Fr. Aťa Mandl
One of the great priestly figures who enthusiastically accepted the Second Vatican Council and completely lived its spirit was also Fr. Antonín Mandl (1917–1972). This very gifted young priest, after studying in Rome and after the end of World War II, briefly served in the parishes of the Prague Archdiocese. He sought to proclaim the gospel in new and refreshing ways; in this regard, he was always very inventive. Shortly thereafter, Archbishop Beran sent him to France to closely observe new forms of priestly involvement in working-class environments. And from March 1, 1948, he was appointed director of Catholic Action and director of the Pastoral Center. As an influential figure in the Catholic Church, Fr. Aťa Mandl was arrested in June 1949, extremely brutally interrogated, sentenced to 25 years in prison in December 1950, and imprisoned until February 1964. Even in prison, he remained deeply interested in the happenings in the Church; external hardships did not diminish his enthusiasm for Christ and the Church.
After his release from prison, he did not receive state permission for spiritual service. During the political thaw in the spring of 1968, he was involved in the leadership of the Council Renewal and also engaged in other activities. (At that time, he was rehabilitated, but after two years, the Supreme Court canceled his rehabilitation as "unjustified.") He worked hard to apply the ideas of the Council to the life of the Church in our country. The Council stood for the ideal that Aťa Mandl had longed for since his youth: for the Church to open up to the contemporary world and detach itself from pomposity and formality. Despite all the hardships he endured, he radiated freedom, sometimes advocated with biting humor. Because he did not love systematic treatises and was himself a man of dialogue, he sought to address his contemporaries, especially young people, through staged dialogues on current topics related to faith. Some of these dialogues he composed were scenically presented in the Church of St. Cross on Na Příkopech.
At the end of 1969, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Therefore, he tried to accomplish as much as possible and close his legacy. Aťa Mandl died on March 15, 1972. Before that, he was treated at the same clinic as Jiří Grossmann and was reportedly very intrigued by Grossmann's sad song "I Envy," sung by Naďa Urbánková. He supposedly wanted to meet Grossmann and talk with him. But we do not know if that actually happened. Sometime in 1970, Moravian seminarians invited Fr. Aťa Mandl to give a lecture in Olomouc. He came and subsequently provided some of his dialogues for their magazine KVAS. (Interestingly, he is not listed as the author by full name but only by monogram. Perhaps out of concern for the seminarians about state scrutiny over the seminary.) One of the dialogues that appeared in their magazine in the first quarter of 1971 is now published. It was handed to us by the then-editor of the theological journal, now Bishop Josef Hrdlička.
After forty years since the creation of this dialogue, it is good to note: today it may seem to you like a somewhat naive and outdated literary attempt. But with an impressive immediacy, it breathes the genuine atmosphere of post-conciliar fervor. And besides that (even if it does not captivate you), it contains several individual thoughts that are worthy of a pearl...
"The dialogue resolves a real and poignant problem, which we also constantly have to resolve anew and which is no less current now than it was then or at any other time. Namely, how to reconcile our relationship with the world and with God. It nicely shows some apparent but wrong solutions (father and uncle).
Reading it today, we may come to question whether the father's objection about the falsification of the cross is perhaps too easily dismissed — whether God's glory in matters and life is taken as automatically present and whether it is taken seriously enough that the relationship of God to the world also has the nature of judgment. But let us keep in mind: back then, it was likely necessary to emphasize this against the previous excessive emphasis on renunciation, self-denial, etc. Today, we might speak more delicately." (Jan Frei)
We intervened in the text as little as possible; we only corrected obvious typographical errors. And we bring it to you along with the introduction that was attached in the magazine KVAS.
The Council recommended and emphasized a new important aspect in the education of priests: preparation for dialogue with the world. Neglecting this demanding task would be certainly an unforgivable mistake. A masterful example of such a well-managed and demanding dialogue is also the work of Fr. A. M., which he called "Thy Kingdom Come or the Kingdom of God and Hockey." It is a conversation from our days, taking place between the Ice Stadium and the Green Frog (a wine bar in the Old Town). Four characters appear in it:
