The Birth of Christ in the Human Soul
GA 187
22 December 1918, Basel
Translated by Olin D. Wannamaker
Like two mighty pillars of the spirit have the two annual festivals, the festivals of Christmas and Easter, been set by the Christian cosmic feeling within the course of the year, which should be a symbol of the course of man's life. We may say that in the conception of Christmas and the conception of Easter there stand before the human soul those two spiritual pillars upon which are inscribed the two great mysteries of man's physical existence which he must look upon very differently from the way in which he views other events in the course of his physical life. It is true that a super-sensible element is projected into this physical life—through sense observation, through intellectual judgments, through the content of feeling and will. But this super-sensible element is in other cases clearly manifest as such—for instance, when the Christian cosmic feeling undertakes to symbolize it in the festival of Pentecost. In the Christmas conception, however, and that of Easter, attention is drawn to those two events occurring within the course of the physical life which are in their external appearance purely physical but which—in contrast with all other physical events—do not immediately manifest themselves as physical events. We can look upon the physical life of man as we look upon nature; we can thus look upon the external side of the physical life, the external manifestation of the spiritual. But we can never view with our physical vision the two boundary experiences of the course of human life—not even the external aspect, the external manifestation—without being brought face to face, even through our physical vision, with the tremendous riddle, the element of mystery, in these two events. They are the events of birth and death. And in the life of Christ Jesus stand these two events of man's physical life—and likewise in the Christmas and Easter conceptions, reminding us of them—confronting the responsive Christian heart.
In the thought of Christmas and the thought of Easter, the soul of man wills to look upon the two great mysteries. And, as it thus looks, it finds in this contemplation strength filled with light for man's thought, content filled with power for the will, an upright lift of the whole man, from whatever situation he needs this upright lift. As they thus confront us, these two pillars of the spirit—the thought of Christmas and the thought of Easter—they possess an eternal worth.
But, in the course of man's evolution, his capacities of conception have approached in manifold ways the great Christmas thought and the great Easter thought. During the earliest times of the evolution of Christianity, when the Event of Golgotha had penetrated with shattering effect into human emotions, men gradually found their way to the view of the Redeemer dying on Golgotha, as they came during the earliest Christian centuries to feel in the Crucified One hanging on the cross the thought of Redemption, and gradually formed for themselves the great and powerful imagination of the Christ dying on the cross. But in the later times, especially since the modern age began, Christian feeling—adapting itself to the materialism rising in human evolution—has turned to the picture of the childlike element entering the world in the newborn Jesus.
We can certainly say that a sensitive feeling will find in the way in which the Christian sentiment of Europe has turned during recent centuries to the Christmas manger something of a materialistic Christianity. The craving—this is not said in a bad sense—to caress the infant Jesus has become trivial in the course of the centuries. And many a song about the infant Jesus felt in our day to be beautiful—or charming, as many express it—will not seem to us to possess a deep enough seriousness in the presence of these more serious times.
But the Easter thought and the Christmas thought, my dear friends, are two eternal pillars, eternal memorial pillars, of the human heart. And we can truly say that our age of new spiritual revelations will cast a new light upon the Christmas thought; that the Christmas thought will gradually come to be felt in a new form and in a glorious way. It will be our task to hear in the present world events the call to a renovation of many an old conception, a call to a new revelation of the spirit. It will be our task to understand how a new conception of Christmas, for the strengthening and uplifting of the human soul, is working its way up through the present course of world events.
The birth and death of the human being, no matter how we may analyze them, how intensely we may look at them, manifest themselves as events which play their role directly upon the physical plane, and in which the spiritual is so dominant that no one who earnestly reflects upon things could deny that these two events, these earthly events of human life, give evidence as they work upon the human being that man is the citizen of a spiritual world. No vision of the natural world can ever succeed—in the midst of what can be perceived by the senses, understood by the intellect—in finding in birth and death anything other than events in which the intervention of the spirit is manifested directly in the physical. Only these two events manifest themselves thus to the human heart.
As to the Christmas event also, the event of birth, the human and Christian heart must have an ever deepening sense of mystery. We can say that men have seldom risen to the level whence they could, in the true sense, direct their look to the mysterious nature of birth. Very seldom, indeed, but then in concepts that speak to the utmost depths of the human heart.
So it is, my dear friends, in the conception associated with the spiritual life of Switzerland of the fifteenth century, with Nicholas von der Flue. It is related of him—and he himself related this—that, before his birth, before he could breathe the outer air, he had beheld his own human form, that which he would wear after his birth should have occurred and his life should have begun its course. And he had beheld before his birth the ceremony of his own christening, the persons who were present at the christening and who shared in his earliest experiences. With the exception of one elderly person who was then present and whom he did not know, he recognized the others because he had already seen them before he beheld the light of the world.
However we may view this narration, we shall not be able to escape the impression that it points in a way to the mystery of human birth, which confronts world history so magnificently symbolized in the Christmas conception. In the story of Nicholas von der Flue we shall find the suggestion that there is connected with our entrance into the physical life something which is concealed from the every-day view of humanity only by a very thin partition wall; by a wall which can be broken through when such a karmic situation exists as was present in the case of Nicholas von der Flue. Such a startling allusion to the mystery of birth and of Christmas still meets us here and there; but we must say that humanity has as yet become very little aware of the fact that birth and death, the two boundary pillars of human life facing us in the midst of the physical world, reveal themselves even in their physical manifestation as spiritual events, such as could never occur within the mere course of nature; as events in which, on the contrary, spiritual divine Powers intervene, as is evident in the very fact that both these boundary experiences of the course of human life must still remain mysteries, even in their physical manifestation.
The new revelation of the Christ now leads us to contemplate the course of man's life—so we may safely say—as Christ wills that we should contemplate it in the twentieth century. Let us recall today, as we desire to enter deeply into the thought of Christmas, a saying reported to have been uttered by Christ Jesus which can rightly lead us to the Christmas conception. The saying runs thus: “Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” “Except ye become as little children”—this is truly not an exhortation to strip away all the mystery character of the Christmas conception, and to drag it down to the triviality of “dear little Jesus,” as many folk songs and artistic songs have done—but the folk songs less than the artistic—in the course of the materialistic evolution of Christianity. This very saying—“Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven”—impels us to look upward to mighty impulses surging through the stream of human evolution. And in our own present time, when all that is taking place in the world surely does not give occasion for lapsing into trivial conceptions of Christmas, when the human heart is filled with so much that is painful, when this human heart must reflect upon so many millions of human beings who have met their death in the last few years, must reflect upon countless multitudes who hunger for food,—in this time surely nothing is fitting for us save to behold the mighty thoughts within world history which impel humanity in its onward course, thoughts to which we can be guided by the saying, “Except ye shall become as little children,” which we can supplement by this other saying: “Unless you live your life in the light of this thought, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
My dear friends, the very moment when the human being enters into the world as a child he withdraws from the world of spirit. For what occurs in the physical world, the procreation and growth of his physical body, is only the ensheathing of that event which cannot be described otherwise than by saying that man in his deepest being withdraws from the spiritual world. Man is born out of the spirit into a body. When the Rosicrucian said: “Ex deo nascimur,” he meant the human being to the extent that he enters the physical world. For that which constitutes the sheaths around the human being, which renders him a physical totality here on the earthly globe, is what is indicated by the saying: Ex deo nascimur. If we look at the centre of the human being, at the inner midmost entity, we must say that man journeys out of the spirit into the physical world. Through that which occurs in the physical world, that upon which he has looked down from the land of the spirit before his conception or his birth, he is enveloped in his physical body, in order that he may experience in his physical body things which cannot be experienced except in such a body. But, in his centre-most being, man comes out of the spiritual world. And he is of such a nature that in his earliest years—to the eyes of those who will to see things as they are in the world, who are not blinded by the illusion of materialism—he is of such a nature, this human being, that he reveals even in his earliest years how he has come out of the spirit. What we experience in connection with the child is of such a character, for those who possess insight, as to reveal to one's feeling the after effects of experiences in the spiritual world.
It is to this mystery that such narrations as that associated with the name of Nicholas von der Flue are intended to allude. A trivial view, strongly influenced by a materialistic mode of thinking, declares in its simplicity that the human being gradually develops his ego in the course of his life from birth to death; that this ego becomes more and more powerful and mighty, more and more distinctly manifest. This is a naive way of thinking, my dear friends. For, if we look upon the true ego of man, upon that which comes into a physical sheathing at the birth of the human being out of the spiritual world, we then express ourselves very differently about man's whole physical evolution. That is, we then know that, as the human being progressively develops in the physical body, the true ego actually vanishes out of the physical form, that it becomes less and less manifest; and that what develops here in the physical world between birth and death is only a mirrored reflection of spiritual occurrences, a dead reflection of a higher life. The right form of expression would be to declare that the entire fullness of the being of man gradually disappears into the body, becoming continually less and less manifest. As the human being lives his physical life here upon the earth, he gradually loses himself in his body, to find himself again in the spirit after death. So does one who knows the facts express himself. But one who is ignorant of the facts declares that the child is incomplete, and that the ego little by little develops to an ever greater perfection, growing out of the undefined subconscious levels of man's existence. He who knows what is beheld by the spiritual seeker must express himself in just this realm otherwise than is done by the sense-consciousness of our age, enmeshed in external illusions, still always materialistic in the trend of its sentiments.
Thus man enters the world as a spiritual being. His bodily nature, while he is a child, is still undefined; it has as yet laid small claim to the spiritual nature, which enters the physical existence as if there falling asleep—but appearing to us so little filled with content only because we can perceive this spiritual being, in ordinary physical life, just as little as we can perceive the sleeping ego and astral body when they are separated from the physical and etheric bodies. But the fact that we do not perceive a being does not make it less perfect. This is what the human being has to acquire by means of his physical body—that he entombs himself more and more in the physical body for the purpose of achieving by means of this burial in the body capacities which can be acquired only in this way, only through the fact that the spirit and soul being for a time loses itself in the physical existence. In order that we may always remember our spiritual origin, that we may grow strong in the thought that we have journeyed out of the spirit into the physical world—it is for this reason that the Christmas conception stands there like a mighty pillar of light amid the Christian cosmic feeling. This thought, as a Christmas thought, must grow ever stronger in the future spiritual evolution of humanity. Then will the Christmas conception become powerful again for humanity; then will mankind once more approach the Christmas festival in such a way as to draw forces for the physical life out of the Christmas conception, which can remind us in the right way of our spiritual origin. Seldom can this Christmas thought be so powerful at the present time as it will then be in human hearts. For it is a strange fact, but rooted in the very laws of spiritual existence, that what comes to light in the world—bearing mankind forward, helpful to mankind—does not at once appear in its ultimate form: that it first appears, as it were, tumultuously, as if prematurely brought forth by unlawful spirits in world evolution. We understand the historic evolution of humanity in its true meaning only when we know that truths are not to be understood only as they first appear oftentimes in world history, but that we must consider in relation to truths the right moment for their entrance into human evolution in their true light.
Among many kinds of thoughts which have entered into the evolution of modern humanity—certainly inspired by the Christ impulse, but at first in a premature form—is the conception of the equality of mankind before God and the world, the equality of all men, a thought profoundly Christian but capable of an ever increasing profundity. But we should not place this thought before men's hearts in such a generalization as that given to it by the French Revolution, when it first appeared tumultuously in human evolution. We must be aware of the fact that this life of man from birth to death is involved in a process of evolution, and that the primary impulses working upon it are distributed in time. Let us reflect about the human being as he enters into the sensible existence: he enters life filled with the impulse of the equality of the human nature in all men. We sense the child nature with the greatest intensity when we see a child permeated through his whole being by the conception of the equality of all men. Nothing which creates inequality among men, nothing that so organizes men that they feel themselves different from other men—nothing of all this enters at first into the child's nature. All this is imparted to the human being in the course of the physical life. Inequality is created by the physical existence; out of the spirit human beings come forth equal before the world and God and before other human beings. Thus does the mystery of the child declare.
And to this mystery of the child the Christmas conception is united, which is to find its deeper meaning in the 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 it comes to be known how the human being is placed in the world in a relationship of balance between the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic, it will be understood also what this human being really is in the external physical existence.
