The Rudolf Steiner Archive

First Lecture

[ 1 ] The Christian worldview has placed two powerful spiritual pillars—the two annual festivals, Christmas and Easter—within the cycle of the year, which is meant to symbolize the course of human life. And it can be said that, in the spirit of Christmas and in the spirit of Easter, these two spiritual pillars stand before the human soul, upon which are inscribed the two great mysteries of physical human existence—mysteries that a person must regard in a completely different way than other events in the course of their physical life. Certainly, the supersensible penetrates this physical life—through sensory perception, intellectual judgment, feeling, and the content of the will. But this supersensible is otherwise something that reveals itself directly as supersensible, just as, for example, the Christian worldview seeks to make it tangible through the Feast of Pentecost. The Christmas and Easter concepts, however, point to those two events unfolding within the physical course of life that are, in their outward appearance, physical events; yet, unlike all other physical events, they do not, as they are, reveal themselves immediately as physical events. Through a natural perspective, one can survey the physical life of the human being, and through this same perspective, one can perceive with the senses the outer aspect of this physical life—the outward manifestation of the spiritual. But one can never perceive with the senses—nor can one perceive with the senses the outer aspect, the outward manifestation—of the two boundary experiences of the human life course without being drawn, through the very act of sensory perception, to the profound mystery and the enigmatic nature of these two events. These are the events of birth and death. And in the life of Christ Jesus—and in remembrance of them in the Christmas and Easter traditions—these two events of human physical life stand before the human soul in the Christian consciousness.

[ 2 ] In the spirit of Christmas and Easter, the human soul seeks to contemplate these two great mysteries. And as it contemplates them, it finds in this contemplation luminous strength for thought, powerful substance for human will, and an uplifting of the whole person—no matter what circumstances may require this uplifting. Just as they stand there, these two pillars of the spirit—the Christmas and Easter reflections—they possess an eternal value.

[ 3 ] However, in the course of its development, the human imagination has, in many ways, drawn closer to the great idea of Christmas and the great idea of Easter. While in the early days of Christian development, when the impact of the event at Golgotha shook many hearts, people gradually came to embrace the image of the Savior dying on Golgotha, and while in the first centuries of Christianity they perceived the idea of redemption in the Crucifix hanging on the cross—and the grand, powerful image of Christ dying on the cross gradually took shape there—Christian sentiment, especially as modern times began, adapting more to the materialism emerging in human development, turned toward the image of the childlike Jesus entering the world, the Jesus being born.

[ 4 ] Now, one could certainly argue that, with a more refined sensibility—such as that with which the Christian spirit of Europe turned toward the Christmas nativity scene in centuries past—one might find in it something of a materialistic Christianity. The need—and I don’t mean this in a negative sense—to, so to speak, cuddle with little Jesus has become a trivial need over the centuries. And many songs about little Jesus that are still considered beautiful today—or, as some people say, “cute”—seem far too frivolous to us in the face of the serious times we now face.

[ 5 ] But the spirit of Easter and the spirit of Christmas are eternal pillars, eternal pillars of thought in the human mind. And one can certainly say that in our time of new spiritual revelations, new light will also be shed upon the spirit of Christmas, that the spirit of Christmas will gradually be perceived in a magnificent new form. And it will be up to us to hear, from the events of the world, the call for the renewal of many old ways of thinking, the call for a new revelation of the Spirit. It will be up to us to understand how a new Christmas spirit, designed to strengthen and uplift the human soul, is emerging from these world events.

[ 6 ] The birth and death of a human being—no matter how much one analyzes them or examines them, they present themselves as events that take place directly on the physical plane, and in which the spiritual reigns in such a way that no one who seriously considers these matters should say that these two events—these earthly events of human life—are not such that they manifest themselves directly as physical events, even as they unfold in human beings, just as human beings are citizens of a spiritual world. No view of nature can ever succeed in finding, within the realm of what the senses can perceive and what the intellect can grasp, anything in birth and death other than an event in which the intervention of the spiritual manifests itself directly in the physical. It is in this way alone that these two events approach the human mind. And even with regard to the Christmas event—the event of the Nativity—the human-Christian mind will have to perceive ever more deeply the mystical character of this event.

