The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Christmas Celebration I

[ 1 ] The memory of this very Christmas will be etched in the minds of many with vivid clarity, for there is scarcely a sharper contrast of mood to imagine than that which arises when we lift our souls to the voice that resounded to the shepherds, representing an eternal truth for all human exaltation in the post-Christian era:

Divine Revelation in the Heavens
And peace to people on earth,
Who are of good will

[ 2 ] When we lift our souls to the words “Peace on earth to people of good will” and consider the reality of today—that which we find spread across the horizon of a large part of the civilized world.

[ 3 ] It is precisely because of this contrast that the Christmas we have just experienced will remain a lasting symbol in the hearts of people around the world. For if we uphold what we must ceaselessly uphold in the realm of our Spiritual Science thinking—inner sincerity of heart and inner truthfulness of soul—we truly cannot celebrate this Christmas with the same feelings as we have celebrated other Christmases. For it must inspire us to deep reflection; it must inspire us especially to that which emerges from our contemplation of Spiritual Science as an idea for humanity’s future—to that which can lead human hearts back to times unlike our own.

[ 4 ] Over the years, we have engraved many things in our souls that can point to the state of mind that brought about such times. What, then, is it that we feel is still so sorely lacking in the present? If we summon to the eye of our soul that which has so often formed the heart of our reflections, then we will see: in the depths of the human soul, there is still a lack of true understanding of what entered the world on that day whose memory we commemorate every year on this holy winter night.

[ 5 ] That which is truly significant, that which is truly profound, that which took place in the time of which this Christmas Eve reminds us—it is indeed not without reason that it is expressed with such profound significance in the saying that humanity has, one might say, regarded as the most poignant, namely in the saying:

Divine Revelation in the Heavens
And peace to people on earth,
Who are of good will.

[ 6 ] The simplest things are often the hardest for the human heart to understand, and as simple as this saying may sound to us, we do well to make it ever clearer to ourselves that all future generations of earthly existence will be capable of understanding this saying ever more deeply and of immersing themselves ever more fully in its meaningful words.

[ 7 ] It is no coincidence that, of all the mysterious stories surrounding the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth, the most popular has become that of the infant Jesus entering earthly life on Christmas Eve. For this gives us the opportunity to present something to the human soul that is received with love, even by the heart of the smallest child, provided that this child can receive the external sensory impressions—even if perhaps not yet in words— — and yet is at the same time something that sinks so deeply into those depths of the soul where love flows through the human being most gently and at the same time with the strongest warmth.

[ 8 ] Truly, humanity on Earth has not yet progressed much beyond a childlike understanding of the mystery of Christ Jesus, and epoch after epoch will still have to pass before the human soul regains the strength through which it can take in the full magnitude of the unfolding Mystery of Golgotha. So let us not offer a Christmas reflection this time as in other years, but rather present to your souls something that can point out to us how much we still lack of that depth which is necessary to allow the Mystery of Golgotha to truly shine forth in our souls.

[ 9 ] Over the past year, we have spoken frequently about how, within the context of Spiritual Science, we are called to celebrate not just the coming of one infant Jesus, but of two. And it may be said that, in and through Spiritual Science contemplation, the revelation of this mystery of the two infant Jesuses has marked the tentative beginning of a new understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. Only slowly and gradually could this Mystery of Golgotha take hold of human minds. As it has taken root in these human minds, can be brought before our souls when we, for example, consider that, in a sense, what today’s Christian humanity has fought to achieve in its conception of the Christmas Child had to struggle its way through, moving from East to West, through other conceptions of a divine mediator between the highest divine-spiritual beings and the human soul.

[ 10 ] We have also often noted that, running parallel to the current of Christian life flowing from east to west, there was another stream of revelation—more to the north, north of the Black Sea, flowing upstream along the Danube to the Rhine, and on into Western Europe. That cult, which we know as the cult of Mithras, disappeared in the first centuries of the Christian era. But in the first centuries of the Christian era, it had captured as many hearts in Europe as Christianity itself, had made a deep impression, and had spread throughout the regions of Central and Eastern Europe. To those who professed their faith in him, Mithras appeared just as noble and great as the divine Mediator who descended from spiritual heights into earthly existence, just as Christ appeared to the Christians. Likewise, we hear how Mithras’ entry into earthly existence was celebrated on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year; likewise, we hear that he was born hidden in a cave, that shepherds were the first to hear his revelation. Sunday was consecrated to him, just as other Christian feast days were.