Most of all must understanding come about, Christian understanding, in reference to a certain aspect of human life. Clearly will Christian thought proclaim in future what has already been affirmed by certain spirits since the middle of the nineteenth century, though in stammering accents and never quite distinctly. When we grasp the fact that the thought of equality enters the world in the child, but that forces of inequality later develop in man, as if from the fact of his having been born, forces that do not seem to belong to this earth, then just in regard to the conception of equality another profound mystery faces us. To see into this mystery, and through seeing into it to gain a true conception of man, will belong from the present time onward among the weighty and essential needs in the future evolution of the life of the soul. This is the depressing problem that faces man: Truly, human beings grow to be unlike, even though they are not so in childhood, by reason of something that is born within them, that is in the blood: their varied gifts and capacities.
The question of gifts and capacities, which cause so many inequalities among men, faces us in connection with the thought of Christmas. And the Christmas festival of the future will always admonish men most earnestly, reminding them of the origin of that which differentiates them so widely over the earth, the origin of their gifts, capacities, talents, even the gift of genius. They will have to inquire about the origin of these. And a true balance within the physical existence will be attained only when the human being can point rightly to the origin of the capacities which differentiate him from other men. The light of Christmas, or the Christmas candles, must give to evolving humanity an explanation of these capacities; it must answer the profound question: Do individual human beings suffer injustice between birth and death under the ordering of the universe? What is the truth about faculties and gifts?
Now, my dear friends, many things will be seen in a different light when humanity shall have been permeated by the new Christian feeling. Most particularly will it be understood why the Old Testament occult conception possessed a special insight into the nature of the prophetic gift. What were the prophets who appear in the Old Testament? They were personalities who had been sanctified by Jahve; they were those personalities who were permitted to employ in the right way special spiritual gifts reaching far above those of ordinary man. Jahve had first to sanctify their capacities, which are born in men as if by reason of their blood. And we know that Jahve works on human beings between their falling asleep and awakening We know that Jahve does not work within the conscious life. Every true believer of the Old Testament said within his heart: That which differentiates men as regards their capacities and gifts, which rises to the level of genius in the nature of the prophet, is born, indeed, with the person, but it is not used by him for a good purpose unless he can sink down in sleep into that realm in which Jahve guides his soul impulses, and transforms from the spiritual world gifts which are otherwise only physical, inherent in the body.
We point here to a profound mystery of the Old Testament conception. The Old Testament view, including that in regard to the nature of the prophet, must disappear. New conceptions must, for the redemption of humanity, enter into the cosmic historic evolution. That which the ancient Hebrew believed was sanctified by Jahve in the unconscious state of sleep the human being must become capable of sanctifying in the modern age while he is awake, in a state of clear consciousness. But he can do this only if he knows, on the one hand, that all natural gifts, capacities, talents, even genius, are Luciferic endowments, and work in the world Luciferically. unless they are sanctified and permeated by all that can enter into the world as the impulse of the Christ. We touch upon a tremendously important mystery of the evolution of modern humanity when we grasp the central kernel of the Christmas conception, and call attention to the fact that the Christ must be so understood and so felt by men in their hearts that they stand as New Testament human beings before the Christ and say: “In addition to the inclination of the child, his aspiration, toward equality, I have been endowed with various capacities and talents. But they can lead permanently to good results, to the welfare of humanity, only provided these gifts, these talents, are dedicated to the service of Christ Jesus; only if the human being strives to permeate his whole nature with the Christ, in order that human gifts, talents, genius may be freed from the grasp of Lucifer.”
The heart permeated by the Christ takes away from Lucifer what works otherwise Luciferically in man's physical existence. This thought must powerfully influence the future evolution of the human soul. This is the New Christmas thought, the new annunciation of the influence of the Christ in our souls, bringing about the transformation of the Luciferic—which does not enter into us because we journey out of the spirit, but is to be found in us because we are clothed in a blood-permeated physical body which bestows upon us capacities derived from the line of heredity. Within the Luciferic stream, within that which works in the stream of heredity, do these characteristics appear, but they are to be conquered and mastered during the physical life by that which the human being can feel in connection with the Christ impulse, not through Jahve inspiration in sleep, but through the fruition of man's experiences in full consciousness.
“Direct yourself, O Christian, to the Christmas thought”—thus does the new Christianity speak—“and lay there upon the altar set up for Christmas every differentiation you have received as a human being from your blood, and sanctify your capacities, sanctify your gifts, sanctify even your genius as you behold it illuminated by the light which comes from the Christmas tree.”
The new annunciation of the spirit must speak a new language, and we must not be dumb and unheeding toward the new revelation of the spirit which speaks to us in this deeply serious age in which we live. When we are sensitive to such thoughts, we are living with the power with which man ought to live in this time in order to discharge the great duties which are to be assigned to humanity in this very age. The full gravity of the Christmas thought must be experienced: that in our day there must enter into the waking consciousness of humanity what the Christ willed to say to men when he uttered the words: “Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” The thought of equality which the child manifests, if we look upon him in the right way, is not convicted of falsehood by reason of these words, for that Child whose birth we commemorate on Christmas eve, proclaims to human beings in the course of their evolution through the history of the world—revealing ever new thoughts—clearly and distinctly, that the differentiating gifts we possess must be placed within the light of the Christ who ensouled this Child; that all which these differentiating gifts bring about within us human beings must be placed upon the altar of this Child.
You may now ask under the inspiration of the Christmas thought: “How may I experience the Christ impulse within my own soul?” Alas, this thought is often a heavy burden in men's hearts.
Now, my dear friends, that which we may call the Christ impulse does not become rooted in our souls in a moment, forthwith and tempestuously. And in different ages it takes root differently in man. In our day man must take into himself in full clear waking consciousness such cosmic thoughts as have been stammeringly imparted by spiritual knowledge as guided by Anthroposophy, to which we belong. As these thoughts are proclaimed to him—provided he truly understands them—they can awaken within him the assurance that the new revelation, the new Christ impulse of our age, truly enters into him on the wings of these thoughts. And such a person will sense the new impulse if only he pays heed to it.
Make the endeavour, in the sense we intend, in living reality as is appropriate to our age, to take into yourselves the spiritual thoughts of the guidance of the world; seek to take them into yourselves, not as mere teaching, not merely as theory—-seek so to imbibe them that they will move your souls to their very depths, warming, illuminating, permeating them—that you shall bear them livingly within you. Seek to feel these thoughts so intensely that they shall become to you something which seems to pass through your body into your soul and to change your very body. Seek to strip away from these thoughts all abstractions, anything theoretical. Endeavour to discover for yourself that these thoughts are such as constitute a true nourishment of the soul. Seek to discover for yourself that, with these thoughts, not merely thoughts alone enter your souls, but spiritual life coming from the spiritual world.
Enter into the most intimate inner union with these thoughts, and you will observe three things. You will observe that these thoughts gradually eliminate something from within you, which appears so clearly in human hearts in our age of the consciousness soul: that these thoughts, however they may be expressed, eliminate self-seeking from the human soul. When you begin to notice that these thoughts kill egoism, destroy the force of self-seeking, you have then, my dear friends, sensed the Christ-permeated character of spiritual thought guided by Anthroposophy.
In the second place, when you observe that, in the moment when untruthfulness approaches you anywhere in the world, no matter whether you yourself are tempted to be too careless about truth or whether untruthfulness approaches you from another direction—if you observe that in the moment when untruthfulness enters the sphere of your life, an impulse makes itself felt by you, warning you, pointing to the truth, an impulse which will not permit untruth to enter your life, always admonishing you and impelling you to hold fast to truth, then do you sense, in contrast with the life of the present day, so strongly inclined toward mere appearance, the living impulse of the Christ. No one will find it easy to lie in the presence of spiritual thoughts guided by Anthroposophy, or to lack all feeling for mere appearance and untruth. A sign pointing your way to the sense of truth—apart from all other knowledge—you will feel in the thoughts of the new revelation of the Christ. When, my dear friends, you shall have reached the point where you do not strive for a mere theoretical understanding of spiritual science, as this is sought in relation to any other science, but when you have reached the stage where the thoughts so penetrate you that you say to yourself: “When these thoughts become intimately united with my soul, it is as if a Power of conscience stood beside me admonishing me, pointing me toward truth,”—then will you have found the Christ impulse in the second form.
In the third place, when you feel that something streams from these thoughts which works even into your body, but especially into the soul, overcoming sickness, making the human being well and vital, when you sense the rejuvenating, refreshing power of these thoughts, the adversary of illness, then will you have sensed the third part of the Christ impulse in these thoughts. For this is the goal toward which humanity strives through the new wisdom, in the new spirit—to find in the spirit itself the power to overcome self-seeking: to overcome self-seeking through love, the mere appearance of life through truth, the force of illness through health-giving thoughts which bring us into immediate unison with the harmonies of the universe, because they flow from the harmonies of the universe.
Not all that has been indicated can at present be attained, for man bears within him an ancient heritage. It is a mere lack of understanding when such a back-stairs politician as Christian Science twists into a caricature the thought of the healing power of the spirit. Yet, even though our ancient heritage renders it impossible for thought to become sufficiently potent at present to achieve what the human being craves thus to achieve—perhaps, from a self-seeking motive—nevertheless thought possesses healing power. In such things human thinking is always perverted. Some one who understands these things may say to you that certain thoughts give health, and the person who hears this may at a certain time be affected by this or that illness. Indeed, my dear friends, the fact that we cannot at present be relieved of all illnesses by the mere power of thought is due to an ancient heritage. But are you able to say what illnesses would have overtaken you if you had not possessed the thoughts? Could you say that your life would have been passed in its present degree of health if you had not possessed these thoughts? In the case of a person who has applied himself to spiritual science guided by Anthroposophy and who dies at the age of 45 years, can you prove that, without these thoughts, he would not have died at 42 or 40 years of age? Human beings tend always to think from the wrong direction when they deal with these thoughts. They direct their attention to what cannot be bestowed upon them, by reason of their karma, but do not pay attention to what is bestowed upon them by reason of their karma. But if, in spite of everything contradictory in the external physical world, you direct your look with the power of inner confidence which you have gained through intimate familiarity with the thoughts of spiritual science, you then come to feel the healing power, a healing power which penetrates even into the physical body, refreshing, rejuvenating—the third element, which the Christ as the Healer brings with his never ceasing revelations into the human soul.
We have desired to enter more deeply, my dear friends, into the thought of Christmas, which is so closely bound up with the mystery of human birth. What is revealed to us today out of the spirit as the continuing extension of the Christmas thought we desired to bring in brief outline before our minds. We can feel that it gives strength and support to our lives. We can feel that it places us amid the impulses of cosmic evolution, no matter what may befall, so that we can feel ourselves in unison with these divine impulses in the evolution of the world; that we can understand them, and can draw power for our will from this understanding, and light for our life of thought. Man is evolving; it would be wrong to deny this evolution. The only right course is to go forward with this evolution.
Moreover, Christ has declared: “I am with you always even to the end of the world.” This is not a phrase; it is truth. Christ has revealed Himself not only in the Gospels; Christ is with us; Christ reveals Himself continually. We must have ears to harken to what He is ever newly revealing in the modern age. Weakness will overcome us if we have no faith in these new revelations; but strength shall be ours if we have such faith.
Strength will come to us if we have faith in the new revelations, even should they speak to us from life's seemingly contradictory suffering and misfortune. With our own souls we pass through repeated earth lives during which our destiny comes to fulfilment. Even this thought, which empowers us to sense the spiritual behind the external physical life, we can realize only when we take into ourselves in the truly Christian sense the revelations following one upon another. The Christian—the true Christian—when he stands before the candles on the Christmas tree, should begin to work with the strengthening thoughts which can come to him today from the new cosmic revelation, to give power to his will, illumination to his life of thought. And his feeling should be such that the power and the light of this thought may enable him in the course of the Christian year to draw close to that other thought which admonishes of the mystery of death—the Easter thought, which brings the final experience of the earthly life of man before our souls as a spiritual experience. For we shall sense the Christ more and more if we are able to place our own existence in the right relation with His existence. The medieval Rosicrucian, uniting his thought with Christianity, declared: Ex deo nascimur; in Christo morimur; per spiritum sanctum reviviscinius. Out of the Divine have we been born as we contemplate ourselves as human beings here on the earthly globe. In Christ we die. In the Holy Spirit we shall be again awakened. This actually pertains to our life, our human life. If we turn our look away from our life to the life of Christ, then what is represented in our life is a mirrored reflection. Out of the Divine are we born; in Christ we die; in the Holy Spirit we shall again be awakened. This saying, which is true of our first-born Brother, the Christ living in our midst, we can so affirm that we shall feel it to be the Christ-truth raying forth from Him and mirrored in our human nature: Out of the Spirit was He begotten—as this is represented in the Gospel of Luke in the symbol of the descending dove—out of the Spirit was He begotten; in the human body He died; in the Divine will He rise again.