[ 7 ] It can be said that only rarely have people risen to the occasion to turn their gaze, in the true sense, toward the mystical nature of birth. Rarely, but when they do, their ideas speak with wonderful depth to the human soul. Such is the case with the idea associated with the Swiss spiritual hero of the 15th century, Nicholas of Flüe. It is said of him—and he himself recounted it—that before his birth, before he could breathe the physical air of the outside world, he beheld his own human form, which he would physically embody once his birth had taken place and his life had unfolded. And before his birth, he beheld his baptism, along with the people who were present at that baptism and at his earliest experiences. With the exception of a single older person who was there—whom he did not recognize—he recognized the others because he had already seen them before he first saw the light of day. Take this story however you will, but you cannot help but see in it a significant reference to the mystery of human birth, which is so magnificently symbolized in the Christmas tradition as it stands before world history. One will find indicated in the story of Nicholas of Flüe that something is connected with the entry into physical life that is concealed from ordinary human perception in everyday life by only a very, very thin veil—a thin veil that can be pierced when a karmic relationship of the kind that existed in the case of Nicholas of Flüe is present. Here and there we still encounter such moving references to the mystery of birth and Christmas. But one can say: Humanity has still become scarcely aware of how, in the two boundary pillars of human life—birth and death—these stand directly within the physical world as two spiritual events that reveal themselves even in their physical appearance, events that can never unfold within the mere course of nature, but in which there is a direct intervention of divine spiritual forces, which is indicated by the fact that, precisely because of their physical appearance, these two boundary experiences of the human physical life course must remain mysteries.

[ 8 ] This new Christian revelation now guides us to view the course of human life in the way that—it is safe to say—Christ would have wanted people to view it in the 20th century. Today, as we seek to immerse ourselves in the spirit of Christmas, we recall a saying attributed to Christ Jesus that so aptly points us toward the spirit of Christmas. The saying goes: “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” “Unless you become like little children…” This is truly not a call to strip the Christmas message of all its mystical character and to reduce it to the triviality of the “dear little Jesus,” as many folk songs and similar songs—though fewer folk songs than art songs—have done in the course of Christianity’s materialistic development. It is precisely this saying—“Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven”—that causes us to look up to the mighty impulses surging through human evolution. And in our present time, when world events truly give us no reason to sink into trivial Christmas thoughts, when such pain is tearing through the human heart, when this human heart must look back on millions of people who have met their deaths in recent years, and must look upon countless people who are starving—at such a time, it is truly fitting to do nothing else but turn our gaze toward the powerful, human-driving ideas of world history, toward . those to which we can be guided by the words: “Unless you become like little children...” and which can be supplemented by the other: “And unless you spend your lives in the light of this thought, you cannot enter the kingdoms of heaven.”

[ 9 ] When a human being enters the world as a child, he comes directly from the spiritual world. For what takes place in physical life—the formation and growth of his physical body—is the outward expression of an event that can be described only as follows: The deepest essence of the human being emerges from the spiritual world. The human being is born from the spirit into the body. And when the Rosicrucian says: *Ex deo nascimur*—he is referring to the human being insofar as it appears in the physical world. For that which initially envelops the human being, that which makes him a physical whole here on Earth, is precisely what is expressed by the words *Ex deo nascimur*. If one looks at the center of the human being, at the actual inner core being, then one must say: The human being journeys out of the spirit and into this physical world. — Through what takes place in the physical world—which he observed from the spiritual realms before his conception or birth—he is clothed in his physical body in order to experience, within this physical body, things that can only be experienced in the physical body. But the human being emerges from the spiritual world in his central being. And he is such that, in the first years of his physical existence—for those who wish to view things as they are in the world, who are not blinded by the illusions of materialism—he is such that, even in those early years, he reveals how he has come forth from the spirit. What one observes in a child appears to the truly discerning person in such a way that one can sense in the child the aftereffects of the experiences in the spiritual world.