[ 11 ] And if we ask: What is characteristic of the descent of this figure of Mithras?, we must say: Just as Christ had a mental image in Jesus, so Mithras could not have been represented. There was an awareness that if one depicted him externally, creating a pictorial mental image of him, one would then have only an external, symbolic mental image. For the true Mithras could be seen only by those who possessed clairvoyant vision. Although he was presented as a mediator between the spirits of the higher hierarchies and the human soul, but he did not have a mental image in which he was presented as having incarnated in a human being. He was presented as descending to earth, yet in his true essence—not in an image where all could see him, but in his true essence—visible only to the initiates, to those who possessed clairvoyant vision. The mental image that the divine-spiritual being, who is to be conceived as a mediator between the spirits of the higher hierarchies and the human soul, incarnates in an earthly body itself—this image was not yet present in the Mithraic cult. For the Mithraic cult was still based on the fact that ancient, primitive clairvoyance was present in a large number of people. |

[ 12 ] If we examine the path that the cult of Mithras took from East to West, we find that among the people who became Mithraic priests, there were a great many who themselves could perceive, in those intermediate states between sleeping and waking—where the soul lives not in dreams but in spiritual reality—the actual descent of Mithras from Aeon to Aeon, from stage to stage, from the spiritual worlds down to Earth. And the others were swept along by these seers. Many of them were able to bear witness that such a mediator—but a mediator to the spiritual worlds—had been given to humanity.

[ 13 ] What was known as the Mithras cult was simply an external, more or less pictorial representation of what the seers beheld. What is it, actually, that we encounter in this Mithras cult? We must not believe—as is evident from our entire worldview—that anything was known about Christ until the Mystery of Golgotha. The initiates of the Mysteries and their disciples knew him well even in pre-Christian times as the Spirit who would come for humanity. The initiates pointed to him as the high Sun Spirit, whom they saw descending from the spiritual heights, approaching the Earth to take up his dwelling there. They designated him as the Future One, as the One to Come. They knew him in spirit and saw him descending.

[ 14 ] Then came the Mystery of Golgotha. We know what it means. We know that through this Mystery of Golgotha, the Spirit through which the Earth has received its meaning entered a human body. We know how this Spirit has been connected to the Earth ever since, and we also know how humanity must develop so that, in the not-too-distant future, it may once again behold in the Spirit the Christ who, through the Mystery of Golgotha, united His own life with the life of humanity on Earth. We are not speaking inappropriately when we say: What the ancient initiates beheld in the various places or sanctuaries of the spiritual has since been recognized as permeating, flowing through, pulsing through, and weaving through earthly life.

[ 15 ] But it was thus that more and more had to be lost to clairvoyant perception, along with this very perception itself—the gazing upward into the spiritual spheres to behold the Christ— after He had descended to Earth to those who were to recognize there that the Earth not only harbors human love, but is permeated by divine love, which increasingly seeks to reveal itself as the highest treasure of Earth’s inhabitants. People should truly feel that in their earthly home they have received from God, whom we call the Father God, the great gift of cosmic love, Christ; they should truly come to know him as the being who is henceforth to be connected with the deeds, with the very meaning of earthly evolution; they should truly come to know him in his life, from his first breath as a child to the greatest deed through the Mystery of Golgotha, which can be revealed to human hearts.

[ 16 ] In recent times, we have indeed been able to fill the gap left in the other four Gospels through the Fifth Gospel. Yes, it has been granted to our time—more precisely, one might say—to come to know every step of this divine life on earth. And because people were thus to become, as it were, quite familiar with Christ Jesus as one of their brothers, as one who came down from the vast spiritual realms into the narrow valley of the earth out of love for humanity, because people were to come to know him in the most familiar, most intimate way, therefore the powers of knowledge and love in the human mind had to be gathered for a time, so that, in a purely human-divine intensity, I might say, they might behold that which was taking place among humanity as the beginning of a new, Christian era. But for this, the power within humanity had to be, as it were, entirely concentrated and directed toward the life of Christ Jesus, and had to be diverted for a time from gazing upward toward the spiritual spheres to that which had entered into the Child of Bethlehem, which had descended from the cosmic heights.