Truths which are eternal we can take into ourselves in the right way only when we see them in their contemporary reflection—not made into something absolute, made abstract in a single form. And if we feel ourselves as human beings, not only in an abstract sense but human beings existing actually at a certain time when it is our duty to act and to think in harmony with this time, then shall we seek to understand the Christ, who is with us always even to the end of the world, in His contemporary language as He teaches us and gives us light regarding the Christmas thought, filling us with the power of the Christmas thought. We shall desire to take this Christ into ourselves in His new language. For the Christ must become intimately related to us. Then shall we be enabled to fulfil in ourselves the true mission of Christ on the earthly globe and beyond death. The human being in each epoch must take the Christ into himself in his own way. This has been the feeling of human beings when they have looked in the right way at the two great pillars of the spirit: at the Christmas thought and the Easter thought. Thus did the profound German mystic, the Silesian, Angelus Silesius, contemplating the Christmas thought, declare:
Should Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
And not in thee, then wert thou still forlorn.
And, contemplating the Easter thought, he said:
The cross of Golgotha must be upraised in thee
Ere from thy sin its power shall make thee free.
Truly the Christ must live within us, since we are not human beings in an absolute sense, but human beings of a definite epoch. The Christ must be born within us according to the sound of His words in our epoch. We must seek to bring the Christ to birth within us, for our strengthening, for our illumination, as He has remained with us until now, as He will remain with mankind throughout all ages even to the end of earthly time, as He wills now to be born in our souls. That is, if we seek to experience the birth of Christ within us in our epoch, as this event becomes a light and a power in our souls—the eternal power and eternal life entering into time—we then behold in the true way the historic birth of Christ in Bethlehem and its counterpart in our own souls.
Should Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
And not in thee, then wert thou still forlorn.
As He creates the impulse in our hearts today to look upon His birth—His birth in human events, His birth in our own souls—so do we deepen the Christmas thought within us. And then we look away to that night of consecration which we ought to feel coming to pass within us for the strengthening and illumination of human beings for the endurance of many evils and sorrows which they have had to live through and will yet have to live through.
“My Kingdom,” said Christ, “is not of this world.” It is a saying which challenges us, if we look upon His birth in the right way, to find within ourselves the path to the Kingdom where He abides to give us strength, where He abides to give us light amid our darkness and helplessness through the impulses coming from the world of which He himself spoke, of which His appearance on Christmas will always be a manifestation. “My Kingdom is not of this world.” But He has brought that Kingdom into this world, so that we may always find strength, comfort, confidence, and hope out of this Kingdom in all the circumstances of life, if we only will come to Him, taking His words to heart—such words as these:
“Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Erster Vortrag
Gleich zwei mächtigen Geistessäulen hat das christliche Weltempfinden die beiden Jahresfeste, das Weihnachts- und das Osterfest, in den Jahreslauf hineingestellt, der da sein soll ein Symbolum für den menschlichen Lebenslauf. Und man darf sagen, in dem Weihnachtsgedanken und in dem Ostergedanken stehen vor der menschlichen Seele jene beiden Geistessäulen, auf denen verzeichnet sind die beiden großen Geheimnisse physischen menschlichen Daseins, auf welche der Mensch in einer ganz andern Art hinblicken muß als auf andere Ereignisse seines physischen Lebenslaufes. Gewiß, es ragt in diesen physischen Lebenslauf — durch Sinnesbetrachtung, durch Verstandesurteil, durch Gefühl und Willensinhalt - Übersinnliches herein. Aber dieses Übersinnliche ist sonst ein unmittelbar sich als Übersinnliches Ankündendes, so wie etwa die christliche Weltempfindung es versinnlichen will durch das Pfingstfest. Mit dem Weihnachtsgedanken aber und mit dem Ostergedanken ist hingewiesen auf jene beiden in dem physischen Lebenslauf sich vollziehenden Ereignisse, die durchaus ihrem äußeren Anscheine nach physische Ereignisse sind, die aber entgegen allen andern physischen Ereignissen sich, so wie sie sind, nicht unmittelbar als physische Ereignisse ankünden. Man kann mit Naturanschauung das physische Leben des Menschen überblicken, und man kann mit Naturanschauung die Außenseite dieses physischen Lebens, die äußere Offenbarung des Geistigen sinnlich schauen. Man kann aber niemals sinnlich schauen, man kann auch nicht die Außenseite, die äußere Offenbarung der zwei Grenzerlebnisse des menschlichen Lebenslaufes sinnlich schauen, ohne daß man durch das sinnliche Schauen selber auf das gewaltige Rätselhafte, auf das Geheimnisvolle dieser beiden Ereignisse hingewiesen wird. Es sind die Ereignisse von Geburt und Tod. Und im Leben des Christus Jesus — und an sie erinnernd im Weihnachts- und im Ostergedanken - stehen vor der menschlichen Seele diese beiden Ereignisse des menschlichen physischen Lebens vor dem christlichen Gemüte da.
Im Weihnachtsgedanken und im Ostergedanken will die menschliche Seele hinblicken auf die beiden großen Geheimnisse. Und so wie sie hinblickt, findet sie aus der Betrachtung lichtvolle Stärkung für den Gedanken, kraftvollen Inhalt für das menschliche Wollen, Aufrichtung des ganzen Menschen, aus welcher Lage heraus er auch immer diese Aufrichtung braucht. So wie sie dastehen, diese beiden Geistsäulen, der Weihnachtsgedanke und der Ostergedanke, so haben sie einen Ewigkeitswert.
Das menschliche Vorstellungsvermögen hat sich aber vielfach im Laufe seiner Entwickelung in verschiedener Art genähert dem großen Weihnachtsgedanken und dem großen OÖstergedanken. Während in den ersten Zeiten der christlichen Entwickelung, da die Wirkung des Ereignisses von Golgatha erschütternd in viele Gemüter eingezogen ist, die Menschen allmählich sich hingefunden haben zu der Anschauung des auf Golgatha sterbenden Erlösers, während sie in dem am Kreuze hängenden Cruzifixus in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums den Erlösungsgedanken empfunden haben und sich da allmählich ausgestaltet hat die große, gewaltige Imagination des sterbenden Christus am Kreuze, hat das christliche Empfinden, insbesondere als die neuere Zeit begonnen hat, sich mehr anpassend an den in der Menschheitsentwickelung heraufkommenden Materialismus, sich hingewendet zu dem Bilde des kindhaften, in die Welt tretenden, des geborenwerdenden Jesus.
Nun kann man ja allerdings sagen, daß man mit einer feineren Empfindung in der Art, wie in den verflossenen Jahrhunderten das christliche Gemüt Europas sich hingewendet hat zur Weihnachtskrippe, etwas darin finden kann von materialistischem Christentum. Das Bedürfnis — es ist nicht in einem schlimmen Sinne gemeint, wenn ich das sage -, gewissermaßen zu kosen mit dem lieben Jesulein, das ist ein triviales Bedürfnis geworden im Lauf der Jahrhunderte. Und manches heute noch als schön, oder wie manche Leute sagen, als herzig empfundene Lied auf das liebe Jesulein will uns den ernst gewordenen Zeiten gegenüber heute doch zu wenig ernst anmuten.
Aber der Ostergedanke und der Weihnachtsgedanke, sie sind ewige Säulen, ewige Denksäulen des menschlichen Gemütes. Und man kann wohl sagen, daß in unserer Zeit neuer Geistesoffenbarungen auch neues Licht sich ergießen wird über den Weihnachtsgedanken, daß der Weihnachtsgedanke in einer grandiosen Weise allmählich in neuer Gestalt empfunden werden wird. Und an uns wird es sein, zu vernehmen aus dem Weltengeschehen heraus den Ruf nach Erneuerung mancher alten Vorstellungswelt, den Ruf nach neuer Offenbarung des Geistes. An uns wird es sein, zu verstehen, wie ein neuer Weihnachtsgedanke zur Stärkung und Aufrichtung der menschlichen Seele sich herausarbeitet aus diesem Weltengeschehen.
Die Geburt und der Tod des Menschen, man mag sie noch so sehr zergliedern, noch so sehr anschauen, sie stellen sich dar als Ereignisse, die unmittelbar auf dem physischen Plane sich abspielen, und in denen Geistiges so waltet, daß niemand, der ernsthaft die Dinge betrachtet, sagen sollte, diese zwei Ereignisse, diese Erdenereignisse des menschlichen Lebens seien nicht so, daß sie unmittelbar als physische Ereignisse zeigten, indem sie sich am Menschen abspielen, wie der Mensch Bürger einer geistigen Welt ist. Keiner Naturanschauung kann es je gelingen, innerhalb dessen, was Sinne schauen können, was der Verstand begreifen kann, in Geburt und Tod etwas anderes zu finden als ein solches, in dem sich unmittelbar im Physischen das Eingreifen des Geistigen zeigt. So, in solcher Art treten nur diese beiden Ereignisse an das menschliche Gemüt heran. Und auch für das Weihnachtsereignis, für das Geburtsereignis wird das menschlich-christliche Gemüt immer tiefer und tiefer empfinden müssen den Mysteriencharakter dieses Ereignisses.
Man kann sagen, nur selten haben Menschen sich aufgeschwungen, im rechten Sinne zum Mysteriencharakter der Geburt hin ihren Blick zu wenden. Selten, aber dann in wunderbar tief in die menschliche Seele hereinsprechenden Vorstellungen. So in jener Vorstellung, die sich anknüpft an den schweizerischen Geisteshelden des 15. Jahrhunderts, an Nikolaus von der Flüe. Von ihm wird erzählt - und er hat es selbst von sich erzählt -, daß er vor seiner Geburt, bevor er physische Luft außen atmen konnte, geschaut hat sein eigenes menschliches Bild, das er leibhaftig an sich tragen werde, nachdem seine Geburt wird eingetreten sein und sein Leben verlaufen wird. Und geschaut hat er vor seiner Geburt seinen Taufakt mit denjenigen Personen, welche anwesend bei diesem Taufakte und bei seinen ersten Erlebnissen waren. Mit Ausnahme einer einzigen älteren Persönlichkeit, die dabei war, die er nicht wiedererkannte, hat er die andern erkannt, weil er sie schon gesehen hatte, bevor er das Licht der Welt erblickt hat. Man nehme diese Erzählung auf, wie man sie aufnehmen will, aber man wird nicht umhin können, in ihr einen bedeutsamen Hinweis auf das Geburtsmysterium des Menschen zu sehen, welches so großartig symbolisiert in dem Weihnachtsgedanken vor der Weltgeschichte dasteht. Man wird hingewiesen finden in der Erzählung des Nikolaus von der Flüe, daß sich etwas mit dem Eintritt in das physische Leben verbindet, was nur durch eine sehr, sehr dünne Wand verborgen ist der gewöhnlichen menschlichen Anschauung des Alltags, durch eine dünne Wand, die durchbrochen werden kann, wenn ein solches karmisches Verhältnis vorhanden ist, wie es bei Nikolaus von der Flüe vorhanden war. Noch da und dort tritt uns solch ergreifender Hinweis auf das Geburts-Weihnachtsmysterium entgegen. Aber man kann sagen: Wenig ist sich die Menschheit noch bewußt geworden, wie in den beiden Grenzsäulen des menschlichen Lebens Geburt und Tod unmittelbar in der physischen Welt dastehen als zwei schon in ihrer physischen Erscheinung sich offenbarende geistige Ereignisse, die niemals sich abspielen können innerhalb des bloßen Naturablaufes, sondern in denen ein unmittelbares Eingreifen göttlich-geistiger Gewalten da ist, welches sich dadurch ankündigt, daß eben durch ihre physische Erscheinung diese beiden Grenzerlebnisse des menschlichen physischen Daseinslaufes Geheimnisse bleiben müssen.