[ 10 ] Stories such as those associated with the name of Nicholas of Flüe point to this mystery. A trivial view, strongly influenced by materialistic thinking, naively asserts that a person gradually develops his or her “I” throughout life, from birth to death, and that this “I” becomes ever more powerful and stronger, emerging ever more clearly. It is a simplistic way of thinking. For if one looks at the true “I” of the human being—that which emerges from the spiritual world into the physical body at birth—then one speaks differently about the entire physical development of the human being. For then one knows that, as the human being grows physically, the true “I” gradually disappears into the physical body, becoming less and less distinct, and that what develops here in the physical world between birth and death is merely a reflection of spiritual events—a lifeless reflection of a higher life. This is the correct way to express it: the entire fullness of the human being gradually disappears into the body; it becomes more and more invisible. A person lives their physical life here on Earth by gradually losing themselves to the body, only to find themselves again in the spirit at death. — Thus speaks the one who knows the circumstances. But the one who does not know the circumstances speaks in such a way that he says: The child is imperfect, and little by little the “I” develops into ever greater and greater perfection; it grows out of the indeterminate depths of human existence. — The insight of the spiritual seeker must speak differently in this very realm than does the sensory consciousness of our age—an age that still perceives the world materialistically and is entangled in external illusions.

[ 11 ] And so the human being enters the world as a spiritual being. As a child, his physical being is still undetermined; the spiritual aspect has as yet made little claim upon it; it seems to slumber within physical existence, but it appears so devoid of substance to us only because we perceive it no more in ordinary physical life than we perceive the sleeping “I” and the sleeping astral body when they are separated from the physical and etheric bodies. Yet a being is no less perfect simply because we cannot see it. This is the price the human being must pay with his physical body: to become ever more deeply rooted in the physical body, so that through this rooting he may acquire abilities that can be attained only in this way—even if it means that the human spirit-soul being loses itself for a time to physical existence within the physical body. So that we may always remember our spiritual origin, so that we may be strengthened by the thought: “We have journeyed out of the spirit into the physical world”—for this purpose, the Christmas idea stands like a mighty pillar of light within the Christian worldview. This idea, as the Christmas idea, must be strengthened more and more in the future spiritual development of humanity. Then this Christmas idea will become strong again for humanity; then people will once more be able to look forward to the Christmas festival in such a way that they draw strength for their physical existence from this Christmas idea, which can remind them in the true sense of their spiritual origin. As powerfully as this Christmas idea will then be felt, so little is it felt by people today; for it is a curious fact—yet one thoroughly grounded in the laws of spiritual existence—that whatever appears in the world to advance and uplift humanity does not immediately appear in its final form; rather, it first presents itself to people in a tumultuous manner, as if anticipated by the illegitimate spirits of world development. We understand the historical development of humanity in the proper sense only when we realize that truths must not merely be accepted as they sometimes enter world history, but that we must look to the right time when they can enter the development of humanity in the proper light.

[ 12 ] Among the various ideas that have entered into the recent development of humanity—certainly inspired by the Christ impulse, but initially in a premature form—is the deeply Christian idea, capable of ever-greater deepening, of the equality of humanity before the world and before God, the equality of all human beings. But this idea must not be presented to the human mind in such general terms as the French Revolution presented it when it first burst tumultuously into human development. One must be aware that human life, from birth to death, is a process of development, and that the main impulses are distributed throughout this human life. Let us envision the human being as he enters sensory existence: he enters fully into this sensory existence, permeated by the impulse of the equality of the human nature of all people. And one perceives childhood most intensely when one looks upon the child, whose very being is permeated by the idea of the equality of all human beings. Nothing yet that creates inequality among people, nothing yet that organizes people in such a way that they feel different from others, nothing of all this appears in childhood at first. All of this is only bestowed upon a person in the course of their physical human life. Physical existence gives rise to inequality; from the spirit, however, a person is equal before the world, before God, and before other human beings. Thus proclaims the mystery of the child.

