The Festivals and Their Meaning I:
Christmas
GA 209
26 December 1921, Basle
VII. The Revelation of the Cosmic Christ
THE Festival of the Holy Night has for centuries been a great festival of remembrance in the whole of Christendom. And when we think of it as such we must be mindful of all that has been associated with this festival in the feelings and hearts of men. It must be remembered that the festival of the 25th of December did not become an institution in Christianity until the fourth century A.D. It was in the fourth century, for the first time actually in the year 354, in Rome, that the Festival of the Birth of Jesus was placed as it were before the Christian world as a great and memorable contribution to the times. It was out of the very deepest instincts of Christian evolution that such a contribution to the times was made in the fourth century of our era.
The peoples from the North were swarming down towards the South of Europe. Many pagan customs were still widespread in the southern regions of Europe, in Roman districts and in Greece; pagan customs were also rife in North Africa, in Asia Minor—in short, wherever Christian thought and Christian feeling were gradually beginning to spread. But by its very nature Christianity was not intended to be a sectarian teaching, destined for this or that circle of human beings. However many factors, both internal and external, have mitigated against its original purpose, Christianity was, as a matter of course, intended to nourish the souls and hearts of all men upon the earth.
In the religious consciousness of antiquity, Divine Powers were associated with the stars, and the mightiest Power of all with the sun. This consciousness was still alive in the pagan peoples both of the North and South of Europe, and within this pagan mind there lived the thought that the time when the earth has her darkest days, at the winter solstice, is also the time when the victorious power of the sun, working in all earthly fertility, begins again to unfold.
The feeling that at this season the earth is resting in her own being, shut off from the Divine Powers of the cosmos and living in loneliness within the universe, was superseded at the time of the winter solstice by the feeling of hope that once again the rays of light and love from the realm of the sun come to awaken the earth to fruitfulness. And a realisation of the nature of man's own soul-being was intimately associated with this other feeling.
In the life of the ancient pagan religions, man felt himself inwardly part of the earth, a limb or member of the earth. It was as though the very life of the earth were continued into his own body. And so in the days of summer when the earth receives the strongest forces of warmth and light from the heavenly sphere of the sun, man felt that his own being too was given over to that world whence the radiant, warmth-giving rays of the sun shine down upon the earth. During the time of midsummer he felt as if his whole being were given up to the wide cosmic spaces. At the time of the winter solstice man felt himself in intimate connection with the earth and with all the forces preserved in the earth from the warmth and radiance of the summer. Together with the earth he felt himself living in loneliness within the cosmos. And the return of the forces of the Divine-Spiritual cosmos to the earth at this time of the winter solstice was a deep and real experience in him.
And so into the thought of the Christmas Festival man laid all that his life of feeling, his life of soul and spirit brought home to him so intimately in connection with the universality of the cosmic Powers. This intimate experience at the festival of the winter solstice was closely connected with the Christian impulse and it was therefore quite natural that those who came into contact with Christianity should share in its most precious experience, namely, an experience connected with this festival of the winter solstice.
In line with the change that had taken place between the age described in the Old Testament and the age described in the New Testament, the most cherished experience of Christianity lay in the remembrance of the birth of Jesus. The peoples of the Old Testament expressed the great mystery of human life and death by saying: When the soul passes through the gate of death it enters upon the path which will unite it again with the Fathers. And what does this imply? It implies that in those times there was a longing to return to the Fathers, and this indeed was a cherished and intimate experience—an experience bound up with the conceptions expressed in the Old Testament.
In the course of the first four centuries of Christendom this longing for communion with the Fathers was replaced by something else. The souls of men were directed towards the birth of the Being Who is the centre around which Christendom coheres. The feeling that lived in the peoples of the Old Testament changed into a feeling connected with the events at Nazareth or Bethlehem, with the birth of the child Jesus.
And so, when it established the Christmas Festival in the fourth century, Christianity brought its contribution towards the union of men all over the earth. A cherished and intimate experience was bound up with the Christmas Festival. And if we think of the way in which this Christmas Festival was celebrated through the centuries, we find evidence everywhere that at the time of the approach of Christmas, the souls of men within Christianity were filled with loving devotion for the Jesus Child. And this loving devotion is the revelation of something of outstanding significance through the centuries which followed.
We must really have an inner understanding of what it signified when the Christmas Festival was instituted on the 25th of December, that is to say, more or less at the time of the winter solstice. For actually as late as the year A.D. 353, in Rome itself, this festival was not celebrated on the 25th of December, neither was it a commemoration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The festival was celebrated on the 6th of January as a commemoration of the Baptism in the Jordan. It was a festival of remembrance associated with the Christ Being. And this festival of remembrance included the thought that through the Baptism in Jordan, the Christ, Who was a Being belonging to a world beyond the earth, had come down from the heavens and united himself with human nature in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
It was the celebration of a birth that was not an ordinary birth. The festival was a celebration of the descent of the Christ Being, whereby new and quickening forces poured into earthly existence. The day was dedicated to the revelation of the Christ, to remembrance of the Mystery that a heavenly force had united with the earth, and that through this intervention of the heavens the evolution of humanity had received a new impulse. This Mystery of the descent of a heavenly Being into earthly existence was still understood in the age of the Event of Golgotha itself, and for some time afterwards. For at that time fragments were still present of an ancient wisdom that had been capable of understanding a truth only to be known in super-sensible experience. The old instinctive knowledge, the ancient wisdom which was poured into human beings born on earth as a gift of the Gods—this wisdom was gradually lost. It faded away little by little as the centuries went by. But at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, enough wisdom was still left to give man some insight into the mighty Event that had come to pass.