[ 17 ] Today, however, we live in a time when our vision must broaden once more if human progress and human salvation are truly to rule the earth. That which Christ was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth must expand into what he is: life descending to the earth from divine-spiritual heights.

[ 18 ] One might say: The cult of Mithras was something like a final, powerful reminder of the Christ who had not yet come to earth but was descending. But then it was destined for humanity to take the Christ ever more deeply into their hearts, so that this reception became possible even in the smallest child, but in such a way that, alongside this, and in conjunction with it, there was a waning of the old way of looking up with a clairvoyant gaze toward the heights from which Christ descended—through the vision of which we recognize that Christ is a cosmic being, and from the contemplation of which we alone know what value he holds for the narrow valley of the Earth. Slowly and gradually, this clairvoyant gazing upward into cosmic expanses—in which Christ, as a cosmic being, can appear to humanity—faded away. The cult of Mithras was still a strong echo of the ancient knowledge of the super-earthly Christ.

[ 19 ] Then we see how, as it were, clairvoyant perception gradually ebbs away and diminishes; how even for those who still possess clairvoyant perception in the old style, a waning of clairvoyant abilities sets in; and how, with this waning, the possibility of recognizing Christ fully in his true essence also ceases. One recognizes him in his true essence when one recognizes him not only in his earthly, human work, but in his entire heavenly glory.

[ 20 ] However, the possibility of seeing Christ in his heavenly glory alongside his earthly existence gradually faded. We see how what was still alive in the cult of Mithras already appears weakened—despite the noble grandeur inherent in the corresponding doctrine—in the one whose name we have also mentioned frequently: in the founder of Manichaeism. Mani points us to Jesus, but it is not the kind of reference found in the simple, primitive, devout mind, because in this spirit, which founded Manichaeism, there was still ancient clairvoyance. Yet it is also not yet what can become the present reality with regard to the understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. For Mani, Christ Jesus is a being who did not truly assume an earthly human body, but lived on earth only in a semblance of a body, in an etheric body. We see the struggle within Manichaeism to comprehend the Mystery of Golgotha. Why does this struggle take place? Because the founder of Manichaeism was still able to gaze into spiritual heights, to see how the spiritual being, the Christ-being, descends. But the possibility did not yet exist to truly perceive how this spiritual being enters the earthly world, how it truly takes up residence in a human body. A struggle of the soul was first necessary before this full understanding was possible.

[ 21 ] We also see the Manichaean doctrine spreading from east to west, a doctrine that, on the one hand, still looks back to the divine Spirit who descends, and to all that the old worldview still held: to look not only at the physical beings that present themselves to the human senses, but also at the beings that move through the cosmos as celestial beings. On the other hand, the interconnection of human destiny, of human life, with this cosmic life permeated the soul of the Manichean. Deeply rooted within him was the question: How is the evil that reigns in human life compatible with the workings of the good God? Manichaeism has looked deeply, deeply into the riddle of evil. But this mystery of evil can only truly appear before the eye of the soul in its full depth if we are able to grasp it in connection with the Mystery of Golgotha, if we penetrate the Mystery of Golgotha with the mystery of evil, just as Manichaeism also sought to do. Hence the struggle of the remnants of ancient clairvoyant knowledge with the problem of evil, with the mystery of evil in Manichaeism.

[ 22 ] And truly, it was precisely those who were most deeply and intensely called to devote their souls to understanding the mystery of Golgotha who struggled with what still shone through into more recent times from the remnants of the ancient clairvoyant knowledge. We need only think of a great teacher of the West, Saint Augustine. Before he had brought himself to the realization of Pauline Christianity, he was devoted to the teachings of the Manicheans. It made an even greater impression on him when he heard that the divine Mediator had descended from divine-spiritual spheres from Aeon to Aeon. This spiritual vision still overshadows, even for Augustine in the early days of his struggle, the realization of how Christ took up residence on earth in a physical body, and how the mystery of Golgotha resolves the enigma of evil. It is moving to see how Augustine engages in dialogue with Faustus, the famous bishop of the Manichaeans, and how, precisely because this bishop fails to make the necessary impression on him, he turns away from Manichaeism and then turns to Pauline Christianity.

