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Dear ladies and gentlemen!
Only love exists unconditionally, everything else has an addendum.
To feel the heat, we have to experience the cold.
To enjoy the sweet, we have to taste the bitter.
To know joy, we have to know sorrow.
And to find the light, we have to pass through the darkness.
To reach the Way of Light, we have to walk the Stations of the Cross.
And just as the light makes sense of the darkness, so the Way of Light makes sense of the Stations of the Cross.
The Via Crucis is not complete without the Via Lucis, nor is the Via Lucis complete without the Via Crucis. Without the Way of Light, the Via Crucis would be nothing more than a torturous and hopeless journey to the place of execution crucifixion. If it were not for the Resurrection of Jesus, the Stations of the Cross, from Pilate's palace to the tomb, would be no different from a standard execution procession, practiced time and again in the name of the emperor throughout the empire.
The Apostle St. Paul expresses all this in his first letter to the Corinthians that "if (...) Christ had not risen, then our preaching is in vain, but your faith is also in vain."
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
The whole of Christianity is built on the faith of the Resurrection, and it is the faith and hope of the Resurrection that gives meaning to our lives. The Resurrection does not annihilate suffering and death, but it gives meaning to it. We know that there has been a heresy throughout the Christian centuries that taught that Jesus could not have suffered in a human way since he was God. But, as a real man, Jesus experienced all the torment and pain of man on the way to Golgotha, on the cross, and in general in the moments of his human, earthly life. Perhaps this also makes understandable and explains why the Christ-follower is stronger and more persevering in times of trial. For example, why were priests in communist prisons able to smile at their tormentors even in the midst of torture?
The joy of being redeemed comes from the fact that one is not alone in suffering. As the German evangelical theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed in a Nazi death camp, writes – expressing the reality of the Savior's suffering – that: "The cross of Jesus did not hover over earth, but was set in the ground."
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
The Via Crucis - Stations of the Cross - finds its true meaning in the Via Lucis - the Stations of the Resurrection - and puts it in a different light. This deep theological thought is the message of the two artists. I am particularly pleased that Péter Párkányi Raab – who has also contributed to our Blessed Virgin Mary exhibition - has this time been joined by Katalin Sárba of the Research Institute of National Strategy.
Expressions used in common language such as suffering, death and resurrection in their reading mean as much as seeing the world through the Way of Light. Stone, one of the most difficult materials to work with, becomes the source of a liberating message in the art of Peter Párkányi Raab. Stone becomes the path of resurrection, joy and light for us, the admirers of this exhibition. And the light passing through Katalin Sárba's camera is able to capture a moment that we might not even notice, but which shows us the world and people in a completely different fracture.
This is both a testimony to the artists' deep faith and a seeming novel and concise formulation of Christianity, which shows the often dark and introspective world that it exists and that those who are able to let go will be blessed by God. Tomorrow, we celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Let me close with his message: "Let me bring faith to dispel the darkness and bring joy to where life is suffering."
Thank you for your kind attention!
The following speech was given during the opening ceremony of Via Lucis – Stations of the Resurrection, Way of Light, a joint exhibition of the Kossuth Prize-winning sculptor Péter Párkányi Raab and the photographer Katalin Sárba.
Budapest, Hungary, October 4.
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