[ 13 ] And this mystery of the child is followed by the idea of Christmas, which will find its deepening in a new Christian revelation. For this new Christian revelation will take into account the new Trinity: the human being, as he directly represents humanity, the Ahrimanic, and the Luciferic. And as people come to recognize how the human being is situated within world existence as a state of equilibrium between the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic, they will understand what this human being truly is, even in outer, physical existence.

[ 14 ] Above all, understanding—Christian understanding—must be directed toward a certain aspect of human life. In the future, the Christian idea will proclaim loudly what has already been foreshadowed in individual minds since the mid-19th century—I would say, in a stammering realization, though quite clearly. When one grasps the fact that the child enters the world with a sense of equality, but that later in human life—as if emerging from the very act of birth—forces of inequality develop that seem not to be of this earth, a new and powerful mystery confronts humanity precisely in opposition to this sense of equality. To penetrate this mystery and, through this penetration, to gain a true understanding of the human being—this will be among the most important and necessary requirements for the future development of the human soul, beginning in the present. The question looms anxiously before humanity: Yes, people do become different—even if they are not yet so in childhood—through something that seems to be born with them, something in their blood, through their various talents and abilities.

[ 15 ] The question of gifts and abilities, which cause so many inequalities among people, comes to the fore in connection with the spirit of Christmas. And the Christmas celebration of the future will, in a solemn way, constantly remind people of the origin of the gifts, abilities, talents—perhaps even genius—that distinguish them from one another on Earth. They will have to ask about this origin. And they will attain the proper balance within their physical existence only if they can point, in the right way, to the origin of the abilities that distinguish them from other human beings. The light of Christmas—or the lights of Christmas—must provide evolving humanity with insight into these abilities; they must resolve the great question: Is there injustice within the world order for the individual human being between birth and death? What about abilities and gifts?

[ 16 ] Well, some things will change in the human perspective once people are imbued with the new Christian sensibility. Above all, people will come to understand why the Old Testament’s esoteric view held a particular perspective on prophecy. What were the prophets who appeared in the Old Testament? They were personalities sanctified by Yahweh; they were those individuals who were rightfully permitted to use special spiritual gifts that set them apart from the crowd. Yahweh first had to sanctify those abilities that are innate in human beings, as if through the blood. And we know that Yahweh acts upon human beings from the moment they fall asleep until they wake up. We know that Yahweh does not intervene in conscious life. Every true believer in the Old Testament said to himself in his heart: That which distinguishes people in terms of their abilities and talents—which in the nature of the prophets even rises to a level of genius— is indeed born with the human being, but the human being does not use it for good unless he can sink, as if falling asleep, into that world in which Yahweh directs the impulses of his soul and transforms what are physical gifts—gifts attached to the body—from the spiritual world. — We are pointing here to one of the deepest mysteries of the Old Testament worldview. The Old Testament worldview—including the view of prophecy—must give way. New perspectives must enter the course of world history for the sake of humanity’s salvation. What the ancient Hebrews believed was sanctified by Yahweh during the unconscious state of sleep—humanity in modern times must become capable of sanctifying this while awake, in full consciousness. But he can do this only if he knows that, on the one hand, everything that constitutes natural gifts, abilities, talents, and perhaps even genius, are Luciferic gifts that work Luciferically in the world as long as they are not sanctified and permeated by all that can enter the world as the Christ impulse. One touches upon an immensely significant mystery of recent human development when one grasps the seed of the new Christmas idea and points out that Christ must be understood and felt by people in such a way that they now stand before Christ as New Testament people and say: I have been given various abilities, gifts, and talents to complement the child’s claim to equality, the child’s aspiration to equality. But in the long run, they lead only to good, to the salvation of humanity, if these gifts, these talents, these abilities are placed in the service of Christ Jesus, if human beings strive to imbue their entire being with the spirit of Christ, so that human gifts, talents, and genius may be wrested from Lucifer.