[ 23 ] Then we see what we might call the knowledge of the super-earthly Christ—as he was before the Mystery of Golgotha—fading away more and more; and, in essence, it is only with the advent of the new era, the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, that what remained of the old clairvoyant knowledge completely vanishes. This ancient clairvoyant knowledge still recognized the heavenly Christ alongside the earthly Christ. Of course, one could still sense this heavenly Christ even in the early days of Christianity, but to behold him, to behold him with recognition as he descends—that was possible only through the ancient, clairvoyant knowledge. We must be deeply moved when we hear how, in the early days of the spread of Christianity, those who still drew their knowledge from the old clairvoyant tradition sought to visualize Christ: how, in order to recognize Christ, they did not merely look toward Bethlehem, but gazed into the heavenly spheres to see him descending from there to bring salvation to humanity.

[ 24 ] We know that, alongside the cult of Mithras and Manichaeism, Gnosticism was present in the West. Gnosticism, too—at least insofar as it was Christian Gnosticism—sought to connect the descent of Christ from the divine spheres, from Aeon to Aeon, with an understanding of the earthly life of Christ Jesus. And then it is moving to see how the human mind increasingly seeks to focus on the vision of the purely earthly life of Christ Jesus. It is moving to see how this simple human mind, which lacks the old clairvoyance needed to depict the life of Jesus, is almost afraid of the grandiose mental image one must have had of Christ descending from the heights of heaven. The first Christians were completely overwhelmed by the mental images that Gnosticism still held. They were afraid of these mental images.

[ 25 ] Even today, among those who are deeply moved in their innermost being by the Mystery of Golgotha but cannot rise to that spiritual insight, there remains a certain fear that the soul might descend into chaos if it ascends to the times when one can see what spiritual insight dwells in the teachings of the Gnostics. But we are deeply moved by what the Gnostics were still able to say about the heavenly Christ alongside the earthly Christ. I would like to say that our soul’s vision of the earthly life of Christ Jesus is by no means dulled when he is now drawn up through new clairvoyance to spiritual heights where the heavenly Christ is to be found, and from whence he descended. Then it touches us so deeply when the Gnostics recount: “Jesus said:

Behold, O Father,
How this being on Earth,
The target and victim of all evil,
Wanders far from your breath.
Behold, it flees the bitter chaos,
At a loss as to how to find its way through.
Therefore send me, O Father!
Bearing the seal, I descend,
Through the ages I stride,
Every sacred message I interpret,
Then reveal the image of the gods.
And so I bestow upon you
The deeply hidden message
Of the sacred path:
“Gnosis,” it is now called for you.”

[ 26 ] We feel that the new Spiritual Science must lead us once again to the point where we can weave around the Christ event, in our perception, the spiritual aura that—for reasons we have often discussed and to which we had to refer again today—had to be lost to humanity for a time. We must do this slowly and gradually. We must, so to speak, seek to grasp what Spiritual Science is able to reveal to us in such a way that the human mind, which is still far removed from Spiritual Science today, is able to grasp it.

[ 27 ] That is why an attempt was made to express, in simple terms, the entire anthroposophical wisdom concerning the Christ event—specifically, the Night of the Epiphany and its connection to the human soul—which has also been presented to you here:

Reflected in the eye of the soul
Is the light of hope for the world,
Wisdom surrendered to the Spirit
Speaks in the human heart:
The Father’s eternal love
Sends the Son to Earth,
Who graciously bestows upon the human path
The light of heaven.

[ 28 ] Hopefully, there will come a time in the course of earthly evolution when more—much more—can be said, in clearer terms, about the mystery of Golgotha, using simple language accessible to the whole world; a time when what Spiritual Science has to say to humanity about the mystery of Golgotha can be expressed for the benefit of all humankind.

[ 29 ] We can see, after all, how right up to the end of the fourth, and even into the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the old clairvoyant knowledge ebbs away to such an extent that the last remnants still granted to human souls fall into disrepute. We see this poignantly embodied in the figure who appears in Europe—much more widespread than one might think —precisely as the fourth post-Atlantean epoch ebbs away, in the form of the folk adventurer—for an adventurer has become such—who can still bear the last remnants of clairvoyant knowledge appropriate to the times in the one whom the folk book calls: “Magister Georgius Sabellicus, Faustus junior, fons necromanticorum, astrologus, magus secundus, chiromanticus, aeromanticus, pyromanticus, in hydra arte secundus.” Such is the full title of that Faustus, who then stands in the 16th century as a representative of the old clairvoyance that was completely fading away, of that Faust who still had a glimpse into the spiritual worlds, even if that glimpse was already chaotic.