And so in the early centuries of Christendom the Mystery of Golgotha was understood by the light of wisdom. But by the time of the fourth century after Christ, this wisdom had almost completely disappeared. Men's minds were occupied with what was being brought to them on all sides by the pagan peoples, and understanding of the deep mystery connected with the union of the Christ with the man Jesus was no longer possible. The possibility of understanding the real nature of the Mystery of Golgotha was lost to the human soul. And so it remained, on through the subsequent centuries. The ancient wisdom was lost to humanity—and necessarily so, because out of this wisdom man could never have attained his freedom, his condition of self-dependence. It was necessary for man to enter for a while into the darkness in order, out of this darkness, to develop, in freedom, the primal forces of his being. But a true Christian instinct substituted another quality in place of the wisdom which the world of Christendom had brought to the Mystery of Golgotha—a wisdom which illumined the discussions that were held on the nature of this Mystery. Something else was substituted for the quality of wisdom.
Modern Christianity has very little knowledge or understanding of the profundity of the discussions that were carried on among the wise Church Fathers in the first centuries of Christendom as to the manner in which the two natures—the Divine and the Human—had been united in the personality of Jesus of Nazareth. In the early Christian centuries this was a Mystery which addressed itself to a living wisdom—a wisdom which then faded away into empty abstraction. Very little has remained in Western Christianity of the holy zeal with which men tried to understand how the Divine and the Human had been united in the Mystery of Golgotha.
But the Christian impulse is mighty and powerful. And it was the power of love which came to replace the wisdom with which the Mystery of Golgotha was greeted at the time when its radiance shone over the earth. In marvellous abundance, love has been poured out through the centuries from the minds and hearts of men to the Jesus Child in the manger. And it is really wonderful to find how strongly this power of love is reflected in the Christmas Plays which have come down to us from earlier centuries of Christendom. If we let these things work upon us, we shall realise how deeply the Christmas Festival is a festival of remembrance. We shall realise too that, just as the peoples of the Old Testament strove in wisdom to be gathered to the Fathers, so the peoples of the New Testament have striven in devotion and love to gather together at Christmas around the sinless Child in the manger.
But who will deny that the love poured out to the wellspring of Christendom by so many hearts has little by little become more or less a habit? Who will deny that in our age the Christmas Festival has lost the living power it once possessed? The men of the Old Testament longed to return to their origin, to be gathered to their Fathers, to return to their ancestors. The Christian turns his mind and heart to human nature in its primal purity when he celebrates the Festival of the birth of Jesus. And it was out of this same Christian instinct—an instinct which caused man to associate the Christmas Festival with his earthly origin—that the day before Christmas, the 24th of December, was dedicated to Adam and Eve. The day of Adam and Eve preceded the day of the birth of Jesus. And so it was out of a deep instinct that the Tree of Paradise came to be associated as a symbol with the Christmas Festival.
We turn our eyes first to the manger in Bethelehem, to the Child lying there among the animals who stand round the blessed Mother. It is a heavenly symbol of the primal origin of humanity. Our feelings and minds are carried back to the earthly origin of the human being, to the Tree of Paradise, and with this Tree of Paradise there is associated the crib, just as in the Holy Legend the origin of man on earth is associated with the Mystery of Golgotha. The Holy Legend tells that the wood of the Tree of Paradise was handed down in a miraculous way from generation to generation until the age of the Mystery of Golgotha, and that the Cross erected on Golgotha, the place of the skull—the Cross on which Christ Jesus hung—was made of the very wood of the Tree of Paradise. In other words, the heavenly origin of man is associated with his earthly origin.
In another sense too, the fundamental conception of Christendom tended to obliterate understanding of these things. Nobody in our days can fail to realise that men have very little insight into the truth that the Godhead may be venerated as the Father Principle but that the Godhead can also be conceived as the Son. Humanity in general, as well as our so-called enlightened theology, has more or less lost sight of the difference in nature between the Father God and the Son God. And because this insight had been lost, we find the most modern school of orthodox theology proclaiming the view that in reality the Gospels treat of God the Father, not of God the Son, that Jesus of Nazareth is simply to be regarded as a great Teacher, the messenger of the Father God.
