect. He who preaches differs from other believers only in that his heart is first opened to the message of the Word which is above us all. The church is indispensable for the Christian Reformed man because here the living God himself speaks to us, here we can meet him!
The old churches were built on a hilltop and surrounded by a cemetery. This has a strong symbolic meaning: the church is a holy place, elevated above the worldly life, surrounded by the air of eternity, a window to heaven, from which one can see into eternity. From the temple, the peace of Christ flows into the unpeaceful world. In the temple, the soothing air of eternity fills the soul, weary with the noise and struggle of the world. The temple is the earthly house of our heavenly Father, a spiritual home to which the weary and burdened faithful can go in search of peace and rest. (By the term temple I mean, of course, the whole Church and all its work.)
In this new year, God's other great command is, first of all to presbyters, fathers of families, men in general (because they are more willing to leave the church and the church earlier), but then also to all of us: live a more intense church life, hear God's call more often, feel that this is your spiritual home, and pray and work much more for this home.
3) Finally, both the family home and the church home are only a pale earthly image of the real one, the heavenly one
In fact, this is what Jesus says: "In my Father's house there are many mansions, I am going to prepare a place for you. This is where the peace of Christ is fully realized. There we will truly be at home! So when a believer dies, this saying "he has gone home" is to be taken literally. He who has been abroad, however comfortable he may have felt there, yet his every thought and action is pervaded by the feeling that he is not at home, he is at home elsewhere! Something like this feeling of security, of happiness, of hope, should pervade every believer that his true home awaits him only after this. Whatever may be my fate here, I can bear it easier if I have the sure hope that a rich, happy home awaits me, where I shall find compensation for all my suffering and pain!
Jesus has already prepared this home for you, my Brother, through His death and resurrection and ascension. But even though it is ready for you, there is a condition for getting there: no one finds it alone, everyone needs a companion, a guide. There is only one person who knows the way and who will accompany you there: Jesus Christ. The way to get there begins here, but only Jesus can walk it. On this New Year's morning, the third urgent call of Jesus to you is that you may arrive home one day in 1943. Hurry and pray hard so that whenever the Lord calls you, you may find your way home.
Brother, on the threshold of a new year filled with anxiety and fear, God is pointing you to three homes where the peace of Christ flows freely and abundantly. Accept this precious gift of God, seek these three homes and pray for them much. Jesus points to these three homes beckoning to us and says: Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid; believe in God, and believe in me.
We answer Him: We believe, Lord! "Believe, we believe.
Amen.
Date: 1 January 1943.