[ 30 ] Then, with the advent of modern times, it is no longer possible for the human soul—when it passively places itself in certain states, as in ancient times—to perceive spiritually; rather, in this state it can only passively perceive the sensory world and what the intellect can deduce from it. The entire tragedy of the final spiritual vision is expressed in the simple accounts of Faustus Junior. Essentially, he already names himself in his titles in such a way that we can recognize he is, as it were, the last offshoot of those who could still look into the spheres from which Christ descended. He called himself Faustus Junior with a clear allusion to the old Faust, the Manichaean bishop Faustus, the teacher of Augustine, who still possessed what Augustine had longed for; for Augustine’s writings were never as widely circulated in Europe as they were during the time when the legends of Faustus Junior arose. And he called himself Magus Secundus, alluding to Magus Primus, who, for those who look into these matters, still stands as one who gazed out with clairvoyant vision, reaching up toward the celestial spheres, but whom those feared who wished only to acknowledge, only to concentrate on the earthly life of Christ Jesus. Faustus thus alludes to the ancient Simon Magus, the Magus primus, by calling himself Magus secundus. But he also points us to another figure, of whom we know from our observations in Spiritual Science that his gaze was directed upward into the spiritual world to look into the spiritual spheres. He also calls himself “In hydra arte secundus,” referring to Pythagoras, who in that era was called the Primus in this field of art.

[ 31 ] We see the last fading glow of what used to be clairvoyance, and we see how this ancient clairvoyance is already becoming incomprehensible to people. Yes, what was so movingly portrayed to us in the Faust legend has truly come to pass: how Augustine longs for Faustus the Elder, and how he then becomes acquainted with Faustus the Elder’s teachings, as we are told, through an old man and a physician. Likewise, transposed to modern circumstances, Faustus the Younger appears to us in the folk legend. The old man also appears there again, warning him, but Faustus Junior has already made his pact; he hands over his inheritance to Doctor Wagner.

[ 32 ] And truly, when we look back over the ages and consider what has come down to us as a vision of the spiritual world since the dawn of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, we must say: It is the legacy entrusted to Dr. Wagner. For what matters is how one can manage such a legacy. In Faust, it is still a glimpse into the spiritual worlds; in Wagner, it is that which merely rummages through parchments, looks back to ancient times, and which is, after all, quite correctly characterized by the words: that one digs greedily for treasures and is glad when one finds earthworms.

[ 33 ] This is the materialistic worldview of our modern age, and it is no wonder that within this materialistic worldview all conception of the Heavenly Christ has been lost—indeed, that even today there remains a fear of expanding the image upon which the forces of the Earth have been concentrated up to the present day. But we also know: humanity on Earth would truly lose all understanding of this image if it were unable to weave, through a new, spiritual perspective, a new aura around the so moving image of the Christ Child and of his development over thirty-three Earth years. Spiritual Science will be called upon—and those souls who seriously engage with Spiritual Science will sense that they are called upon to do so—to sharpen the gaze of human minds once more, alongside the earthly Christ, toward the heavenly Christ. For then Christ will be recognized for all future earthly ages in such a way that He can never again be lost to human progress and human salvation.

[ 34 ] When wisdom once again ascends to spiritual heights, where the fire of love also burns in the divine spheres, then the human soul will truly never again lose all that is wondrous, all that penetrates into the deepest forces of love—which human beings can gain through Christ Jesus. But the infinite will be gained. That which must be gained will be gained if the development of humanity is to continue in the appropriate manner.

[ 35 ] Yet what we are able to say today—and this is truly so, even though the modern sources of a new spiritual understanding have already begun to open up—is that it is well to celebrate it in the spirit of the Christmas festival. Whoever truly immerses themselves in what is still our knowledge of Spiritual Science today will be overcome by a deep, deep humility. For we can only guess at what Spiritual Science is destined to become for humanity in the future; for what we are able to recognize of it today can only stand in relation to what will one day be given to humanity, when many, many years have passed, just as the very young Christmas Child stands in relation to the adult Christ Jesus.