Sie lenkt uns nun hin, die neue christliche Offenbarung, diesen menschlichen Lebenslauf so zu betrachten, wie ihn, man darf wohl sagen, der Christus im 20. Jahrhundert von den Menschen betrachtet haben will. Wir gedenken heute, wo wir uns versenken wollen in den Weihnachtsgedanken, eines dem Christus Jesus in den Mund gelegten Ausspruches, welcher uns so recht hinweisen kann zu dem Weihnachtsgedanken. Der Ausspruch heißt: «Und so ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein, so könnet ihr nicht eintreten in die Reiche der Himmel.» «Und so ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein...» es ist wahrhaft nicht eine Aufforderung dazu, allen Mysteriencharakter abzustreifen von dem Weihnachtsgedanken, und den Weihnachtsgedanken herunterzuziehen in die Trivialität des lieben Jesulein, wie viele Volks- und ähnliche Lieder, aber weniger Volks- als Kunstlieder, im Laufe der materialistischen Entwickelung des Christentums getan haben. Gerade dieser Ausspruch: «So ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein, so könnet ihr nicht eintreten in die Reiche der Himmel», er läßt uns aufschauen zu gewaltigen Impulsen, die durch die Menschheitsentwickelung wallen. Und in unserer heutigen Zeit, wo dutch die Weltereignisse wahrhaftig nicht ein Anlaß gegeben ist, in triviale Weihnachtsgedanken zu verfallen, wo durch das menschliche Herz so Schmerzvolles zieht, wo dieses menschliche Herz zurückschauen muß auf Millionen von Menschen, die den Tod gefunden haben in den letzten Jahren, hinschauen muß auf unzählige Menschen, die hungern, in dieser Zeit geziemt es sich wahrlich nicht anders, als hinzuschauen auf die mächtigen, den Menschen treibenden weltgeschichtlichen Gedanken, auf . die man hingelenkt werden kann durch das Wort: «So ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein...» und das man ergänzen kann durch das andere: «Und so ihr nicht euer Leben verbringet in dem Lichte dieses Gedankens, so könnet ihr nicht eintreten in die Reiche der Himmel.»
Indem der Mensch als Kind in die Welt eintritt, kommt er unmittelbar aus der geistigen Welt heraus. Denn das, was sich im physischen Leben vollzieht, die Erzeugung und das Wachstum seines physischen Leibes, das ist die Umkleidung desjenigen Ereignisses, das nicht anders bezeichnet werden kann als so, daß man sagt: Des Menschen tiefste Wesenheit geht heraus aus der geistigen Welt. Der Mensch wird aus dem Geiste heraus in den Leib hineingeboren. Und wenn der Rosenkreuzer sagt: Ex deo nascimur — so meint er den Menschen, insofern er in der physischen Welt auftritt. Denn dasjenige, was den Menschen zunächst umhüllt, was ihn zum physischen Ganzen hier auf dem Erdenrund macht, das ist dasjenige, was mit dem Worte Ex deo nascimur getroffen wird. Sieht man auf das Zentrum des Menschen, auf das eigentliche innere Mittelpunktswesen, dann muß man sagen: Der Mensch wandert aus dem Geiste heraus in diese physische Welt herein. — Durch dasjenige, was sich in der physischen Welt abspielt, dem er zugeschaut hat aus den geistigen Landen vor seiner Empfängnis oder seiner Geburt, wird er umkleidet mit seinem physischen Leibe, um in diesem physischen Leibe Dinge zu erleben, die eben nur im physischen Leibe erlebt werden können. Aber der Mensch kommt in seinem Mittelpunktswesen aus der geistigen Welt heraus. Und er ist so, daß er in den ersten Jahren seines physischen Daseins — für denjenigen, der die Dinge anschauen will so, wie sie sind in der Welt, der nicht geblendet ist durch Illusionen des Materialismus -, er ist so, dieser Mensch, daß er ankündigt noch in den ersten Jahren, wie er aus dem Geiste heraus gekommen ist. Dasjenige, was man am Kinde erlebt, stellt sich für den wirklich Einsichtigen so dar, daß man in ihm empfinden kann die Nachwirkung der Erlebnisse in der geistigen Welt.
Auf dieses Geheimnis wollen solche Erzählungen hinweisen wie diejenige, die anknüpft an den Namen des Nikolaus von der Flüe. Eine Trivialanschauung, die stark beeinflußt ist von materialistischer Denkungsart, die spricht in ihrer Einfalt, daß der Mensch nach und nach im Leben sein Ich entwickelt von der Geburt bis zum Tode hin, daß dieses Ich immer mächtiger und immer stärker wird, immer deutlicher hervortritt. Es ist eine einfältige Denkungsart. Denn sieht man hin auf das wahre Ich des Menschen, auf dasjenige, was zur physischen Umkleidung mit der Geburt des Menschen aus der geistigen Welt heraus kommt, dann spricht man über diese ganze physische Entwickelung des Menschen anders. Dann weiß man nämlich, daß das wahre Ich des Menschen nach und nach, indem er physisch heranwächst, in den physischen Leib hinein gerade verschwindet, daß es immer weniger und weniger deutlich wird, und daß dasjenige, was sich entwickelt hier in der physischen Welt zwischen Geburt und Tod, nur ein Spiegelbild geistiger Ereignisse ist, ein totes Spiegelbild eines höheren Lebens. Das ist die richtige Ausdrucksweise, daß man sagt: In den Leib hinein verschwindet nach und nach die ganze Fülle des menschlichen Wesens; sie wird immer unsichtbarer und unsichtbarer. Der Mensch lebt sein physisches Leben hier auf der Erde, indem er sich nach und nach an den Leib verliert, um sich im Tode im Geiste wiederzufinden. — So spricht derjenige, der die Verhältnisse kennt. Derjenige aber, der die Verhältnisse nicht kennt, spricht so, daß er sagt: Das Kind ist unvollkommen, und nach und nach entwickelt sich das Ich zu immer größerer und größerer Vollkommenheit, es wächst heraus aus den unbestimmten Untergründen des menschlichen Daseins. — Die Erkenntnis desjenigen, was der Geistessucher schaut, muß anders sprechen gerade auf diesem Gebiete, als da spricht das in äußere Illusionen verstrickte sinnliche Bewußtsein unserer heute noch immer materialistisch empfindenden Zeit.
Und so tritt dann der Mensch als Geisteswesen in die Welt ein. Sein Leibeswesen ist, indem er Kind ist, noch unbestimmt; es hat noch wenig in Anspruch genommen das Geistige, das wie hereinschläft in das physische Dasein, das aber nur deshalb uns so wenig inhaltsvoll erscheint, weil wir es ebensowenig im gewöhnlichen physischen Leben wahrnehmen, wie wir das schlafende Ich und den schlafenden Astralleib wahrnehmen, wenn sie vom physischen und Ätherleib getrennt sind. Deshalb aber ist ein Wesen nicht unvollkommener, weil wir es nicht sehen. Das muß der Mensch mit seinem physischen Leibe erkaufen, daß er sich immer mehr und mehr eingräbt in den physischen Leib, um durch dieses Eingraben Fähigkeiten zu bekommen, die nur auf diese Weise erlangt werden können, daß sich das Geist-Seelenwesen des Menschen eine Zeitlang an das physische Dasein im physischen Leibe verliert. Daß wir uns an diesen unseren Geistursprung immerdar erinnern, daß wir erstarken in dem Gedanken: Wir sind aus dem Geiste herausgewandert in die physische Welt —, dazu steht der Weihnachtsgedanke wie eine mächtige Lichtsäule da innerhalb der christlichen Weltempfindung. Dieser Gedanke als Weihnachtsgedanke muß immer mehr und mehr erkraftet werden in der zukünftigen geistigen Entwickelung der Menschheit. Dann wird dieser Weihnachtsgedanke für diese Menschheit wieder stark werden, dann werden die Menschen wiederum dem Weihnachtsfeste so entgegenleben können, daß sie Kraft für das physische Dasein schöpfen aus diesem Weihnachtsgedanken, der sie in rechtem Sinne an ihren Geistesursprung erinnern kann. So kraftvoll wie dieser Weihnachtsgedanke dann empfunden werden wird, so wird er heute noch wenig von den Menschen gefühlt; denn es ist eine merkwürdige, aber durchaus in den Gesetzen des geistigen Daseins begründete Tatsache, daß dasjenige, was in der Welt Menschen vorwärtsbringend, Menschen fördernd auftritt, nicht gleich in seiner letzten Gestalt auftritt, daß es gewissermaßen zuerst tumultuarisch, wie von unrechtmäßigen Geistern der Weltentwickelung vorweggenommen, vor den Menschen tritt. Wir verstehen die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Menschheit nur in rechtem Sinne, wenn wir wissen, daß Wahrheiten nicht nur so genommen werden müssen, wie sie manchmal in die Weltgeschichte eintreten, sondern daß bei Wahrheiten hingeschaut werden muß auf die rechte Zeit, in der sie im rechten Lichte in die Menschheitsentwickelung eintreten können.
Unter den mancherlei Gedanken, die in die neuere Menschheitsentwickelung — ganz gewiß angeregt durch den Christus-Impuls, aber in einer zunächst verfrühten Gestalt — hereingetreten sind, ist der tief christliche, aber einer immer weitergehenden Vertiefung fähige Gedanke der Gleichheit der Menschheit vor der Welt und vor Gott, der Gleichheit aller Menschen. Aber man darf diesen Gedanken nicht in solcher Allgemeinheit hinstellen vor das Menschengemüt, wie ihn, als er zuerst tumultuarisch in die Menschheitsentwickelung eingetreten ist, die Französische Revolution hingestellt hat. Man muß sich bewußt sein, daß dieses Menschenleben von der Geburt bis zum Tode in Entwickelung ist, und daß die Hauptimpulse auf dieses Menschenleben verteilt sind. Fassen wir den Menschen ins geistige Auge, wie er in das sinnliche Dasein eintritt: er tritt voll ein in dieses sinnliche Dasein, durchimpulsiert von dem Impuls der Gleichheit des Menschenwesens aller Menschen. Und man empfindet das kindliche Dasein am allerintensivsten, wenn man hinblickt auf das Kind, das durchdrungen ist in seiner Wesenheit von dem Gedanken der Gleichheit aller Menschen. Noch nichts, was die Menschen in Ungleichheit bringt, noch nichts, was die Menschen so organisiert, daß sie sich als verschieden von andern Menschen fühlen, noch nichts von alldem tritt im kindlichen Dasein zunächst auf. Alles das wird dem Menschen erst gegeben im Laufe seines physischen Menschenlebens. Ungleichheit erzeugt das physische Dasein; aus dem Geiste heraus wandert der Mensch gleich. vor der Welt und vor Gott und vor andern Menschen. So verkündet das Mysterium des Kindes.
Und an dieses Mysterium des Kindes schließt sich an der Weihnachtsgedanke, der in neuer christlicher Offenbarung seine Vertiefung finden wird. Denn diese neue christliche Offenbarung wird rechnen mit der neuen Trinität: dem Menschen, wie er die Menschheit unmittelbar repräsentiert, dem Ahrimanischen und dem Luziferischen. Und indem man erkennen wird, wie der Mensch hineingestellt ist in das Weltendasein als in den Gleichgewichtszustand zwischen dem Ahrimanischen und dem Luziferischen, wird man verstehen, was dieser Mensch auch im äußeren physischen Dasein in Wirklichkeit ist.
Vor allen Dingen muß Verständnis fallen, christliches Verständnis fallen auf eine gewisse Seite dieses menschlichen Lebens. Laut wird es verkünden der christliche Gedanke in der Zukunft, was sich bei einzelnen Geistern seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, ich möchte sagen, in stammelnder Erkenntnis, wenn auch durchaus deutlich, schon angekündigt hat. Wenn man erfaßt, was eine Tatsache ist, daß das Kind mit Gleichheitsgedanken in die Welt hereintritt, daß aber später im Menschen, wie heraus aus dem Geborenwerden, Ungleichheitskräfte sich entwickeln, die scheinbar nicht von dieser Erde sind, so tritt damit gerade gegenüber dem Gleichheitsgedanken ein neues gewaltiges Mysterium an den Menschen heran. Dieses Mysterium zu durchschauen und durch das Durchschauen dieses Mysteriums eine richtige Anschauung über den Menschen zu erlangen, das wird zu wichtigen und notwendigen Bedürfnissen in der zukünftigen menschlichen Seelenentwickelung von der Gegenwart ab gehören. Die Frage steht bange vor dem Menschen: Ja, die Menschen werden verschieden, wenn sie es auch noch nicht in der Kindheit sind, durch etwas, was scheinbar mit ihnen geboren ist, was im Blute liegt, durch ihre verschiedenen Begabungen und Fähigkeiten.