[ 17 ] The mind permeated by Christ snatches from Lucifer that which otherwise works in a Luciferic manner within human physical existence. This must run as a powerful thought through the future development of the human soul. This is the new Christmas message, the new proclamation of Christ’s activity in our soul to transform that which is Luciferic—which does not enter us as we emerge from the spirit, but which we find within ourselves through being clothed in a blood-permeated physical body that endows us with abilities through heredity. These qualities arise within the Luciferic current, within that which acts in the physical current of heredity; but they must be won and conquered during physical life by what the human being can now perceive—not through Jahve-inspired visions in sleep, but in full consciousness—by drawing upon his experiences of the Christ impulse. Turn, O Christian, to the Christmas message—so speaks the new Christianity—and offer upon the altar erected at Christmas all that which you receive in terms of human differentiation from the blood, and sanctify your abilities, sanctify your gifts, sanctify even your genius, by seeing it illuminated by the light that emanates from the Christmas tree.

[ 18 ] The new spiritual message must speak in new words, and we must not be dull and deaf to the new revelations of the Spirit that speak to us in our time, which is permeated by a sense of gravity. Then, when we feel this way, we will also live with the very power with which people today must live in order to solve the great tasks that humanity will face, especially in our own age. We must feel the full weight of the Christmas message: In our age, what Christ intended to say to humanity must enter into our full, waking consciousness when he spoke the words: “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” The idea of equality that the child reveals—when we look upon it in the true sense—is not contradicted by these words; for the child whose birth we commemorate on Christmas Eve proclaims—revealing ever-new ideas to humanity as it evolves through world history—clearly and distinctly that what we possess in the form of our distinctive gifts must be brought into the light of Christ, who animated this child, and that what these various gifts make of us as human beings must be offered upon the altar of this child.

[ 19 ] Inspired by the solemnity of the Christmas message, you may now ask: How do I experience the Christ impulse in my own soul? — Oh, that thought often weighs heavily on the human heart!

[ 20 ] Well, it is not in an instant, nor in such a way that one could say it happens immediately or impetuously—what we might call the Christ impulse takes root in our soul. And it takes root differently at different times. Today, through his full, clear, and alert consciousness, human beings are able to take in such cosmic ideas as are tentatively conveyed by the anthroposophically oriented spiritual science to which we are committed. As these thoughts reveal themselves to him—if he understands them correctly—they can awaken within him the confidence that, on the wings of these thoughts, the new revelation—that is, the new Christ impulse of our time—truly enters into him. And he will sense it, if only he is willing to be attentive to it, this human being!

[ 21 ] Try, in the sense intended here—in a truly vivid and contemporary way—to take in the spiritual ideas of world guidance; try to take them in not merely as a doctrine, not merely as a theory; try to take them in in such a way that they move, warm, illuminate, and flow through your soul in its deepest recesses, so that you carry them within you as a living presence. Try to feel these thoughts with such intensity that they are like something that enters your soul through your body and transforms your body. Try to strip away all abstractions, all that is theoretical, from these thoughts. Try to realize that these thoughts are true nourishment for the soul; try to realize that through these thoughts, it is not merely thoughts that enter your soul, but spiritual life—emanating from the spiritual world—that enters our soul through them. Become intimately and deeply one with these thoughts, and you will notice three things. You will notice that these thoughts gradually eradicate something within you—something that, especially in our age of the conscious soul, so clearly creeps into human souls: that these thoughts, whatever they may otherwise be, eradicate selfishness in human beings! When you begin to notice that these thoughts kill egoism and paralyze selfishness—then, my dear friends, you have sensed the Christ-imbued nature of anthroposophically oriented spiritual-scientific thoughts. And secondly, when you sense that at the very moment when untruth approaches you in the world in any way—whether by your own temptation to be lax with the truth, or by untruth coming at you from another direction—when you sense that at the very moment when untruth enters your sphere of life, a warning impulse stands beside you—pointing toward the truth—that does not want falsehood to enter your life, that constantly urges you to hold fast to the truth: then you will once again sense the living Christ impulse in contrast to a life that today seems so prone to appearances. It will not be easy for a person to lie in the face of anthroposophically oriented spiritual thoughts, nor will they be insensitive to pretense and untruth. A guide to the sense of truth—apart from all other forms of understanding—can be felt by you in the thoughts of the new Christian revelation. If you manage not merely to seek a theoretical understanding of spiritual science, as one might seek it for any other science, but if you manage to allow these thoughts to penetrate you so deeply that you feel: “It is so”—as these thoughts become intimate with my soul, as if a power of conscience urging me toward the truth were standing beside me—then you have found the Christ impulse in the second sense. And if, thirdly, you also feel that something radiates from these thoughts into your body—but acts especially within the soul, overcoming illness, healing the human being, and revitalizing them—if you sense the rejuvenating, refreshing, and disease-fighting power of these thoughts: then you have experienced the third aspect of the Christ impulse within these thoughts. For this is what humanity strives for with the new wisdom, with the new spirit: to find, from within the spirit itself, the possibility of overcoming selfishness, of overcoming the illusion of life; selfishness through love, the illusion of life through truth, and what causes illness through healthy thoughts that immediately bring us into harmony with the harmonies of the universe, because they originate from the harmonies of the universe.