[ 36 ] In our nascent Spiritual Science, we are truly still in the infancy of our journey. That is why Christmas is truly our festival, and we feel that, in relation to what can reign as human light in the development of the Earth, we are living today in a deep, dark winter night, and that with our present knowledge we truly stand before what reveals itself to us in the deep winter darkness of the Earth’s development, just as the shepherds once stood before the Christ Child who first revealed Himself to them. In the face of our understanding of Christ Jesus, we can feel today just as the shepherds of that time did, and we can truly, earnestly pray that the springs of spiritual life may flow ever more abundantly to humanity; we can truly, earnestly pray that they may ever more fully bring to life the divine revelation in the spiritual heights, and bestow that peace which this revelation can give to human hearts that are truly of good will. How very much this Christmas then appears to us as a symbol. We still know little of what the world will one day have as Spiritual Science. We sense what may yet come; we sense it in deep humility. But that little—if we are willing to let it truly penetrate our hearts—oh, how it then appears to us!

[ 37 ] Take a look at the European world today, my dear friends: What do the peoples think of one another? How each people seeks to blame the other for what is happening! If spiritual knowledge truly takes root in our hearts, oh, then we will understand the blame that one people seeks to place on another, that one nation seeks to place on another. Truly, this blame lies with one who is truly, truly international, who directs his steps from nation to nation. But one speaks of him only in the circles of those in whose hearts a little Spiritual Science has taken root. There we speak of Ahriman, that truly international being who, in league with Lucifer, bears the true blame. But one does not find him by always turning one’s gaze toward others, but only by seeking the paths to knowledge through self-knowledge. There, down into the chaotic depths, is where we go. Then we feel him, this Ahriman. But when we truly recognize him and learn to recognize him in connection with what the Mystery of Golgotha can be for us: the proclamation of the revelation of wisdom in the heights and of peace in the depths of the earthly valley, only then do we sense what the full fire of love is, which can radiate from the Mystery of Golgotha, and which knows no boundaries erected between nations and peoples.

[ 38 ] Much of this is already contained in what has already come before our souls as Spiritual Science. But if we look at what has already been revealed before our chaotic present and what has now found such a deeply sad and painful expression, then we see how very small is that dwelling of the soul in which the new understanding of the Christ Child who came to Earth must dwell today. Was it not the case with this Christ Child that it had to appear to the poor shepherds, that it had to be born in a stable, hidden from what ruled the world at that time—is it not the case again now with the new understanding of what is connected with the Mystery of Golgotha? Is not what appears to us today out in the world infinitely far removed from this understanding, just as the world at the beginning of our era was far removed from what was revealed to the shepherds when they heard: “/p”

Divine Revelation from on High
And peace to people on earth,
Who are of good will.

[ 39 ] Let us celebrate, my dear friends, this Christmas of a renewed understanding of Christ in our hearts and souls; if we wish to celebrate Christmas properly, let us feel like those shepherds, far removed from what now fills the world. But let us recognize, through what is revealed to us as shepherds, that which had to be recognized back then; let us recognize the promise of a secure future. And let us build within our souls the trust in the fulfillment of this promise: the trust that what we feel today—like the child we wish to worship (for this new understanding of Christ is this child)—will grow, that it will live, and that in not too long a time it will grow to such an extent that the Christ, who appears in the etheric realm, may incarnate within it, just as the Christ was able to incarnate in the physical body at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. Let us fill ourselves with the light that, through trust in this promise, can illuminate us to the very depths of our soul; let us warm ourselves with the warmth that can pulse through our hearts! When we thus feel ourselves in the presence of the spiritual heights where the light of that spiritual world can step before our intuitive soul, then and only then can we be certain that it will one day illuminate the world.

[ 40 ] So when we think, we are celebrating—especially in these difficult, painful times—a true Christmas. For not only is the deep, dark winter night of the season upon us; there is also, across the horizon of humanity, the result of Ahrimanic darkness, as it has gradually descended since the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. But just as the Annunciation of Christ could at first reach only the shepherds and then increasingly filled the world, so too will the new understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha increasingly fill the world. And times will come that, as times of light, will also replace for humanity the time of winter darkness in which we live today.

[ 41 ] Let us therefore feel ourselves to be shepherds toward that which is still a child: toward the new understanding of Christ, and let us feel that we can let the saying pulse through us, in all humility let it pulse through us with a new meaning—a saying that is not only meant to endure eternally within the progress of Earth’s development, but is also meant to become ever more significant. Let us unite, with a light heart but with heightened awareness, during this Christmas season in this so promising saying:

Divine revelation in spiritual heights,
Peace, peace, more and more
To all human souls on Earth,
Who are of good will.