When people of to-day speak of Christ, they still associate with His flame certain memories of the Holy Story, but they have no clearly defined feeling of the difference in the nature of the Son God on the one hand and of the Father God on the other. But at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha was fulfilled in the realm of earthly existence, this feeling was still quite living. Over in Asia, in a place of no great importance to Rome at the time, the Christ had appeared in Jesus of Nazareth. According to the early Christians, Christ was that Divine Nature Who had ensouled a human being in a way that had never before occurred on the earth, nor would occur thereafter. And so this one Event of Golgotha, this one ensouling of a human being by a Divine Nature, by the Christ, imparts meaning and purpose to the whole of earthly evolution. All previous evolution is to be thought of as preparatory to this Event of Golgotha, and all subsequent evolution as the fulfilment, the consequence of the Mystery of Golgotha.
The scene of this Event lay over yonder in Asia, and on the throne of Rome sat Augustus Caesar. People of to-day no longer realise that Caesar Augustus on the throne of Rome was regarded as a Divine Incarnation. The Roman Caesars were actually regarded as Gods in human form.
And so we have two different conceptions of a God. The one God upon the throne of Rome and the other on Golgotha—the place of a skull. There could be no greater contrast!
Think of the figure of Caesar Augustus, who, according to his subjects and according to Roman decree, was a God incarnate in a man. He was thought to be a Divine Being who had descended to the earth; the Divine forces had united with the birth-forces, with the blood; the Divine power, having come down into earthly existence, was pulsing in and through the blood. Such was the universal conception, although it took different forms, of the dwelling of the Godhead on earth. The people thought of the Godhead as bound up with the forces of the blood. They said: Ex Deo nascimur.—Out of God we are born. And even on lower levels of existence they felt themselves related to what lived, as the crown of humanity, in a personality like Caesar Augustus.
All that was thus honoured and revered was a Divine Father Principle. For it was a Principle living in the blood that is part of a human being when he is born into the world. But in the Mystery of Golgotha the Divine Christ Being had united Himself with the man Jesus of Nazareth—united Himself not, in this case, with the blood, but with the highest forces of the human soul. A God had here united with a human being, in such a way that mankind was saved from falling victim to the earthly forces of matter. The Father God lives in the blood. The Son lives in the soul and spirit of man. The Father God leads man into material life: Ex Deo nascimur.—Out of God we are born. But God the Son leads man again out of material existence. The Father God leads man out of the super-sensible into the material. God the Son leads man out of the material into the super-sensible. In Christo morimur.—In Christ we die.
Two distinctly different feelings were there. The feeling and perception of God the Son was added to the feeling associated with God the Father. Certain impulses underlying the process of evolution caused the loss of the faculty to differentiate between the Father God and God the Son. And to this day these impulses have remained in mankind in general and in Christianity too. Men who were possessed of the ancient, primordial wisdom knew from their own inner experiences that they had come down from Divine-Spiritual worlds into physical and material life. Pre-existence was a certain and universally accepted fact. Men looked back through birth and through conception, up into the Divine-Spiritual worlds, whence the soul descends at birth into physical existence.
In our language we have only the word ‘Immortality.’ We have no expression for the other side of Eternity, because our language does not include the word ‘Unborn-ness.’ But if the conception of Eternity is to be complete, the word ‘Unborn-ness’ must be there as well as the word ‘Immortality.’ Indeed all that the word ‘Unborn-ness’ can mean to us is of greater significance than what is implied by the word ‘Immortality.’
It is true that the human being passes through the gate of death into a life in the spiritual world, but it is no less true that an exceedingly egotistical conception of this life in the spiritual world is presented to man to-day. Human beings live here on the earth. They long for Immortality, for they do not want to sink into nothingness at death. And so, in speaking of Immortality, all that is necessary is to appeal to the instincts of egotism.
If you listen carefully to sermons you will realise how many of them count upon the egotistical impulses in human beings when they want to convey an idea of Immortality to the soul. But when it comes to the conception of Unborn-ness it is not possible to rely upon such impulses. Human beings are not so egotistical in their desire for existence in the spiritual world before birth and conception as they are in their desire for a life after death in the spiritual-world. If a life hereafter is assured them, then they are satisfied. Why, they say, should we trouble about whence we have come? Out of their egotism men want to know about a Hereafter. But when once again they unfold a wisdom untinged with egotism, Unborn-ness will be as important to them as Immortality is important to-day.
In olden times men knew that they had lived in Divine-Spiritual worlds, had descended through birth into material existence. They felt that the forces around them in a purely spiritual environment were united with the blood, were living on in the blood. And from this insight there arose the conception: Out of God we are born. The God Who lives in the blood, the God whom the man of flesh represents here on earth—he is the Father God.
The other pole of life—namely, death—demands a different impulse of the life of soul. There must be something in the human being that is not exhausted with death. The conception corresponding to this is of that God Who leads over the earthly and physical to the super-sensible and superphysical. It is the God connected with the Mystery of Golgotha. The Divine Father Principle has always been associated, and rightly so, with the transition from the super-sensible to the material, and through the Divine Son the transition is brought about from the sensible and material to the super-sensible. And that is why the Resurrection thought is essentially bound up with the Mystery of Golgotha. The words of St. Paul that Christ is what He is for humanity because He is the Risen One—these words are an integral part of Christianity.