Die Frage der Begabungen und Fähigkeiten, welche so viele Ungleichheiten unter den Menschen bewirken, sie tritt an den Menschen heran im Zusammenhang mit dem Weihnachtsgedanken. Und das Weihnachtsfest der Zukunft, es wird in ernster Weise den Menschen immerzu gemahnen an den Ursprung seiner ihn über die Erde hin differenzierenden Begabungen, Fähigkeiten, Talente, vielleicht sogar genialen Fähigkeiten. Er wird nach diesem Ursprung fragen müssen. Und das richtige Gleichgewicht innerhalb des physischen Daseins wird er nur erlangen, wenn er in der rechten Art auf den Ursprung seiner ihn von den andern Menschen unterscheidenden Fähigkeiten hinweisen kann. Das Weihnachtslicht oder die Weihnachtslichter müssen der sich entwickelnden Menschheit Aufschluß geben über diese Fähigkeiten, müssen die große Frage lösen: Besteht Ungerechtigkeit innerhalb der Weltenordnung für den einzelnen persönlichen Menschen zwischen Geburt und Tod? Wie ist es mit den Fähigkeiten, mit der Begabung?
Nun, manches wird anders werden in der menschlichen Anschauung, wenn die Menschen mit dem neuen christlichen Empfinden durchdrungen sein werden. Verstehen wird man vor allen Dingen, warum die alttestamentliche Geheimanschauung eine besondere Ansicht hatte über das Prophetentum. Was waren sie im Alten Testament, die auftretenden Propheten? Sie waren von Jahve geheiligte Persönlichkeiten; sie waren diejenigen Persönlichkeiten, die in rechtmäßiger Weise besondere Geistesgaben, die über die Menge hervorragten, gebrauchen durften. Jahve mußte erst heiligen diejenigen Fähigkeiten, welche dem Menschen wie durch das Blut eingeboren sind. Und wir wissen, Jahve wirkt auf den Menschen vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen. Wir wissen, Jahve wirkt nicht herein in das bewußte Leben. Jeder wirkliche Bekenner des Alten 'Testamentes sagte sich in seinem Gemüte: Dasjenige, was die Menschen unterscheidet hinsichtlich ihrer Fähigkeiten und Begabungen, was sich in den Prophetennaturen sogar zu genialer Höhe erhebt, es ist zwar mit dem Menschen geboren, aber der Mensch wendet es nicht zum Guten an, wenn er nicht einschlafend untersinken kann in jene Welt, in der Jahve seine Seelenimpulse lenkt und dasjenige, was physische Begabung, an dem Leibe hängende Begabungen sind, von der geistigen Welt aus umwandelt. -— Auf ein tiefstes Geheimnis des alttestamentlichen Anschauens weisen wir dabei hin. Die alttestamentliche Anschauung, auch die Anschauung über das Prophetentum, sie muß dahingehen. Neue Anschauungen müssen zum Heile der Menschheit in die weltgeschichtliche Entwickelung eintreten. Dasjenige, wovon die alten Hebräer glaubten, daß es geheiligt werde durch Jahve im bewußtlosen Schlafzustand, das muß in der neueren Zeit der Mensch fähig werden zu heiligen, während er wach ist, bei vollem Bewußtsein. Das aber kann er nur, wenn er weiß, daß auf der einen Seite alles dasjenige, was natürliche Begabungen, Fähigkeiten, Talente, Genies vielleicht sind, luziferische Gaben sind, die luziferisch in der Welt wirken, solange sie nicht geheiligt und durchdrungen werden von alldem, was als Christus-Impuls in die Welt eintreten kann. Ein ungeheuer bedeutungsvolles Mysterium der neueren Menschheitsentwickelung berührt man, wenn man den Keim des neuen Weihnachtsgedankens erfaßt und hinweist darauf, daß der Christus verstanden und empfunden werden muß von den Menschen so, daß die Menschen nun als neutestamentliche Menschen vor dem Christus stehen und sagen: Ich habe zu der Gleichheitsprätention, zu der Gleichheitsaspiration des Kindes hinzubekommen die verschiedenen Fähigkeiten und Begabungen und Talente. Sie führen aber auf die Dauer nur zum Guten, zum Heile des Menschen, wenn diese Begabungen, diese Talente, diese Fähigkeiten gestellt werden in den Dienst des Christus Jesus, wenn der Mensch anstrebt, sein ganzes Wesen zu durchchristen, damit Luzifer entrissen werden die menschlichen Begabungen, Talente, Genies.
Das durchchristete Gemüt entreißt Luzifer dasjenige, was sonst luziferisch im physischen Dasein des Menschen wirkt. Das muß als starker Gedanke hindurchgehen durch die künftige Entwickelung der menschlichen Seele. Das ist der neue Weihnachtsgedanke, die neue Verkündigung von der Wirksamkeit des Christus in unserer Seele zur Umwandlung des Luziferischen, das in uns nicht hineinkommt, insofern wir herauswandern aus dem Geiste, sondern das wir in uns dadurch finden, daß wir mit einem blutdurchdrungenen physischen Leib umkleidet werden, der uns aus der Vererbung heraus die Fähigkeiten gibt. Innerhalb der luziferischen Strömung, innerhalb desjenigen, was in der physischen Vererbungsströmung wirkt, treten diese Eigenschaften auf, aber gewonnen, erobert wollen sie sein während des physischen Lebens von dem, was der Mensch nun nicht durch Jahve-Inspirationen im Schlafe, sondern in vollem Bewußtsein, durch Ausnützung seiner Erlebnisse an dem Christus-Impuls empfinden kann. Wende dich hin, o Christ, zu dem Weihnachtsgedanken - so redet das neue Christentum - und bringe dar auf dem Altare, der zu Weihnacht aufgerichtet wird, alles dasjenige, was du an Menschendifferenzierung empfängst aus dem Blute heraus, und heilige deine Fähigkeiten, heilige deine Begabungen, heilige selbst dein Genie, indem du es beleuchtet siehst von dem Lichte, das von dem Weihnachtsbaum ausgeht.
In neuen Worten muß sprechen die neue Geistverkündung, und wir müssen nicht stumpf und gehörlos sein gegenüber dem, was in unserer von Ernst durchdrungenen Zeit an neuen Offenbarungen des Geistes zu uns spricht. Dann, wenn wir so empfinden, dann leben wir auch mit jener Kraft, mit der heute der Mensch leben soll, um die großen Aufgaben zu lösen, die der Menschheit gerade in unserem Zeitalter gestellt sein werden. Empfunden werden muß die ganze Schwere des Weihnachtsgedankens: In unserem Zeitalter muß in das volle wache Bewußtsein hereintreten das, was der Christus zu den Menschen sagen wollte, als er die Worte sprach: «So ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein, so könnet ihr nicht eintreten in die Reiche der Himmel.» Der Gleichheitsgedanke, den das Kind offenbart, wenn wir es in richtigem Sinne anschauen, der wird nicht Lügen gestraft durch diese Worte; denn das Kind, an dessen Geburt wir uns in der Weihnachtsnacht erinnern, verkündet — den Menschen in ihrer Entwickelung durch die Weltgeschichte immer neue Gedanken offenbarend klar und deutlich, daß in das Licht des Christus, der durchseelt hat dieses Kind, gerückt werden muß dasjenige, was wir an uns differenzierenden Begabungen tragen, daß auf dem Altare dieses Kindes dargebracht werden muß dasjenige, was diese verschiedenen Begabungen aus uns Menschen machen.
Fragen können Sie nun, angeregt durch den Ernst des Weihnachtsgedankens: Wie erfahre ich den Christus-Impuls in meiner eigenen Seele? - Oh, der Gedanke, er liegt in dem Menschen oftmals schwer!
Nun, nicht in einem Augenblick, nicht so, daß man sagen kann, unmittelbar, stürmisch pflanzt sich das in unsere Seele ein, was wir als den Christus-Impuls bezeichnen können. Und zu verschiedenen Zeiten pflanzt es sich verschieden ein. Heute hat der Mensch durch sein volles, klares, waches Bewußtsein aufzunehmen solche Weltengedanken, wie sie stammelnd mitzuteilen versucht werden durch die anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft, zu der wir uns bekennen. So wie diese Gedanken sich ihm ankündigen, wenn er sie recht versteht, können sie das Vertrauen in ihm erwecken, daß auf den Flügeln dieser Gedanken die neue Offenbarung, das heißt der neue Christus-Impuls unserer Zeit, wirklich in ihn einzieht. Und er wird ihn verspüren, wenn er nur darauf aufmerksam sein will, dieser Mensch!
Versuchen Sie es, so wie es hier gemeint ist, recht lebendig im heutigen zeitgemäßen Sinne, die Geistgedanken der Weltenlenkung in sich aufzunehmen; versuchen Sie sie aufzunehmen nicht bloß wie eine Lehre, nicht bloß wie eine Theorie, versuchen Sie sie aufzunehmen so, daß sie diese Ihre Seele im tiefsten Inneren bewegen, erwärmen, durchleuchten und durchströmen, daß Sie sie lebendig tragen. Versuchen Sie, diese Gedanken in solcher Stärke zu empfinden, daß sie Ihnen sind wie etwas, was wie durch den Leib in Ihre Seele eintritt und den Leib verändert. Versuchen Sie, alle Abstraktionen, alles Theoretische von diesen Gedanken abzustreifen. Versuchen Sie, darauf zu kommen, daß diese Gedanken solche sind, welche eine wirkliche Speise der Seele sind, versuchen Sie, darauf zu kommen, daß durch diese Gedanken nicht bloß Gedanken in Ihre Seele einziehen, sondern daß geistiges Leben, das herauskommt aus der geistigen Welt, durch diese Gedanken in unsere Seele einzieht. Machen Sie sich intim innerlichst eins mit diesen Gedanken, und Sie werden ein Dreifaches bemerken. Sie werden bemerken, daß diese Gedanken allmählich etwas in Ihnen selber austilgen, was insbesondere in unserer Zeit des Bewußtseinsseelenzeitalters so deutlich in die Menschenseelen hereinzieht: daß diese Gedanken, mögen sie sonst wie immer lauten, austilgen im Menschen die Selbstsucht! Wenn Sie zu bemerken anfangen: diese Gedanken töten den Egoismus, lähmen die Selbstsucht -, dann, meine lieben Freunde, haben Sie verspürt das Durchchristete der anthroposophisch orientierten geisteswissenschaftlichen Gedanken. Und wenn Sie zweitens verspüren, daß in dem Augenblick, wo irgendwie in der Welt an Sie herantritt die Unwahrhaftigkeit, entweder indem Sie selber versucht werden, es mit der Wahrheit nicht genau zu nehmen, oder von anderer Seite Ihnen die Unwahrhaftigkeit entgegentritt, wenn Sie verspüren, daß in dem Augenblicke, wo die Unwahrhaftigkeit in Ihre Lebenssphäre hereintritt, warnend oder auf die Wahrheit hinweisend, ein Impuls dasteht neben Ihnen, der die Unwahrheit nicht in Ihr Leben hereintreten lassen will, der Sie immerzu mahnend auffordert, mit der Wahrheit es zu halten: dann verspüren Sie wiederum gegenüber dem zum Scheine heute so vielfach neigenden Leben den lebendigen Christus-Impuls. Der Mensch wird nicht leicht gegenüber den anthroposophisch orientierten Geistgedanken lügen können oder keine Empfindung haben für den Schein und die Unwahrheit. Ein Wegweiser zum Wahrheitsempfinden, von allem übrigen Verständnis abgesehen, er kann von Ihnen gefühlt werden in den Gedanken der neuen christlichen Offenbarung. Wenn Sie es dahin bringen, nicht bloß theoretisches Verständnis zu suchen für die Geisteswissenschaft, wie man es für eine andere Wissenschaft sucht, sondern wenn Sie es dahin bringen, daß die Gedanken so in Sie eindringen, daß Sie fühlen: Es ist so, indem diese Gedanken mit meiner Seele intim werden, wie wenn sich eine zur Wahrheit mahnende Gewissensmacht neben mich hinstellte, dann haben Sie den Christus-Impuls in der zweiten Art gefunden. Und wenn Sie drittens auch noch fühlen, daß ausströmt von diesen Gedanken etwas bis in den Leib hinein, aber insbesondere in der Seele Wirkendes, Krankheit Überwindendes, den Menschen Gesundmachendes, Frischmachendes, wenn Sie verspüren die verjüngende, erfrischende, krankheitsfeindlicheKraft dieser Gedanken: dann haben Sie den dritten Teil des Christus-Impulses dieser Gedanken empfunden. Denn das ist es, wonach die Menschheit mit der neuen Weisheit, mit dem neuen Geiste strebt: aus dem Geiste selber heraus die Möglichkeit zu finden, Selbstsucht zu überwinden, den Schein des Lebens zu überwinden; Selbstsucht durch Liebe, den Schein des Lebens durch die Wahrheit, das Krankmachende durch die gesunden Gedanken, die uns unmittelbar in Einklang versetzen mit den Harmonien des Weltenalls, weil sie aus den Harmonien des Weltenalls stammen.