1. Father, head of the family, composed and melancholic.
2. Cheerful Uncle with a zest for life and without problems.
3. Son, the family's hope, interested in everything, including hockey, and actively participating.
4. The somewhat mysterious Don David X.
| Father: | We really blew it again. What a waste of money. I just let you down once again. The world has completely lost its way... It's terrible. So much noise and commotion for nothing. A few people are scrambling for a piece of something, almost killing themselves and each other, and people are in a trance over it. That’s not how God created us. No, kid, you are going to stop playing hockey. I’ll still discuss that with your mother. You'd better pay more attention to your books so that you become something substantial. Soon God's punishment will catch up with this crazed humanity. God can't just sit by and watch this. |
| Uncle: | Please, brother, stop the preaching and moralizing. We are not in church. Who is supposed to listen to that? It was a great match. Pure joy. Those Canadians know how to play. And those fights, and no one gets hurt. They are so well padded. And they have a sense of humor. When one pulls the sweater over the head of another during a fight, that's it; and the referees do it too. Knights haven't lost their humor yet. Humanity still has a future. And everything is in fair play. That money was not wasted at all. It was a great entertainment. |
| Son: | Dad, you should have just stayed home. It was a mistake to drag you here. For you, those were really wasted, poorly invested funds. But it was an incredibly wild and yet great fair game... Worse is that Daddy is adamant, and so I might as well forget hockey equipment for Jesus. I guess I will have to find some temp job somewhere. But I will not quit the club, and the games will go on. |
| Father: | Well, that’s not happening. Just forget about it. |
| Son: | Right now, when the coach just told me I've got a chance to make it somewhere. |
| Father: | Then say goodbye to that for good. Books, not hockey. |
| Uncle: | You are, my dear brother, still the same. Just a bull in a china shop. You always spoil every joy. You are a real sourpuss. Just don’t stop the kid from playing hockey. At least let him stop smelling of incense. I am inviting him to the next Canadian game in a week. You just stay home. He must not become a pious mantis. I’m not his godfather for nothing. That’s my concern, and I know how to handle it. |
| Father: | Look, you keep that to yourself. I am putting a lot of effort into my son’s Christian upbringing, and you do this. So, you’d better not come to us anymore. |
| Uncle: | Poor little brat of yours, he’s more likely to wilt than to bloom. |
| David X: | Gentlemen, calm down. I apologize for interrupting. I was somewhat indiscreetly listening. And you are also shouting quite a bit, so it wasn’t all that indiscreet. Your exchange of views naturally caught my attention, and I cannot remain silent. However, I don’t understand why a young man should become a pious mantis and why hockey should be a means of destroying the joy of faith. Everything can be put together without compromise, and it won't consume itself. |
| Father: | That's just the spirit of the world. That's just the falsification of Christianity. May God protect us from such superficiality. |
| Uncle: | Such reconciliation is nonsense. That’s the dishonest game. First, the rules of hockey, then comes a prayer book, and a convert solemnly curses and burns the hockey rules as errors and worldly delusion. Don’t spoil people’s joy of life with some otherworldly ideas. |
| David X: | And what do you think, young man? We've been talking for a long time, and haven’t let you speak. |
| Son: | It has to be made to fit together somehow. Otherwise, life would be a terrible boredom and a drag. Otherwise, it would be one-sided, and that is the violence of one thing against another. And that can spoil even the best thing. |
| David X: | You are absolutely right. Too much of anything is harmful. It gives you headaches. And that is why God gave us hockey. Not just for that reason, though, but that’s also one of the reasons hockey is a good thing. |
| Father: | Sir, I recall now; I saw you at the altar. Why are you wasting time here? You should attend more to the kingdom of God in your parish! |
| David X: | And isn't it here as well? |
| Father: | Certainly not. The Kingdom of God is not of this world; and here is a classic case of the world. |
| Uncle: | Thank God that your Kingdom of God is not of this world. That would be a terribly dull hockey. They would give each other Christian little pats on the back, and then apologize to each other saying, "Please, give me another one, and I’ll let you score." That sends shivers down a man’s spine. |
| Son: | Uncle, that probably won’t be the case. I saw half of the Canadian team at the sacraments this morning, and I wouldn’t say it was a comedy. Just the fact that not everyone was there shows that no one is forcing them. They took it quite seriously, just like their hockey. |
| David X: | Young people are critical and have a sense of justice. I cannot overcome my opponent by ridiculing him, but by taking him seriously, cheerful uncle. One cannot just manage with humor in life. |