In the course of the centuries, understanding of the Risen One, of the Conqueror of Death, has gradually been lost and modern theology concerns itself wholly with the man Jesus of Nazareth. But Jesus of Nazareth, the man, cannot be placed at the same level as the Father Principle. Jesus of Nazareth might be regarded as the messenger of the Father but he could not, according to the arguments of early Christianity, be placed beside the Father God. Co-equal and co-existent are the Divine Father and the Divine Son: the Father Who brings about the transition from the super-sensible to the material—‘Out of God we are born’—and the Son Who brings about the transition from the material to the super-sensible—‘In Christ we die.’ And transcending both birth and death there is a third Principle proceeding from and co-equal both with the Divine Father and the Divine Son—namely, the Spirit—the Holy Spirit. Within the being of man, therefore, we are to see the transition from the super-sensible to the material and from the material to the super-sensible. And the Principle which knows neither birth nor death is the Spirit into which and through which we are awakened: ‘Through the Holy Spirit we shall be re-awakened.’
For many centuries Christmas was a festival of remembrance. How much of the substance of this festival has been lost is proved by the fact that all that is left of the Being Christ Jesus is the man Jesus of Nazareth. But for us to-day Christmas must become a call and a summons to something new. A new reality must be born. Christianity needs an impulse of renewal, for inasmuch as Christianity no longer understands the Christ Being in Jesus of Nazareth, it has lost its meaning and purpose. The meaning and essence of Christianity must be found again. Humanity must learn again to realise that the Mystery of Golgotha can be comprehended only in the light of super-sensible knowledge.
Another factor, too, contributes to this lack of understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. We can look with love to the Babe in the manger, but we have no wisdom-filled understanding of the union of the Christ Being with the man Jesus of Nazareth. Nor can we look up into the heavenly heights with the same intensity of feeling which was there in men who lived at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. In those days men looked up to the starry worlds and saw in the courses and constellations of the stars something like a countenance of the Divine soul and spirit of the cosmos. And in the Christ Being they could see the spiritual Principle of the universe visibly manifested in the glories of the starry worlds. But for modern man the starry worlds and all the worlds of cosmic space have become little more than a product of calculation—a cosmic mechanism.
The world has become empty of the Gods. Out of this world which is void of the Gods, the world that is investigated to-day by astronomy and physics, the Christ Being could never have descended. In the light of the primeval wisdom possessed by humanity, this world was altogether different. It was the body of the Divine World-Soul and of the Divine World-Spirit. And out of this spiritual cosmos the Christ came down to earth and united Himself with a human being in Jesus of Nazareth. This truth is expressed in history itself in a profound way. All over the earth before the Mystery of Golgotha there were Mysteries, holy sanctuaries that were schools of learning and at the same time schools for the cultivation of the religious life. In these Mysteries, indications were given of what must come to pass in the future. It was revealed in the Mysteries that man bears within his being a power that is the conqueror of death, and this victory over death was an actual experience of the Initiates in the Mysteries. In deep and profound experience the candidate for Initiation knew with sure conviction: Thou has awakened within thyself the power that conquers death. The Initiate experienced in a picture the process that would operate fully in times still to come, in accordance with the great plan of world-history. In the Mysteries of all peoples, this sacred truth was proclaimed: Man can be victorious over death. But it was also indicated that what could be presented in the Mysteries in pictures only would one day become an actual and single event in world-history. The Mystery of Golgotha was proclaimed in advance by the Pagan Mysteries of antiquity; it was the fulfilment of what had everywhere been heralded in the sanctuaries and holy places of the Mysteries.
When the candidate had been prepared in the Mysteries, when he had performed the difficult training which brought him to the point of Initiation, when he had made his soul so free of the body that the soul could be united with and perceive the spiritual worlds, when he was convinced by his own knowledge that life is always victorious over death in human nature—then he confronted the very deepest experience that was associated with these ancient Mysteries. And this deepest experience was that the obstacle presented by the earth, the obstacle of matter, must be removed if that which is at the same time both spiritual and material, is to become visible—namely, the sun. It was to a mysterious phenomenon—although it was a phenomenon well-known to every Initiate—that the candidate was led. He beheld the sun at the midnight hour, saw the sun through the earth, at the other side of the earth.
Instinctive feeling of the most holy and most sacred things have, after all, remained through the course of history. Many of these feelings and perceptions have weakened, but to those who are willing to look with unprejudiced eyes, the old meaning is still discernible. And so we can read some thing from the fact that at midnight leading from the 24th to the 25th of December, the midnight Mass is supposed to be said in every Christian Church. We can read something from this fact when we know that the Mass is nothing more nor less than a synthesis of the rites and rituals of the Mysteries which led to initiation, to the beholding of the sun at midnight. This institution of the midnight Mass at Christmas is an echo of the Initiation which enabled the candidate, at the midnight hour, to see the sun at the other side of the earth and therewith to behold the universe as a spiritual universe. And at the same time the Cosmic Word resounded through the cosmos—the Cosmic Word which from the courses and constellations of the stars sounded forth the mysteries of World Being.