Nicht alles von dem Gesagten kann heute schon erreicht werden, denn der Mensch trägt ein altes Erbgut in sich herum. Und nur unverständig ist es, wenn zum Beispiel solche geistige Hinterstubenpolitiken wie die Christian Science den Gedanken des Gesundmachenden des Geistes zur Karikatur verzerren. Aber wenn auch der Gedanke wegen des alten Erbgutes heute noch nicht mächtig genug sein kann, um vielleicht dasjenige, was der Mensch durch ihn wünscht, selbstsüchtig wünscht, zu erreichen, er ist ein Gesundendes. In diesen Dingen denkt man nur immer verkehrt. Es kann Ihnen jemand sagen, der die Dinge versteht: Dich machen gewisse Gedanken gesund -, der Betreffende wird dann in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt von dieser oder jener Krankheit befallen. — Ja, daß wir heute noch nicht von allen Krankheiten genesen können durch bloßen Gedankeneinfluß, das ist eine alte Erbschaft. Aber vermöchten Sie zu sagen, welche Krankheit Sie bekommen hätten, wenn Sie diese Gedanken nicht gehabt hätten? Vermöchten Sie zu sagen, daß Ihr Leben in ebensolcher Gesundheit verlaufen wäre, wenn Sie die Gedanken nicht gehabt hätten? Vermögen Sie zu sagen bei einem Menschen, der sich anthroposophisch orientierter Geisteswissenschaft zugewendet hat und fünfundvierzig Jahre alt geworden ist: Nun ist er mit fünfundvierzig Jahren gestorben — wenn Sie nicht den Beweis liefern können, daß er ohne diese Gedanken mit zweiundvierzig, mit vierzig Jahren gestorben wäre? Der Mensch denkt immer von der verkehrten Seite, wenn er sich so diesen Gedanken nähert. Der Mensch sieht auf dasjenige hin, was ihm nicht gegeben werden kann, vermöge seines Karma; er sieht nicht auf dasjenige hin, was ihm gegeben wird vermöge seines Karma. Aber wenn Sie trotz allem, was in der äußeren physischen Welt widerspricht, hinblicken durch die Kraft inneren Vertrauens, das Sie durch intimere Bekanntschaft mit den Gedanken der Geisteswissenschaft gewinnen, dann verspüren Sie auch das Gesundende, das bis in den physischen Leib hinein Gesundende, Erfrischende, Verjüngende als das dritte Element, als das Element, das der Christus als Heiland mit seinen immer dauernden Offenbarungen in die menschliche Seele hineinbringt.
Wir wollten uns vertiefen, meine lieben Freunde, in den Weihnachtsgedanken, der so nahe zusammenhängt mit dem Mysterium der Menschengeburt. Dasjenige, was uns heute aus dem Geiste geoffenbart wird als die Fortführung des Weihnachtsgedankens, mit einigen Strichen wollten wir es vor unsere Seele führen. Fühlen können wir, daß es ein Stärkendes ist, daß es ein Tragendes im Leben ist. Fühlen können wir, daß es uns hineinstellt in die Impulse der Weltenentwickelung, was auch kommen mag, so daß wir uns eins fühlen können mit diesen göttlichen Impulsen der Weltenentwickelung, daß wir sie verstehen können, daß wir Kraft schöpfen können für unseren Willen aus diesem Verstehen, Licht schöpfen können für unser Vorstellungsleben aus diesem Verstehen. Der Mensch ist in Entwickelung; unrecht wäre es, diese Entwickelung zu leugnen. Recht ist es allein, mit dieser Entwickelung zu gehen. — Der Christus hat auch gesagt: «Ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis ans Ende des Erdenlaufes.» Das ist nicht eine Phrase, das ist eine Wahrheit. Der Christus hat sich nicht nur geoffenbart durch die Evangelien, der Christus ist bei uns, der Christus offenbart sich fortwährend. Ohren sollen wir haben, hinzuhören auf dasjenige, was er in neuen Zeiten immer neu offenbart. Schwach kann es uns machen, wenn wir keinen Glauben haben an diese neuen Offenbarungen; stark wird es uns aber machen, wenn wir ihn haben.
Stark wird es uns machen, wenn wir den Glauben haben an diese neuen Offenbarungen, und tönten sie auch aus den scheinbar widersprechenden Schmerzen und dem Unglück des Lebens heraus. Mit unserer eigenen Seele gehen wir durch wiederholte Erdenleben, in denen sich unser Schicksal vollzieht. Zu diesem Gedanken selber, der das Geistige hinter dem äußeren physischen Leben verspüren läßt, kommen wir nur, wenn wir im rechten christlichen Sinne die sich fortsetzenden Offenbarungen in uns aufnehmen. Der Christ, der rechte Christ soll im Sinne unserer Zeit dann, wenn er die Lichter des Weihnachtsbaumes vor sich hat, mit den stärkenden Gedanken beginnen, die heute aus der neuen Weltenoffenbarung ihm kommen können zur Erkraftung seines Willens, zur Durchleuchtung seines Vorstellungslebens. Und er soll sich erfühlen so, daß er mit der Kraft und mit dem Lichte dieses Gedankens sich nähern kann im christlichen Jahre dem andern Gedanken, der an das Mysterium des Todes mahnt: dem Ostergedanken, der das Enderlebnis des menschlichen irdischen Daseins als ein Geistiges vor unsere Seele hinstellt. Den Christus werden wir immer mehr und mehr empfinden, wenn wir vermögen, unser eigenes Dasein mit seinem Dasein in das rechte Verhältnis zu setzen. Der an das Christentum anknüpfende mittelalterliche Rosenkreuzer sagte: Ex Deo nascimur, In Christo morimur, Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus. - Aus dem Göttlichen sind wir geboren, indem wir uns als Menschen hier auf dem Erdenrund betrachten. In dem Christus sterben wir. In dem Heiligen Geiste werden wir wiederum auferweckt werden. — Doch das bezieht sich auf unser Leben, auf unser menschliches Leben. Blicken wir von unserem Leben auf das Leben des Christus hin, so haben wir das, was in unserem Leben als Spiegelbild sich darstellt: Aus dem Göttlichen sind wir geboren, in dem Christus sterben wir, durch den Heiligen Geist werden wir wieder auferweckt werden. - Wir können es als die Wahrheit des als unser erster Bruder unter uns lebenden Christus so aussprechen, daß wir es nun als von ihm ausstrahlende, in unserer menschlichen Wesenheit gespiegelte Christus-Wahrheit empfinden: Aus dem Geiste ward Er gezeugt — wie es im Lukas-Evangelium steht, in dem Symbolum der herabsteigenden Taube dargestellt wird -, aus dem Geiste ward Er gezeugt, in dem Menschenleibe starb Er, in dem Göttlichen wird Er wieder erstehen.
Die Wahrheiten, die ewige sind, nehmen wir nur im rechten Sinne wahr, wenn wir sie in ihrer gegenwärtigen Spiegelung sehen, nicht nur verabsolutiert, verabstrahiert in einer Form. Und wenn wir uns fühlen als Mensch nicht nur im abstrakten Sinne, sondern als Mensch so recht darinstehend in einer Zeit, in der es unsere Pflicht ist, aus der Zeit heraus zu handeln und zu denken, dann werden wir den Christus, der bei uns ist alle Tage bis ans Ende des Erdenlaufes, zu vernehmen versuchen in seiner gegenwärtigen Sprache, wie er uns über den Weihnachtsgedanken belehrt, erleuchtet, mit dem Weihnachtsgedanken durchkraftet. Dann werden wir diesen Christus in seiner neuen Sprache in uns aufnehmen wollen, denn verwandt muß der Christus uns werden. Dann können wir die rechte Christus-Aufgabe auf dem Erdenrunde und nach dem 'Tode durch uns selber erfüllen. Der Mensch jedes Zeitalters muß in seiner Art den Christus in sich aufnehmen. Die Menschen empfanden das, wenn sie im rechten Sinne hinblickten auf die beiden großen starken Geistsäulen, auf den Weihnachtsgedanken und den Ostergedanken. So hat der tiefsinnige deutsche Mystiker, der schlesische Angelus, Angelus Silesius, hinblickend auf den Weihnachtsgedanken, gesagt:
Wird Christus tausendmal zu Bethlehem geboren
Und nicht in dir, du bleibst noch ewiglich verloren.
Und hinblickend auf den Ostergedanken:
Das Kreuz zu Golgatha kann dich nicht von dem Bösen,
Wo es nicht auch in dir wird aufgericht’t, erlösen.
Wahrhaftig, der Christus muß in uns leben, da wir Menschen nicht im absoluten Sinne, sondern Menschen einer bestimmten Zeit sind. Der Christus muß in uns geboren werden so, wie seine Worte durch unser Zeitalter tönen. Den Christus müssen wir versuchen, in uns zu gebären, zu unserer Stärkung, zu unserer Durchleuchtung, so wie er jetzt bei uns geblieben ist, wie er bei den Menschen bleiben will durch alle Zeiten bis ans Ende der Erdentage, wie er jetzt in unserer Seele geboren werden will. Wenn wir also versuchen, in unserer eigenen Seele die Geburt des Christus zu erleben am heutigen Tage, wie sie hereinleuchtet und hereinkraftet in unsere Seele als das ewige Licht und die ewige Kraft in die Zeit, dann sehen wir in richtiger Weise auf die historische Geburt des Christus in Bethlehem und auf ihr Abbild in unserer eigenen Seele hin.
Wird Christus tausendmal zu Bethlehem geboren
Und nicht in dir, du bleibst noch ewiglich verloren.
So wie er es uns heute in die Seele legt, hinzublicken auf diese seine Geburt, seine Geburt im Menschengeschehen, seine Geburt in unserer eigenen Seele, so vertiefen wir uns recht in den Weihnachtsgedanken. Und dann blicken wir hin auf jene Weihenacht, die wir aufgehen fühlen sollten für eine neue Erkraftung und Erleuchtung der Menschen auf mancherlei Übel und Schmerzen hin, die in der Gegenwart sie durchbebt haben und sie noch durchbeben werden.
«Mein Reich», so sagt der Christus, «ist nicht von dieser Welt.» Ein Wort, das uns auffordert, wenn wir auf seine Geburt im rechten Sinne hinblicken, in unserer eigenen Seele zu finden den Weg nach jenem Reiche, wo Er ist, uns zu erkraften, wo Er ist, uns zu erleuchten, wenn es finster und kraftlos werden will, aus den Impulsen, die aus jener Welt sind, von der Er selber sprach, von der immerdar sein Erscheinen in der Weihenacht künden will. «Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt.» Aber Er hat dieses Reich in diese Welt gebracht, so daß wir aus diesem Reiche immer Kraft, Trost, Zuversicht und Hoffnung in allen Lebenslagen werden finden können, wenn wir nur zu Ihm kommen wollen, seine Worte beherzigend, solche Worte wie diese: «Wenn ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein, werdet ihr nicht eintreten in die Reiche der Himmel.»