| Uncle: | Are you guys preaching too? |
| David X: | No, I just want to be factual. |
| Father: | But there will be no hockey gear under the Christmas tree. You won't convince me. Vanity of vanities is this hockey. |
| Uncle: | Then I will invest the money in it myself. |
| Son: | Under such conditions, uncle, I’m not interested in it. |
| David X: | No, we need to convince the father that this investment is a good one. Any other solution would be false. |
| Father: | And now even you undermine my authority. This is your whole post-conciliar Church. You will work this out with your John XXIII. - The Church and the world. Leave me alone. You should be convincing that boy against this. Sooner or later, because of hockey, he will stop being inclined toward the sacristy. |
| Uncle: | I wish that were the case. |
| Son: | You see this falsely. When I do something, I do it because I am convinced; and fidelity born of love excludes betrayal. You see, Dad, don David certainly played hockey well and is a priest today and did not curse his hockey past. |
| David X: | I have nothing more to add. |
| Uncle: | This is probably a mistake. Exceptions prove the rule. But still, Don David, no offense, but you must have played something. |
| David X: | No, I've just lived everything honestly. |
| Uncle: | No, you Christians are perfect agents with perfection; you only play your passions in order to win over others, you can't love something for its own sake. |
| David X: | You see this falsely. No true perfection arises from a desire for perfection, but only from love for something. And you, finally, even your opposite brother, do not understand one basic Christian truth: The best is the best friend of the good. |
| Father: | We learned that the world is full of malice and temptation, and therefore, be cautious with what is of the world and be cautious before it. |
| David X: | Remember what Christ said: "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." (John 17:15) |
| Uncle: | Perhaps also from poorly played hockey. |
| David X: | And from that which gets mixed with the spirit of the world. |
| Uncle: | Please, don’t drag pious quotes into hockey. But there’s actually something to that; money can completely poison hockey and other moments. But then, why did your Christ come, when love arises only from our relationship with things? He is completely unnecessary. |
| David X: | Christ loved things as they are because they came from the hands of God. |
| Uncle: | Do you think Christ would play hockey? |
| David X: | If it had been commonly played in Nazareth in His time, then certainly. |
| Son: | Zcertainly, he was just a normal human being. |
| Father: | Kid, don't be shameless, this is not how I raised you! |
| David X: | No. He rightly understands what incarnation means, that the Word became a true human being. However, there would come a moment when he would leave hockey because he had another mission ahead of him. |
| Uncle: | You don’t think he would lead a beat group, do you? |
| Son: | Surely, he was a young man like the others, and if it were in the synagogue, he would surely lead it well. |
| Father: | I'm slowly going crazy over you. |
| Uncle: | Wouldn't it be boring to play with him? |
| David X: | We have already said that he was a normal person like the others; and he spent a large part of his life among people and not at all in the desert. You do not understand what it means that he was a real man. Surely, when he did something, he fully engaged in it in his human existence. |
| Son: | Yes: when it’s on, it’s on. When it's hockey, it’s 100% hockey. |
| Father: | A Christian can never fully engage in the things of this world. He is supposed to use them only as means. To fully dedicate oneself to any thing is basically idolatry. |
| Uncle: | That’s why I say Christians should stay out of the things of this world. They just distort everything for "the greater glory of God". |
| David X: | Yes, the glory of God. That is a good reference point to help us get somewhere in our exchange of opinions. |
| Son: | But here we might freeze; let’s go sit somewhere. |
| Uncle: | The younger generation is practical. The older generation has experience. I propose the Green Frog. It’s not far, and they have good beer there. |
| David X: | I’m fully in favor; I’ll pay. |
| Uncle: | You can’t bribe or buy me. |
| David X: | I have no intention of doing so, because neither bribed love endures, nor forced love. |
| Son: | Love is always selfless, even if it enriches us. |
| Father: | You are somehow overly wise, and you talk too much. |
| Uncle: | You, brother, will probably die from your purposefulness and its self-interest. |
| David X: | So we’ve thawed out a bit over the beer, now back to the topic. |
| Son: | Yes, what is the glory of God? |
| Father: | In indifference to the world, which I use as if I do not use it. |
| Uncle: | The glory of the world is that it precisely hinders the glory of God if you do not want to shrink into dull drudgery. |
| David X: | And what does the younger generation say? |