Blood sets human beings at variance with one another. Blood fetters to the earthly and material that element in man which descends from heavenly heights. In our century, especially, men have gravely sinned against the essence of Christianity, inasmuch as they have turned again to the principle of blood. But they must find the way to the Being Who was Christ Jesus, Who does not address Himself to the blood but Who poured out his blood and gave it to the earth. Christ Jesus is the Being Who speaks to the soul and to the spirit, Who unites and does not separate—so that Peace may arise among men on earth out of their understanding of the Cosmic Word.
By a new understanding of the Christmas Festival, super-sensible knowledge can transform the material universe into spirit before the eye of the soul, transform it in such a way that the sun at midnight becomes visible and is known in its spiritual nature. Such knowledge brings understanding of the super-earthly Christ Being, the Sun Being Who was united with the man Jesus of Nazareth. It can bring understanding, too, of the unifying peace that should hover over the peoples of the earth. The Divine Beings are revealed in the heights, and through this revelation peace rings forth from the hearts of men who are of good will.
Such is the word of Christmas. Peace on earth flows into unison with the Divine Light that is streaming upon the earth. We need something more than the mere remembrance of the day of the birth of Jesus. We need to understand and realise that a new Christmas Festival must arise, that a new Festival of Birth must lead on from the present into the immediate future. A new Christ Impulse must be born and a new knowledge of the nature of Christ. We need a new understanding of the truth that the Divine-Spiritual heavens and the physical world of earth are linked to one another and that the Mystery of Golgotha is the most significant token of this union. We must understand once again why it is that at the midnight hour of Christmas a warning resounds to us, bidding us be mindful of the Divine-Spiritual origin of man and of the fact that the revelation of the heavens is inseparable from peace on earth.
The Holy Night must become a reality. It is not enough to give each other presents at Christmas in accordance with ancient custom and habit. The warm feelings which for centuries inspired Christian men at the Christmas Festival have been lost. We need a new Christmas, a new Holy Night, reminding us not only of the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth, but bringing a new birth, the birth of a new Christ Impulse. Out of full consciousness we must learn to understand that in the Mystery of Golgotha a super-sensible Power was made manifest, was revealed in the material earth. We must understand with full consciousness what resounded instinctively in the Mysteries of old. We must receive this impulse consciously. Again we must learn to understand that when the Holy Night of Christmas becomes a reality to man he can experience the wonderful midnight union between the revelation of the heavens and the peace of earth.
This is the meaning of the words which will now be given and which are dedicated to Christmas. They synthesize what I wanted to bring to your souls and hearts to-night. They try to express, out of consciousness of the anthroposophical understanding of Christ, how we can come again to the wisdom that once lived in men instinctively and remained to this extent, that at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha there were still some who knew how to celebrate the revelation of the Christ Being. We, in our day, must achieve understanding of the Christ as a Cosmic Being—a Cosmic Being Who united Himself with the earth. The time at which this understanding is accessible, to the greater part of men on earth, is the time of the cosmic Holy Night whose approach we await. If we understand these things, then we can make alive within us the feelings which I have tried to express in the following verse:
Behold the Sun
At the midnight hour;
Build with stones in the lifeless ground,
Thus in decay and in the night of Death
Find the Creation's new beginning,
Young morning's strength;
Glory in the heights the eternal Word of Gods;
Shelter in the depths the Powers of Peace.
In darkness dwelling, create a Sun.
In matter weaving, know the joy of Spirit!
Das Fest Der Erscheinung Christi III
[ 1 ] Das Fest der Weihenacht war durch Jahrhunderte für die ganze Christenheit ein Fest wichtigster Erinnerung. Und wenn wir dieses Fest der Weihenacht als ein Erinnerungsfest auffassen, dann müssen wir an alles das denken, was sich mit diesem Feste innerhalb der Gefühle, der Empfindungen der Menschheit durch Jahrhunderte verbunden hat. Wir gedenken, wie dieses Fest des 25. Dezembers bis ins 4. Jahrhundert herein innerhalb der christlichen Entwickelung nicht vorhanden war, und wie in diesem 4. Jahrhunderte, zum ersten Male im Jahre 354 in Rom, das Fest des Geburtstages Jesu gewissermaßen vor die christliche Menschheit hingestellt worden ist, um damals der Zeit einen bedeutungsvollen Tribut zu bringen. Denn daß ein solcher Tribut der Zeit in diesem 4. Jahrhundert gerade werden mußte, das liegt durchaus in den christlichen Instinkten der Menschheitsentwickelung.
[ 2 ] Heran brausten gegen die südeuropäische Entwickelung die nordischen Völker. Es lebte auch noch vieles von dem, was heidnischer Brauch war, im weiten Umkreise in den südlichen Gegenden Europas, in den römischen, in den griechischen Gegenden. Es lebte auch vieles von den heidnischen Bräuchen in Nordafrika, in Kleinasien, kurz an denjenigen Stätten, in die hinein allmählich der christliche Gedanke und die christlichen Empfindungen einzogen. Aber das Christentum war von jeher darauf angelegt, nicht eine sektiererische Strömung für diesen oder jenen Menschenkreis zu sein, sondern, wie sehr sich ihm auch verschiedene Dinge innerhalb wie außerhalb seines Bereiches entgegengestellt haben, das Christentum war von vorneherein darauf an- " gelegt, eine Seelen-, eine Herzensnahrung für alle Menschen zu werden.