First Lecture
The Christian worldview has placed two mighty pillars of spirit, the two annual festivals of Christmas and Easter, into the course of the year, which is to be a symbol of the human life cycle. And it can be said that in the Christmas and Easter concepts, these two pillars of spirit stand before the human soul, inscribed with the two great mysteries of physical human existence, which human beings must view in a completely different way than other events in their physical life. Certainly, the supersensible intrudes into this physical life through sensory observation, through intellectual judgment, through feeling and volition. But this supersensible is otherwise something that immediately announces itself as supersensible, just as the Christian worldview seeks to make it sensible through the feast of Pentecost. But the ideas of Christmas and Easter point to those two events that take place in the physical life course, which are, according to their outward appearance, physical events, but which, unlike all other physical events, do not immediately announce themselves as physical events. With a natural view of life, one can survey the physical life of human beings, and with a natural view of life, one can see with the senses the outer side of this physical life, the outer manifestation of the spiritual. But one can never see with the senses, nor can one see with the senses the outer side, the outer manifestation of the two boundary experiences of the human life course, without being pointed by sensory perception itself to the powerful mystery, to the mysteriousness 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 thoughts — these two events of human physical life stand before the human soul in the Christian mind.
In the Christmas thought and in the Easter thought, the human soul wants to look at the two great mysteries. And as it looks, it finds in its contemplation a luminous strengthening for the mind, powerful content for the human will, an uplifting of the whole human being, whatever situation he may be in that requires this uplifting. As they stand there, these two pillars of the spirit, the Christmas thought and the Easter thought, they have an eternal value.
However, in the course of its development, the human imagination has approached the great Christmas idea and the great Easter idea in many different ways. While in the early days of Christian development, when the effect of the events at Golgotha shook many minds, people gradually came to accept the idea of the Savior dying on Golgotha, while in the first centuries of Christianity they felt the idea of redemption in the crucifix hanging on the cross, and the great, powerful image of the dying Christ on the cross gradually took shape, Christian sentiment, especially as modern times began, became more adapted to the materialism emerging in human evolution and turned to the image of the childlike Jesus entering the world, the Jesus being born.
Now, of course, one can say that with a finer sensibility, in the way that the Christian mind of Europe turned to the Christmas crib in past centuries, one can find something of materialistic Christianity in this. The need—and I do not mean this in a negative sense—to cuddle with the dear baby Jesus, so to speak, has become a trivial need over the centuries. And many songs about the dear baby Jesus that are still considered beautiful today, or, as some people say, heartwarming, seem too frivolous to us in these serious times.
But the idea of Easter and the idea of Christmas are eternal pillars, eternal pillars of thought in the human mind. And one can well say that in our time of new spiritual revelations, new light will also shine on the idea of Christmas, that the idea of Christmas will gradually be felt in a new form in a grandiose way. And it will be up to us to hear from world events the call for the renewal of many old ideas, the call for a new revelation of the spirit. It will be up to us to understand how a new Christmas idea will emerge from world events to strengthen and uplift the human soul.
The birth and death of human beings, no matter how much we analyze them, no matter how closely we examine them, appear 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 things should say that these two events, these earthly events of human life, are not such that they did not immediately appear as physical events, in that they took place in human beings, who are citizens of a spiritual world. No view of nature can ever succeed in finding anything else in birth and death, within the limits of what the senses can see and the intellect can comprehend, than something in which the intervention of the spiritual is immediately apparent in the physical. Thus, it is only in this way that these two events approach the human mind. And also for the Christmas event, for the event of birth, the human-Christian mind will have to feel more and more deeply the mystery character of this event.
It can be said that only rarely have people risen to turn their gaze in the right sense toward the mystery character of birth. Rarely, but then in ideas that speak wonderfully deeply into the human soul. This is the case in the idea that is linked to the Swiss spiritual hero of the 15th century, Nicholas of Flüe. It is said of him – and he himself said it – that before his birth, before he could breathe physical air outside, he saw his own human image, which he would carry physically with him after his birth and throughout his life. And before his birth, he saw his baptism with those who were present at this baptism and at his first experiences. With the exception of a single older person who was present and whom he did not recognize, he recognized the others because he had already seen them before he saw the light of day. Take this story as you will, but you cannot help seeing in it a significant reference to the mystery of human birth, which is so magnificently symbolized in the Christmas story before the history of the world. One will find in the story of Nicholas of Flüe that something is connected with the entrance into physical life which is hidden from ordinary human perception only by a very, very thin wall, a thin wall that can be broken through when a karmic relationship such as that which existed in Nicholas of Flüe is present. Here and there we still encounter such moving references to the mystery of the Nativity. But it can be said that humanity has become little aware of how, in the two boundary pillars of human life, birth and death stand directly in the physical world as two spiritual events that are already revealed in their physical appearance, events that can never take place within the mere course of nature, but in which there is a direct intervention of divine spiritual forces, which is announced by the fact that, precisely because of their physical appearance, these two boundary experiences of the human physical existence must remain mysteries.
The new Christian revelation now leads us to view this human life as, one may well say, Christ wanted people to view it in the 20th century. Today, as we seek to immerse ourselves in the Christmas spirit, we remember a saying attributed to Christ Jesus, which can point us so clearly to the meaning of Christmas. The saying is: “Unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” “Unless you become like little children...” This is truly not a call to strip the Christmas spirit of all its mystery and reduce it to the triviality of the dear little Jesus, as many folk songs and similar songs, but less folk songs than art songs, have done in the course of the materialistic development of Christianity. It is precisely this statement: “Unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven,” that makes us look up to the powerful impulses that are surging through human development. And in our present time, when world events certainly do not give us any reason to fall into trivial Christmas thoughts, when such pain is passing through the human heart, when this human heart must look back on millions of people who have found death in recent years, must look at countless people who are starving, it is truly fitting to look at the powerful ideas of world history that drive human beings, at . which can be directed by the words: “Unless you become like little children...” and which can be supplemented by the other: “And unless you spend your life in the light of this thought, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”
When man enters the world as a child, he comes directly from the spiritual world. For what takes place in physical life, the creation and growth of his physical body, is the covering of that event which cannot be described in any other way than by saying: Man's deepest essence comes out of the spiritual world. Human beings are born out of the spirit into the body. And when the Rosicrucian says: Ex deo nascimur — he means human beings insofar as they appear in the physical world. For that which initially envelops man, which makes him a physical whole here on earth, is what is meant by the words Ex deo nascimur. If we look at the center of man, at his actual inner center, then we must say: Man wanders out of the spirit and into this physical world. Through what takes place in the physical world, which he has observed from the spiritual realms before his conception or birth, he is clothed in his physical body in order to experience things in this physical body that can only be experienced in the physical body. But human beings come out of the spiritual world in their inner being. And they are such that in the first years of their physical existence — for those who want to see things as they are in the world, who are not blinded by the illusions of materialism — they are such that they announce even in their first years how they have come out of the spirit. What one experiences in children appears to the truly perceptive person as the after-effects of experiences in the spiritual world.
Stories such as the one connected with the name of Nicholas of Flüe point to this mystery. A trivial view, strongly influenced by materialistic thinking, says in its simplicity that human beings gradually develop their ego in life from birth to death, that this ego becomes ever more powerful and stronger, ever more distinct. This is a simplistic way of thinking. For if we look at the true self of the human being, at that which comes out of the spiritual world at birth and takes on a physical covering, then we speak differently about the whole physical development of the human being. Then we know that the true self of the human being gradually disappears into the physical body as it grows physically, that it becomes less and less distinct, and that what develops here in the physical world between birth and death is only a mirror image of spiritual events, a dead mirror image of a higher life. The correct way of expressing this is to say that the whole fullness of the human being gradually disappears into the body; it becomes more and more invisible. The human being lives his physical life here on earth by gradually losing himself in the body, in order to find himself again in the spirit at death. This is how someone who knows the circumstances speaks. But those who do not know the circumstances speak thus: The child is imperfect, and gradually the I develops into ever greater perfection, growing out of the indeterminate foundations of human existence. — The knowledge of what the seeker of the spirit sees must speak differently in this realm than the sensory consciousness of our still materialistic age, which is entangled in external illusions.
And so the human being enters the world as a spiritual being. As a child, his physical being is still undefined; it has not yet made much claim on the spiritual, which lies dormant in physical existence, but which appears so meaningless to us only because we perceive it as little in ordinary physical life as we perceive the sleeping ego and the sleeping astral body when they are separated from the physical and etheric bodies. But a being is not imperfect because we cannot see it. Human beings must pay for this with their physical bodies, burying themselves more and more deeply in the physical body in order to acquire abilities that can only be attained in this way, so that the spirit-soul being of the human being loses itself for a time in physical existence in the physical body. The Christmas idea stands like a mighty pillar of light within the Christian worldview, reminding us to always remember our spiritual origin and to grow stronger in the thought that we have migrated from the spirit into the physical world. This thought, as the Christmas thought, must be strengthened more and more in the future spiritual development of humanity. Then this Christmas thought will become strong again for humanity, and people will once more be able to look forward to Christmas in such a way that they draw strength for their physical existence from this Christmas thought, which can remind them in the right sense of their spiritual origin. As powerful as this Christmas idea will then be felt, it is still little felt by people today; for it is a remarkable fact, but one that is thoroughly grounded in the laws of spiritual existence, that what appears in the world as something that advances and promotes human beings does not appear immediately in its final form, but first appears, as it were, tumultuously, as if anticipated by unlawful spirits of world evolution, before it appears before human beings. We can only understand the historical development of humanity in the right sense if we know that truths must not be taken only as they sometimes appear in world history, but that in the case of truths we must look to the right time when they can enter into human development in the right light.
Among the various ideas that have entered into the more recent development of humanity—certainly inspired by the Christ impulse, but initially in a premature form—is the deeply Christian idea, capable of ever deeper understanding, 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 a general form as it was presented by the French Revolution when it first entered human development in a tumultuous manner. We must be aware that human life from birth to death is in a state of development and that the main impulses are distributed throughout this human life. Let us contemplate the human being with our spiritual eye as he enters into sensory existence: he enters fully into this sensory existence, permeated by the impulse of the equality of all human beings. And we feel the child's existence most intensely when we look at the child, who is permeated in his very being by the idea of the equality of all human beings. Nothing that brings people into inequality, nothing that organizes people in such a way that they feel different from other people, nothing of all this appears in childhood at first. All this is only given to human beings in the course of their physical human life. Physical existence creates inequality; out of the spirit, human beings are equal before the world, before God, and before other people. This is what the mystery of the child proclaims.
And this mystery of the child is followed by the Christmas idea, which will find its deepening in the new Christian revelation. For this new Christian revelation will reckon with the new Trinity: the human being as the immediate representative of humanity, the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic. And when we recognize how human beings are placed in the world as in a state of equilibrium between the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic, we will understand what these human beings really are, even in their outer physical existence.
Above all, understanding must fall, Christian understanding must fall on a certain side of this human life. In the future, the Christian idea will proclaim loudly what has already been announced in individual spirits since the middle of the 19th century, I would say in stammering recognition, even if quite clearly. When one grasps the fact that the child enters the world with the idea of equality, but that later in human beings, as if emerging from birth, forces of inequality develop that are apparently not of this earth, then a new and powerful mystery arises for human beings, precisely in opposition to the idea of equality. To see through this mystery and, through seeing through this mystery, to gain a correct view of the human being will be an important and necessary need in the future development of the human soul from the present onwards. The question stands anxiously before human beings: Yes, human beings become different, even if they are not yet so in childhood, through something that seems to be born with them, that lies in their blood, through their different talents and abilities.
The question of talents and abilities, which cause so many inequalities among human beings, arises in connection with the Christmas idea. And the Christmas festival of the future will constantly remind human beings in a serious way of the origin of the talents, abilities, gifts, and perhaps even genius that differentiate them from one another on earth. They will have to ask about this origin. And they will only achieve the right balance within their physical existence if they can point in the right way to the origin of the abilities that distinguish them from other people. The Christmas light or Christmas lights must give the developing human race information about these abilities; they must solve the great question: Is there injustice within the world order for the individual human being between birth and death? What about abilities and talents?