[ 22 ] Not everything that has been said can be achieved today, for human beings carry within them an ancient genetic heritage. And it is simply foolish when, for example, certain spiritual backroom movements such as Christian Science distort the idea of the spirit’s healing power into a caricature. But even if, because of this ancient genetic heritage, the thought cannot yet be powerful enough today to achieve what a person selfishly desires through it, it is still a healing force. People simply always think about these things the wrong way. Someone who understands these matters might tell you: “Certain thoughts will make you healthy”—and the person in question will then, at a certain point in time, be struck by this or that illness. — Yes, the fact that we cannot yet recover from all illnesses today through the mere influence of thought alone is an old legacy. But could you say which illness you would have contracted if you had not had these thoughts? Could you say that your life would have unfolded in exactly the same state of health if you had not had those thoughts? Can you say of a person who turned to anthroposophically oriented spiritual science and lived to be forty-five years old—and who died at the age of forty-five—that he would have died at forty-two or forty had he not had these thoughts, unless you can provide proof to the contrary? People always approach these thoughts from the wrong angle. People focus on what cannot be given to them by virtue of their karma; they do not focus on what is given to them by virtue of their karma. But if, despite everything in the outer physical world that contradicts it, you look beyond through the power of inner trust—which you gain through a more intimate acquaintance with the ideas of spiritual science—then you will also sense the healing power, the power that heals right down into the physical body, the refreshing, rejuvenating force—as the third element, as the element that Christ, as the Savior, brings into the human soul through his ever-lasting revelations.

[ 23 ] We wanted to delve deeper, my dear friends, into the Christmas message, which is so closely connected to the mystery of the Incarnation. We wanted to bring before our souls, in a few strokes, that which is revealed to us today through the Spirit as the continuation of the Christmas message. We can sense that it is a source of strength, that it is a supporting force in life. We can feel that it places us within the impulses of world evolution, whatever may come, so that we can feel at one with these divine impulses of world evolution, so that we can understand them, so that we can draw strength for our will from this understanding, and draw light for our imaginative life from this understanding. Humanity is evolving; it would be wrong to deny this evolution. The only right thing is to go along with this evolution. — Christ also said: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This is not a mere phrase; it is a truth. Christ has not only revealed Himself through the Gospels; Christ is with us, and Christ reveals Himself continually. We must have ears to listen to what He reveals anew in these new times. It can make us weak if we have no faith in these new revelations; but it will make us strong if we do have that faith.