[ 3 ] Innerhalb der heidnischen Kreise vom Norden und vom Süden lebte noch jenes religiöse Bewußtsein, welches die Göttergewalten mit den Sternen verband, die mächtigste Göttergewalt mit der Sonne. Und es lebte innerhalb dieser heidnischen Anschauung der Gedanke, daß, wenn die Erde zur Zeit der Wintersonnenwende ihre finstersten Tage hat, zugleich der Augenblick herangerückt ist, wo die Sonne ihre siegende Kraft für alle Erdenfruchtbarkeit wieder zu entwickeln beginnt. Diese Empfindung des Auf-sich-selbst-Angewiesenseins der Erde, der Abgeschlossenheit der Erde von den kosmisch-göttlichen Mächten, diese Empfindung gewissermaßen der Welteinsamkeit der Erde, sie wurde abgelöst in diesem Augenblicke der Wintersonnenwende von der Empfindung der Hoffnung: Ja, es kommen wieder die segensvollen Licht- und Liebewirkungen aus dem Sonnenbereich und wecken alles Fruchtbare der Erde neu auf.
[ 4 ] In innigem Zusammenhange mit einer solchen Empfindung stand für den Menschen die Auffassung seines eigenen Seelenwesens. Er fühlte sich gerade innerhalb der alten heidnischen Religionen mit der Erde innig verbunden. Er fühlte sich gewissermaßen als Glied der Erde; er fühlte das Erdenleben fortgesetzt in sein eigenes Leben hinein. Und so fühlte sich der Mensch, während die Erde im Sommer ihre bedeutsamsten Wärme- und Lichteinwirkungen aus dem Himmelsbereich der Sonne erhielt, wie hingegeben an jenen Bereich, aus dem die leuchtenden und wärmenden Sonnenstrahlen zur Erde herunterkommen. Und der Mensch fühlte sich während der Hochsommerzeit hingegeben an die Weltenweiten. Zur Zeit der Wintersonnenwende fühlte er sich innig verbunden mit der Erde, mit alldem, was die Erde aus der Zeit des wärmenden, des leuchtenden Sommers bewahrt hat. Gewissermaßen einsam im Weltenall fühlte sich zunächst der Mensch mit seiner Erde, und er fühlte tatsächlich das Wiederherabkommen des Göttlich-Geistigen in den Erdenbereich zu dieser Zeit der Wintersonnenwende.
[ 5 ] So hatte der Mensch das, was ihn in seinem Empfinden, in seinem ganzen Seelen- und Geistesleben am innigsten mit der Allheit des Kosmos zusammengebracht hatte, in den Gedanken dieses Festes hineingedrängt. Und weil die Christenheit auf ein Teuerstes stieß mit diesem Wintersonnenwendefest, konnte es nicht anders kommen, als daß die Christenheit selbst den Völkern, die ihr entgegentraten, ihr 'Teuerstes hingab an diesem Wintersonnenwendefest. Dieses Teuerste war ja im Sinne jener Wendung, die geschehen war zwischen dem Alten und dem Neuen Testament, dieses Wichtigste war für die Christenheit geworden die Erinnerung an die Geburt Jesu.
[ 6 ] Was bedeutete es für den Bekenner des Alten Testamentes, wenn er das ganze Mysterium des Menschenlebens und seinen Zusammenhang mit dem Menschentode dadurch aussprach, daß er sagte: Wenn die Seele durch die Todespforte geht, begibt sie sich auf den Weg, durch den sie mit den Vätern wiederum vereinigt wird. — Eine Sehnsucht nach dem Hingange zu den Vätern, das war eine teure Empfindung gemäß den Anschauungen des Alten Testamentes. Und im Laufe der vier ersten Jahrhunderte der Christenheit verwandelte sich dieses Hinblicken auf die Gemeinschaft der Väter in ein Hinblicken auf die Geburt derjenigen Wesenheit, welche die Christenheit zusammenhält. Es verwandelte sich die Empfindung des Alten Testamentes in den Hinblick nach Nazareth oder Bethlehem, in den Hinblick auf die Geburt des Jesuskindes.