Well, some things will change in human perception when people are imbued with the new Christian feeling. Above all, people will understand why the Old Testament's secret view had a special view of prophecy. What were the prophets who appeared in the Old Testament? They were personalities sanctified by Yahweh; they were personalities who were lawfully permitted to use special spiritual gifts that distinguished them from the masses. Yahweh first had to sanctify those abilities that are innate in human beings, as if through their blood. And we know that Yahweh works on human beings from the moment they fall asleep until they wake up. We know that Yahweh does not work into 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 even rises to genius in the nature of the prophets, is indeed born with man, but man does not use it for good unless he can sink into that world when he falls asleep, in which Yahweh directs his soul impulses and transforms from the spiritual world that which is physical talent, talents attached to the body. — We are pointing here to a profound mystery of the Old Testament view. The Old Testament view, including the view of prophecy, must pass away. New views must enter into world history for the good of humanity. What the ancient Hebrews believed would be sanctified by Yahweh in an unconscious state of sleep, humans must become capable of sanctifying in the newer times while awake, in full consciousness. But they can only do this if they know that, on the one hand, everything that may be natural gifts, abilities, talents, or genius are Luciferic gifts that work Luciferically in the world as long as they are not sanctified and permeated by everything that can enter the world as the Christ impulse. One touches upon an immensely significant mystery of recent human development when one grasps the germ of the new Christmas thought and points out that Christ must be understood and felt by human beings in such a way that they now stand before Christ as New Testament human beings and say: I have acquired the various abilities, gifts, and talents to match the child's claim to equality, its aspiration for equality. But in the long run, these gifts, talents, and abilities only lead to good, to the salvation of human beings, if they are placed at the service of Christ Jesus, if human beings strive to permeate their whole being with Christ, so that human gifts, talents, and genius are snatched away from Lucifer.
The Christ-filled mind snatches from Lucifer that which otherwise works in a Luciferic way in the physical existence of human beings. This must pass as a strong thought through the future development of the human soul. This is the new Christmas thought, the new proclamation of the effectiveness of Christ in our souls to transform the Luciferic, which does not enter into us insofar as we wander out of the spirit, but which we find within ourselves through being clothed in a blood-soaked physical body that gives us our abilities from our heredity. Within the Luciferic stream, within that which works in the physical stream of heredity, these qualities appear, but they want to be won, conquered during physical life by what man can now feel, not through Yahweh inspirations in sleep, but in full consciousness, through the use of his experiences of the Christ impulse. Turn, O Christian, to the Christmas thought—so speaks the new Christianity—and bring to the altar erected at Christmas all that you receive from the blood in terms of human differentiation, and sanctify your abilities, sanctify your gifts, sanctify even your genius, seeing it illuminated by the light that emanates from the Christmas tree.
The new proclamation of the spirit must speak in new words, and we must not be dull and deaf to what speaks to us in our serious times as new revelations of the spirit. Then, when we feel this way, we will also live with the strength that people today need in order to solve the great tasks that will be set before humanity in our age. The whole weight of the Christmas idea must be felt: in our age, what Christ wanted to say to human beings when he spoke the words, “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven,” must enter into our full conscious awareness. The idea of equality that the child reveals when we look at it in the right sense is not belied by these words; for the child whose birth we remember on Christmas night proclaims — revealing ever new thoughts to human beings in their development through world history — clearly and distinctly that in the light of Christ, who has imbued this child with life, we must bring forth that what we carry within us in our differentiating talents, that what these different talents make of us human beings must be offered on the altar of this child.
Inspired by the seriousness of the Christmas thought, you may now ask: How do I experience the Christ impulse in my own soul? - Oh, the thought often weighs heavily on the human being!
Well, not in a moment, not in such a way that one can say that what we call the Christ impulse is immediately and stormily implanted in our souls. And it implants itself differently at different times. Today, through their full, clear, and alert consciousness, human beings are able to take in such world thoughts as are being stammeringly communicated through 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 in him the confidence that on the wings of these thoughts the new revelation, that is, the new Christ impulse of our time, is truly entering into him. And he will feel it, if only he is willing to be attentive to it, this human being!
Try, as is meant here, to take in the spiritual thoughts of world guidance in a truly living way, in the contemporary sense; try to take them in not merely as a doctrine, not merely as a theory, but try to take them in in such a way that they move, warm, illuminate, and flow through your soul in its deepest depths, so that you carry them alive within you. Try to feel these thoughts with such intensity that they are like something entering your soul through your body and transforming your body. Try to strip away all abstractions, all theory from these thoughts. Try to realize that these thoughts are real nourishment for the soul; try to realize that through these thoughts it is not merely thoughts that enter your soul, but spiritual life that comes out of the spiritual world and enters our soul through these thoughts. Become intimately one with these thoughts, and you will notice three things. You will notice that these thoughts gradually erase something in you that has entered so clearly into human souls, especially in our age of consciousness: that these thoughts, whatever they may be, erase selfishness in human beings! When you begin to notice that these thoughts kill egoism and paralyze selfishness, then, my dear friends, you have felt the Christ-like nature of anthroposophically oriented spiritual scientific thoughts. And secondly, when you feel that at the moment when untruthfulness approaches you in some way in the world, either because you yourself are tempted not to take the truth seriously, or because untruthfulness confronts you from another quarter, when you feel that at the moment when untruthfulness enters your sphere of life, there is a warning or a pointer to the truth, there is an impulse standing beside you that does not want to let untruth enter your life, that constantly urges you to hold fast to the truth: then you will again feel the living Christ impulse in contrast to the life that today is so inclined toward appearances. People will not easily be able to lie about anthroposophically oriented spiritual ideas or have no feeling for appearances and untruth. A guide to the sense of truth, apart from all other understanding, can be felt in the thoughts of the new Christian revelation. If you manage not merely to seek theoretical understanding of spiritual science, as one seeks it for any other science, but if you manage to let the thoughts 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 truth stood beside me, then you have found the Christ impulse in the second way. And if, thirdly, you also feel that something flows out of these thoughts into your body, but especially into your soul, something that overcomes illness, makes people healthy and fresh, if you feel the rejuvenating, refreshing, disease-fighting power of these thoughts, then you have felt the third part of the Christ impulse in these thoughts. For this is what humanity strives for with the new wisdom, with the new spirit: to find within the spirit itself the possibility of overcoming selfishness, of overcoming the appearance of life; selfishness through love, the appearance of life through truth, that which makes us ill through healthy thoughts, which bring us immediately into harmony with the harmonies of the universe, because they originate from the harmonies of the universe.
Not everything that has been said can be achieved today, because human beings carry an old genetic heritage within them. And it is only foolish to distort the idea of the healing power of the spirit into a caricature, as spiritual backroom politics such as Christian Science do. But even if, because of this old genetic heritage, the thought is not yet powerful enough to achieve what man selfishly desires, it is still healing. In these matters, people always think wrongly. Someone who understands these things might say to you: “Certain thoughts will make you healthy” — and then, at a certain point in time, the person in question will be struck by this or that illness. Yes, it is an old legacy that we cannot yet recover from all illnesses through the mere influence of thoughts. But could you say what illness you would have contracted if you had not had these thoughts? Could you say that your life would have been just as healthy if you had not had these thoughts? Can you say of a person who has turned to anthroposophically oriented spiritual science and has reached the age of forty-five: Now he has died at the age of forty-five — if you cannot prove that without these thoughts he would have died at the age of forty-two or forty? People always think from the wrong perspective when they approach these ideas in this way. People look at what cannot be given to them by virtue of their karma; they do not look at what is given to them by virtue of their karma. But if, despite all the contradictions in the outer physical world, you look through the power of inner trust which you gain through a more intimate acquaintance with the thoughts of spiritual science, then you will also feel the healing, the refreshing, the rejuvenating, which penetrates into the physical body as the third element, as the element that Christ, as the Savior, brings into the human soul with his everlasting revelations.
We wanted to delve deeper, my dear friends, into the Christmas thought, which is so closely connected with the mystery of the birth of the human being. We wanted to bring before our souls, in a few strokes, what is revealed to us today from the spirit as the continuation of the Christmas thought. We can feel that it is something strengthening, something that carries us through life. We can feel that it places us within the impulses of world evolution, whatever may come, so that we can feel ourselves one with these divine impulses of world evolution, that we can understand them, that we can draw strength for our will from this understanding, and light for our life of imagination from this understanding. Human beings are in development; it would be wrong to deny this development. It is right to go along with this development. Christ also said, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” This is not a phrase, it is a truth. Christ did not reveal himself only through the Gospels; Christ is with us, Christ reveals himself continually. We must have ears to hear what he reveals anew in new times. It can make us weak if we do not have faith in these new revelations, but it will make us strong if we do have faith.
It will make us strong if we have faith in these new revelations, even if they sound like they're coming from the seemingly contradictory pain and misfortune of life. With our own soul, we go through repeated earthly lives in which our destiny unfolds. We can only arrive at this idea, which allows us to sense the spiritual behind the outer physical life, if we accept the continuing revelations within ourselves in the right Christian sense. The Christian, the true Christian, in the spirit of our time, when he sees the lights of the Christmas tree before him, should begin with the strengthening thoughts that can come to him today from the new world revelation, to strengthen his will and to illuminate his life of imagination. And he should feel himself so that, with the strength and light of this thought, he can approach, in the Christian year, the other thought that reminds us of the mystery of death: the Easter thought, which presents the final experience of human earthly existence as something spiritual before our soul. We will feel Christ more and more if we are able to place our own existence in the right relationship to his existence. The medieval Rosicrucian, who was connected with Christianity, said: Ex Deo nascimur, In Christo morimur, Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus. We are born of the divine when we see ourselves as human beings here on earth. We die in Christ. We will be resurrected in the Holy Spirit. But this refers to our life, to our human life. If we look from our life to the life of Christ, we see what is reflected in our life: We are born of the divine, we die in Christ, and through the Holy Spirit we will be resurrected. 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 nature: He was conceived by the Spirit—as it says in the Gospel of Luke, symbolized by the descending dove—He was conceived by the Spirit, He died in the human body, and He will rise again in the divine.
We can only perceive eternal truths in their true sense when we see them in their present reflection, not just in an absolute, abstract form. And when we feel ourselves to be human beings not only in an abstract sense, but as human beings truly standing in a time when it is our duty to act and think out of that time, then we will try to hear the Christ who is with us every day until the end of the earth's journey in his present language, as he teaches us, enlightens us, and strengthens us with the Christmas thought. Then we will want to take this Christ into ourselves in his new language, for Christ must become related to us. Then we can fulfill the true task of Christ on earth and after death through ourselves. The human being of every age must take Christ into himself in his own way. People felt this when they looked in the right sense at the two great pillars of the spirit, at the Christmas idea and the Easter idea. Thus the profound German mystic, the Silesian Angelus, Angelus Silesius, said, looking at the Christmas idea:
If Christ were born a thousand times in Bethlehem
And not in you, you will remain lost forever.
And looking at the idea of Easter:
The cross at Golgotha cannot redeem you from evil,
unless it is also erected within you.
Truly, Christ must live in us, for we humans are not absolute beings, but humans of a particular time. Christ must be born in us, just as his words resound through our age. We must try to give birth to Christ within ourselves, for our strengthening, for our illumination, just as he has now remained with us, just as he wants to remain with human beings through all ages until the end of the earth, just as he now wants 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 powers into our souls as the eternal light and eternal power in time, then we see correctly the historical birth of Christ in Bethlehem and its reflection in our own souls.
Christ may be born a thousand times in Bethlehem
But if he is not born in you, you will remain lost forever.
Just as he places it in our souls today to look at his birth, his birth in human events, his birth in our own souls, so we immerse ourselves deeply in the Christmas thought. And then we look to that holy night, which we should feel rising within us for a new strength and enlightenment for humanity in the face of the many evils and sufferings that have shaken them in the present and will continue to shake them in the future.
“My kingdom,” says Christ, ”is not of this world.” These words, when we look at his birth in the right sense, urge us to find in our own souls the way to that kingdom where he is, to find strength where he is, to find enlightenment when darkness and powerlessness threaten, from the impulses that come from that world of which he himself spoke, of which his appearance at Christmas always wants to tell us. “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 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.”