[ 24 ] It will make us strong if we have faith in these new revelations, even if they resound from the seemingly contradictory pains and misfortunes of life. With our own soul, we pass through repeated earthly lives in which our destiny unfolds. We can only arrive at this very thought—which allows us to sense the spiritual reality behind outward physical life—if we take in the continuing revelations within ourselves in the true Christian sense. The Christian—the true Christian—should, in the spirit of our time, when he has the lights of the Christmas tree before him, begin with the strengthening thoughts that can come to him today from the new world revelation, to fortify his will and to illuminate his life of imagination. And he should attune himself so that, with the strength and light of this thought, he may approach—in the Christian year—the other thought that reminds us of the mystery of death: the thought of Easter, which presents the final experience of human earthly existence as a spiritual reality before our soul. We will perceive Christ more and more deeply as we become able to place our own existence in the proper relationship to his. The medieval Rosicrucians, who drew upon Christianity, said: Ex Deo nascimur, In Christo morimur, Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus. — We are born of the Divine when we consider ourselves as human beings here on Earth. In Christ we die. In the Holy Spirit we shall be raised again. — Yet this refers to our life, to our human life. When we look from our own life toward the life of Christ, we see what is reflected in our own life: We are born of the Divine; in Christ we die; through the Holy Spirit we shall be raised again. — We can express this as the truth of Christ, who lives among us as our first brother, in such a way that we now perceive it as the truth of Christ radiating from him and reflected in our human being: He was conceived by the Spirit—as it says in the Gospel of Luke, where the symbol of the descending dove is depicted—He was conceived by the Spirit, He died in the human body, and He will rise again in the Divine.

[ 25 ] We can only perceive eternal truths in their proper sense when we see them as they are reflected in the present, not merely as absolute, abstract concepts. And when we feel ourselves to be human beings not merely in an abstract sense, but as human beings truly standing within a time in which it is our duty to act and think from within that time, then we will seek to hear the Christ—who is with us every day until the end of the Earth’s course—in his present-day language, as he instructs us, enlightens us, and strengthens us through the Christmas message. Then we will want to take this Christ into ourselves in his new language, for Christ must become one with us. Then we can fulfill the true Christ-task on Earth and after “death” through ourselves. The human being of every age must, in his or her own way, take Christ into himself or herself. People sensed this when they looked, in the true sense, upon the two great, powerful pillars of the spirit: the Christmas idea and the Easter idea. Thus the profound German mystic, the Silesian Angelus—Angelus Silesius—said, looking upon the Christmas idea: “/p”

Will Christ be born a thousand times in Bethlehem
And not in you—you will remain lost forever.

[ 26 ] And with an eye toward the spirit of Easter:

The cross at Golgotha cannot save you from evil,
unless it is also raised up within you.

[ 27 ] Truly, Christ must live within us, for we are not human beings in the absolute sense, but human beings of a specific time. Christ must be born within us just as his words resound through our age. We must strive to give birth to Christ within ourselves—for our strengthening, for our enlightenment—just as he has remained with us now, just as he wishes to remain with humanity throughout all ages until the end of the world, just as he now wishes to be born in our souls. So when we try to experience the birth of Christ in our own souls today—as it shines and pours into our souls as the eternal light and eternal power within time—then we look correctly upon the historical birth of Christ in Bethlehem and upon its reflection in our own souls.

Will Christ be born a thousand times in Bethlehem
And not in you—you will remain lost forever.

[ 28 ] Just as He inspires us today to look upon His birth—His birth into human history, His birth within our own souls—so do we truly immerse ourselves in the spirit of Christmas. And then we turn our gaze to that Holy Night, which we should feel dawning to bring new strength and enlightenment to humanity in the face of the many evils and sufferings that have shaken them in the present and will continue to shake them.

[ 29 ] “My kingdom,” says Christ, “is not of this world.” A statement that calls upon us—when we contemplate His birth in its true sense—to find within our own souls the path to that kingdom where He is, to draw strength from Him where He is, to be enlightened by Him when darkness and weakness threaten to take hold, through the impulses that come from that world of which He Himself spoke, the world that His appearance on Christmas Eve forever proclaims. “My kingdom is not of this world.” But He has brought this kingdom into this world, so that we may always find strength, comfort, confidence, and hope from this kingdom in all circumstances of life, if only we are willing to come to Him, taking His words to heart—words such as these: “Unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”