[ 7 ] So hatte gewissermaßen das Christentum durch die Festsetzung des Weihnachtsfestes im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderte der Vereinigung der Menschen auf dem Erdenrunde seinen Tribut gebracht, hatte eine teuerste Empfindung mit dem Weihnachtsfeste verbunden. Und wenn wir weiter sehen, wie dieses Weihnachtsfest durch die Jahrhunderte gefeiert wird, so sehen wir überall, wie in der Zeit, da dieses Fest herannaht, eine wirkliche Durchdringung der Menschenseelen innerhalb der Christenheit mit liebender Hingabe an das Jesuskind verbunden wird. Wir sehen in dieser liebenden Hingabe etwas ganz Besonderes geoffenbart im Laufe der christlichen Jahrhunderte, die sich an das 4. nachchristliche anschlossen. Wir müssen wirklich mit innigem Verständnis hinblicken auf diese Festsetzung des Weihnachtsfestes auf den 25.Dezember, auf die. Wintersonnenwende ungefähr. Denn noch 353 wurde selbst in Rom das Christfest nicht am 25. Dezember begangen und nicht als ein Geburtstag des Jesus von Nazareth oder Bethlehem, sondern es war da üblich, das Fest des 6. Januars zu begehen. Dieses Fest sollte das Erinnerungsfest sein an die Johannestaufe im Jordan, das Fest der Erinnerung an den Christus. Und mit der Erinnerung verband man die Vorstellung, daß durch die Johannestaufe im Jordan aus außerirdischen Welten, aus Himmelswelten herein sich das außerirdische Christus-Wesen verbunden hatte mit dem menschlichen Wesen des Jesus von Nazareth.
[ 8 ] Diese nicht gewöhnliche Geburt, sondern dieses Heruntersteigen des Christus-Wesens zur Neubefruchtung des irdischen Daseins, das feierte man. Man wollte sich bewußt werden, an diesem Tage der Erscheinung Christi, des Geheimnisses, daß ein Himmlisches sich mit der Erde verbunden hatte, daß die Menschheit durch diesen himmlischen Einschlag einen neuen Entwickelungsimpuls erhalten hatte. Dieses Geheimnis des Herunterströmens eines überirdischen Himmlischen in das irdische Dasein wurde noch verstanden zur Zeit, als das Mysterium von Golgatha stattfand und einige Zeit nachher. Es waren in dieser Zeit noch Reste alter Urweisheit vorhanden, die sich bis zum Verstehen einer solchen nur im Übersinnlichen erkennbaren Tatsache erhoben. Die alte instinktive Erkenntnis, die Urweisheit, welche die Menschheit bei ihrer Entstehung auf der Erde wie ein Göttergeschenk mitbekommen hatte, diese Urweisheit ging allmählich der Menschheit verloren. Sie wurde immer geringer im Laufe der Jahrhunderte. Aber zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha war gerade noch soviel von ihr vorhanden, daß man das Gewaltige einsehen konnte, was mit diesem Mysterium von Golgatha geschah.
[ 9 ] So wurde denn das Mysterium von Golgatha in den ersten Jahrhunderten in Weisheit aufgefaßt. Diese Weisheit war fast vollständig verglommen im 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert. Man mußte auf anderes Rücksicht nehmen, auf das, was einem die Heiden von allen Seiten her entgegenbrachten, und man konnte für das tief Geheimnisvolle der Vereinigung des Christus mit dem Menschen Jesus kein Verständnis mehr gewinnen. Gewissermaßen verlor für den menschlichen Seelenblick das eigentliche Mysterium von Golgatha die Möglichkeit des Verständnisses. Und so blieb es für die folgenden Jahrhunderte. Die Urweisheit ging der Menschheit verloren. Sie mußte verlorengehen, weil aus dieser Urweisheit der Mensch sich niemals seine Freiheit, sein Auf-sich-selbst-Gestelltsein hätte erringen können. Der Mensch mußte gewissermaßen eine Weile in die Finsternis eintreten, um aus dieser Finsternis heraus sich die ureigenen Selbstkräfte in Freiheit zu erringen. Aber der christliche Instinkt hat an die Stelle der Weisheit, mit der das Mysterium von Golgatha innerhalb der christlichen Welt begrüßt worden ist, mit der über das Mysterium von Golgatha in einer gewissen Weise diskutiert worden ist, bis man es später nicht mehr verstand, der christliche Instinkt hat an die Stelle dieser Weisheit etwas anderes gesetzt.
[ 10 ] Die Christenheit von heute hat nur noch wenig Verständnis für jene tiefgründigen Diskussionen, die in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten unter den weisen Vätern der Christenheit stattgefunden haben: wie die zwei Naturen, die göttliche und die menschliche, in der Persönlichkeit des Jesus von Nazareth vereinigt waren. Das war etwas, was zu einer lebendigen Weisheit in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten sprach, was nachher in leere Abstraktionen übergegangen ist. Und von jenem heiligen Eifer, mit dem man verstehen wollte, wie das Göttliche und das Menschliche in dem Mysterium von Golgatha sich vereinigt haben, von jenem heiligen Eifer ist in der Christenheit des Abendlandes wenig übriggeblieben. Aber der christliche Impuls ist ein mächtiger, der christliche Impuls ist ein gewaltiger. Und so setzte sich denn an die Stelle der Weisheit, mit der das Mysterium von Golgatha begrüßt worden ist, als es über die Erde hinleuchtete, die Liebe. Und es ist wunderbar, welche Fülle von Liebe aufgebracht worden ist im Lauf der Jahrhunderte der christlichen Entwickelung im Hinblicke auf das Jesuskindlein, auf sein Liegen in der Krippe. Es ist wunderbar, wie diese Liebe nachwirkt in den Weihnachtsspielen, die in einer so herrlichen Weise zu uns heraufleuchten aus früheren christlichen Jahrhunderten.