| Son: | When God created the world, he wants us to take it seriously. He made us for it in such a way that life must necessarily be an adventure of love with its beauty and risk. That’s why we (young people) want and have the right to live our own lives; we don’t want anyone dictating what we should like. That’s why we rebel, and you don’t understand it. |
| David X: | To be completely fair, you sometimes seek your justified freedom in very problematic places and in very problematic ways and means. But the right to personal discovery and creation remains with you. Even in hockey, rules without personal application are dead, and in the end, it is all a matter of shared harmony out of the necessity of the present moment. It involves personal responsibility toward the game and the team. Prima donnas are annoying. |
| Father: | But this is still just nice talk about nothing. It stands in the Scriptures: "Vanity of vanities." (Ecclesiastes 1:2) |
| David X: | But there are other places in the Scriptures, and one is from my namesake's pen. A moment of patience for a somewhat longer quote, but it will pay off. "For who is God besides the Lord, and who is the rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He causes me to stand on the heights; He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You make your saving help my shield; and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn." (Psalm 18:32-39) |
| Son: | This can be updated. Even for hockey. |
| David X: | Completely right and logically. Joy in strength is right, as strength is a gift from God. |
| Father: | This is a pagan interpretation of the Scriptures. |
| Uncle: | I encounter this feature of religion for the first time. |
| David X: | Unfortunately, but fortunately still. But there is not much time left until closing, so allow me a bit of organizing our debate. I will say one sentence that is the key to what we want to resolve or at least show convincing reasons. The church has declared: the virtues of pagans are true virtues. |
| Father: | You are leveling Christianity. |
| Uncle: | That is water on my mill. I only need to be a pagan. |
| David X: | Patience, don’t interrupt me. There is more to it: however, without love, they are not perfect. |
| Son: | But they are open in themselves to love. Actually, they come from it and lead to it. |
| David X: | You are a real theologian of the Second Vatican Council. |
| Father: | What do you mean by that, you wise head? Do you even know what you are saying? |
| Son: | Don't make me out to be a narrow-minded person. Even if training, honest training, is necessary for good hockey, and even if money is necessary for the team's life, full joy is only when played first from the hockey impulse. If this sporting selflessness is not in the lead, then it is all somehow matted and twisted. |
| David X: | Completely correctly; even love for God does not offset that. God does not skip over anything. |
| Uncle: | That sounds quite sympathetic to me. So there can be some anarchy from above. |
| David X: | And how much of it, unfortunately, has been due to human foolishness in the history of the Church! The Kingdom of God need not fear any competition. God is the God of eternity and engagement. Christ said: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father." |
| Son: | I cannot repair a car with good and pious intentions. |
| Uncle: | But then there would not be a chasm between the sacristy and the field. |
| David X: | No real Christian claims that. There is no gulf between the secular and the sacred; there are just different deep shots of one reality. And in time, one must start from the secular if one does not want to build a house on sand. A Christian can only reach heaven because he stands on earth. |
| Son: | You see, good hockey is a celebration of God. So the gear will be there. |
| Father: | Kid, you are mixing everything up. |
| Uncle: | I don’t like it when everything is lumped together. Leave the church as the church and the playground as the playground. |
| David X: | No one is mixing anything. I am just putting each thing in its place and looking for a place for everything and then unifying it in Christ. |
| Uncle: | That's exactly the ideological violence, that anarchy from above. |
| Son: | Every thing remains itself; therefore, no violence is done to anyone. |
| David X: | But time is flying. Surely you will agree that when something is truly good, it is naturally a celebration of God. |
| Father: | Not all things are good; there are also indifferent, indifferent things. |
| David X: | No, only people can be indifferent. Things are, either they are, or they are missing something, and then they are not and are evil. |
| Uncle: | I cannot help but think, if I know my brother, Christianity is for me a flat indifference. I do not wish to be loved for the sake of the Lord and thereby be an opportunity for good deeds. That offends me. |
| David X: | That is also not Christian. Christianity is to love another for him in God. But we must bite into what actually is the celebration of God. It’s almost closing hour. |
| Son: | So, Don David, summarize that whole problem for us somehow. |
| David X: | Is everyone in favor? |
| Everyone: | Of course, so we can sleep peacefully. |
