Last Sunday, our fourth candle on the Advent wreath was also lit: the candle of love. Faith, hope, joy, love: with these emotions the Christian waits peacefully for the birth of Baby Jesus.
We need peace within and without. For peace. Pilinszky says in his last interview.
A beautiful final message. The reporter Rezső Forgács published the text of the conversation in Vigilia in December 1981 with this introduction: "When I did this interview a few months ago, I didn't think, I didn't even suspect, that we would be talking for the last time. He was cheerful and calm. He drank coffee, laughed, smoked cigarettes..."
Serenity and calmness... joy and peace - qualities that the world, and man in it, longs for eternally. We also know that everything depends on us.
The world can "shine" with joy if we find joy ourselves. There will be peace on the outside if there is peace on the inside.
Prayer is the surest place and source of peace and joy. Regaining trust in an uncertain and lost world, consciously stepping out of fear, complete and happy reliance on the Creator.
"You have to be happy. You should not be afraid of complete joy. As Nietzsche says: »Pain is deep, but joy is even deeper. Joy requires eternity, a deep, deep eternity!« But you should not be alarmed by joy. Perfect joy must be sought like children. Not the drunkenness, not an apartment, not just the joy of love, but the complete joy like children! I was afraid of joy, and I only dared "little joy", and suffering, self-torture, sacrifice in art. I have to overcome a noble belief in myself: I have to reach the most daring joy: the joy of children, the eternal moment, the gospel and the dramas of fate. Whoever is not happy is guilty. I must dare to be very, very happy.”
The Hungarian poet who lived in the 20th century encourages us to do the same thing that the apostle Paul did two thousand years ago. Dare to be very, very happy, to be very, very happy... "Rejoice in the Lord without ceasing! Again, I just say, rejoice.” (Phil 4:4) Advent encouragement. Or maybe it's more of a command, especially with the exhortation two verses later: "Do not worry about anything!" And let's quote right away from the first letter to the Thessalonians: "Rejoice always! Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–17); and from the poet's diaries: "unceasing prayer", "one must pray without ceasing"; "living in constant prayer".
Rejoice, do not worry, pray. As the Savior said, "...let my joy be in you also, and let your joy be full." (John 15:11)
And what is true joy? According to the poet Péter Vasadi: "real joy never "sweeps" over something or someone, breaking our fences, barriers, spaces and categories, but is born. It is born into what is. He is not picky about the place or the time. Real joy is immediate and takes risks. He's not afraid because he's huge. Its power is its gentleness, its strength is its invisibility. At the same time, a smile that rises from the heart spreads across one face, speaks words of love to the mute unfortunate, flashes truth into the darkness. True joy is not fleeting, it is not temporary, it does not take a flat look at its reserves. He is joy from head to toe, and he gives himself completely. And because he arrives among the joyless, his body is full of blood and bites.
And he has a human form. It's like you or me. He was born in a manger, not in a bunk bed, he shivered from the cold, but kind animals warmed him with their breath. He always insisted that our "joy be complete". Through and beyond. He wants our joy forever. He himself is this eternal joy, the only one, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word of Bethlehem."
Pilinszky, like Péter Vasadi, testified that
despite the tragic situations we find ourselves in again and again, we can still reach serenity, true joy.
Advent was a privileged time for us, a time of learning: we practiced quiet, persistent, watchful and prayerful waiting. In the dark dawns of December, God's people headed to the churches to cry out and sing the ancient words of expectation together in community. And joy and peace fill God's people. Because "boundless joy resides in the heart of prayer." "And do the biblical "poor in spirit" spend their whole lives in this kind of rich unpretentiousness, as perpetual convalescents between cradle and coffin, in the delicate balance of renunciation of the world and acceptance of the world? Pilinszky asks the question in one of his writings. - I do not know. However, one thing is certain: there is something Advent in this "threshold mood" of acceptance and anticipation. (…) Yes, only the true expectation is worthy of receiving the true. And our life is not only a school of actions, but perhaps even more of a school of waiting.”
The art, poems and prose writings of János Pilinszky open doors, beyond the finite to the infinite, beyond the struggle and doubt to the possibility of joy and peace. What else could the soul need to be safe in a world full of uncertainty and fear? What else could the soul need to arrive at the holiday?
"Grant, God, that the world smooths out and becomes quiet in me and in everyone. So that I can sit at your table in the silence of the night, at the table that no one can miss. To that table, where everyday life goes out along with the sun and the stars, and only your peace shines. Yes, so that I can reserve a seat for a short time at the coming table, which you promised for an eternity, and for which only your peace is the lamp, food and table setting. (…) Grant that I may not ask for anything in my prayer, but all the more so that I may hear and listen to You.” Amen.
Source and full article: magyarkurir.hu
Picture: Mamás Papás mazagin