| David X: | However, let us hope that the problems are not to be slept over and forgotten by morning. That again. We will tackle it scientifically, and, as they say, we will lay down the status questionis or the state of the question, and it sounds: Is or can hockey be a good thing in itself and the celebration of God? What is goodness, and how does the celebration of God arise? |
| Uncle: | That’s a bit too big of a mouthful. |
| David X: | Don’t underestimate man and thus yourself either. So, the first part of the question: Are things good in themselves or only by their designation regardless of their own value? |
| Father: | No, hockey is a trivial matter; at most, some good intention would make it valuable. |
| Uncle: | Good things should not be analyzed; they just are. Such analysis kills the immediate joy of hockey and life at all. |
| Son: | Hockey is certainly not a trivial matter, even if it is not everything; but it is worth playing hockey for the sake of hockey. I know from the club how it looks when parents get it into their heads that children should become hockey champions, and the kid just doesn’t enjoy it. Even if he has the best conditions for it, it poisons the others. However, those who have enthusiasm can be forgiven for making a mistake somewhere. |
| Father: | No, hockey is nothing. Leave me alone. Life is something serious; it’s about eternity. |
| Uncle: | It only distorts the presence of earthly life. |
| David X: | Surely, it’s about eternity, but how does one become good and achieve eternity? |
| Father: | By fulfilling God’s will. |
| Son: | But we are just going in circles. I can’t fix a car with good and pious intentions, but with solid workmanship. Michelangelo said: Nothing brings us closer to God as much as the desire to create a perfect work, for God is perfection. |
| Father: | You know too much, kid. Really more than the rules of hockey. |
| David X: | So the next question: Are good deeds themselves a celebration of God, or is it necessary to have a clearly expressed intention to make them a celebration of God? |
| Son: | That’s a good question, but it is not necessary. Things are God’s, and if they are, they are a celebration of God. |
| Uncle: | To me, it sounds sympathetic that God speaks through things and is honored by them. That David, your namesake, rejoiced in strength, that was a celebration of God, and hockey is such a celebration of strength and human ingenuity. |
| Son: | And that is why it is a celebration of God. |
| Uncle: | But why do you need Christ for that? |
| David X: | To give it the final meaning. Hockey for the unbeliever and the believer should be equally good hockey, and yet that hockey somehow longs to justify itself, and that comes in fullness only through Christ. Paul said: "What you do not know, I proclaim to you." (Acts 17:23). |
| Uncle: | So hockey already belongs to the Kingdom of God by itself. |
| David X: | I hope that after what we have discussed here, it does not seem to you at all nonsensical, even if it does not convince everyone, and that thus – and this is the main thing – hockey is not harmed at all. |
| Father: | Then you really flatten Christianity for people by demagogically sanctifying their quite mundane and flat interests. |
| Son: | Where there is justified love, there is no flatness and mundanity. There is only joy from a good thing. |
| David X: | Some people and Christians think they are striving for perfection, and they are actually just snobs. God doesn't want us to go to eternity via extra paths, but through our mundane lives; and sometimes, of course, it can complicate life considerably. Heroism and perfection do not arise from the desire for perfection and heroism (this only leads to caricature) but from love for things, people, and God. God does not want us to flee from the world to Him in disdain for the world but to love the world. |
| Father: | You are falsifying the cross like this! |
| David X: | There are certainly other aspects of reality. We have touched on them a bit. There are moments when playing hockey can indeed become a betrayal of life, of all that is good; but those are abnormal situations. If I have both a car and bread, both are good, but if I have nothing to eat, what use is my car? The cross, however, only makes sense as a path to victory and life. |
| Son: | Surely the hardness of training and our coaches' ruthlessness would be something unpleasant and unbearable without the necessary relationship to success in the game. Only oddballs would take pleasure in that. |
| Uncle: | Surprisingly, Don David, you have given me quite convincing reasons that hockey as hockey is actually or can or should become the coming of the Kingdom of God right here on earth. It is precisely that "on earth" that I defend out of love for this earth. |
| David X: | The Kingdom of God is continually coming among us, in every good deed, in every good thing; and hockey is among them. But it’s closing soon. Time to pay, sir. So, what about it, head of the family, will there be equipment for the son under the Christmas tree? |
| Father: | We will consult with your mother about that. |
| Son: | So it is won. Mom is cheering for me. She is proud of my hockey successes. Thank you, Don David; we have won, the equipment will be there. |
| David X: | Above all, that the glory of God has won. |
| Uncle: | And the man did not lose out either. |
| Everyone: | Paid, good night. |