[ 11 ] Wer das alles auf seine Seele wirken läßt, der begreift, wie stark das Weihnachtsfest ein Erinnerungsfest war. Wer das alles auf sich wirken läßt, begreift, daß ebenso wie die Menschen des Alten Testamentes in Weisheit versammelt sein wollten bei den Vätern, so die Menschen der früheren christlichen Jahrhunderte im irdischen Leben mit der Hingabe ihres Besten, mit der Hingabe ihrer Liebe an das unschuldige Kind versammelt sein wollten um dieKrippe zur Weihenacht. Wer aber könnte leugnen, daß diese Liebe, die aus so vielen Herzen zu dem Ursprung des Christentums hingeströmt ist, nach und nach bis in unsere Zeit herein mehr oder weniger eine Gewohnheit geworden ist! Wer möchte leugnen, daß wir in einer Zeit leben, in der das Weihnachtsfest nicht mehr jene Lebendigkeit hat, die es einstmals hatte! Aus der Liebe, die dem Weihnachtsfeste gewidmet war, ist selbst noch in der allerneuesten Zeit ein Wichtigstes heraus entstanden. Zu ihrem Ursprunge wollten die Menschen des Alten Testamentes zurückkehren, indem sie sagten, sie wollen mit ihren Vätern versammelt sein. Zu der ursprünglichen menschlichen Wesenheit will der Christ hinschauen, indem er zum Geburtsfeste des Jesus hinblickt. Aus diesem christlichen Instinkt heraus verband man mit dem Weihnachtsfeste der Menschen Ursprung auf der Erde, ließ man vorangehen in dem 24. Dezember den Adam- und Eva-Tag dem eigentlichen Geburtstag des Jesus. Und zuletzt, aus einem tiefen Instinkt heraus, verband sich als Symbolum der Paradiesesbaum mit dem Weihnachtsfeste.
[ 12 ] Wir sehen zunächst hin nach dem Stall in Bethlehem, nach dem Kinde, zwischen den Tieren, vor der gesegneten Mutter. Wir schauen hin nach diesem himmlischen Zeichen des Menschheitsursprunges. Und die Menschheit war genötigt, aus ihrem Empfinden heraus zugleich hinzuschauen nach dem Erdenursprung des Menschen, nach dem Paradiesesbaum, und verband die Krippe mit dem Paradiesesbaum, so wie schon die heilige Legende den Menschenursprung auf der Erde mit dem Mysterium auf Golgatha verbunden hat, jene Legende, die da besagt, daß das Holz des Paradiesesbaumes auf eine wunderbare Weise von Generation zu Generation sich herabvererbt hat bis in die Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha, und daß das Kreuz auf der Schädelstätte zu Golgatha, an welchem der Christus Jesus gehangen hat, aus demselben Holze war wie der Paradiesesbaum. So sehen wir, wie sich in der Legende zusammendrängt der himmlische Ursprung des Menschen mit dem irdischen Ursprung des Menschen.
[ 13 ] Aber all das hat in einem andern Sinne die eigentliche christliche Grundempfindung wiederum verwischt. Und wer kann sich der Einsicht verschließen, daß wir in der gegenwärtigen Menschheit wenig Empfindung dafür sehen, wie auf der einen Seite die Gottheit als ein Väterliches verehrt wird, wie aber daneben die Gottheit als das Prinzip des Sohnes angesehen werden kann? Die getrennte Empfindung gegenüber dem Vatergotte und dem Sohnesgotte ist der Menschheit mehr oder weniger verlorengegangen, verlorengegangen bis in die aufgeklärte moderne Theologie hinein. Und weil dieses getrennte Empfinden verlorengegangen ist, sehen wir bei angesehenen Theologen der neuesten Zeit die Ansicht vertreten, daß eigentlich der Sohn gar nicht in die Evangelien hineingehöre, sondern allein der Vater, und daß der Jesus von Nazareth nur der große Lehrer, der Verkünder des Vatergottes gewesen sei. Der heutige Mensch spricht vom Christus, und er hat noch einige Reminiszenzen von alledem, was sich mit der heiligen Geschichte des Christus verbindet; aber er hat keine deutliche und unterscheidende Empfindung mehr auf der einen Seite für den Sohnesgott und auf der andern Seite für den Vatergott.
[ 14 ] Als das Mysterium von Golgatha hereinschlug in die Erdenentwickelung, da war diese Empfindung wahrhaftig lebendig genug vorhanden. Drüben in Asien, an einer in der damaligen Zeit für Rom wenig beachteten Stätte, erstand in Jesus von Nazareth der Christus, nach der Anschauung der ersten Christen das göttliche Wesen, das einen Menschen durchseelt hat in einer Weise, wie es vorher auf der Erde nicht geschehen war, nachher auf der Erde nicht wieder geschehen sollte. So daß dieses eine Ereignis von Golgatha, diese eine Beseelung eines Menschen mit einem göttlichen Wesen, mit dem Christus, erst der ganzen Erdenentwickelung einen Sinn gibt, und daß vorgestellt werden muß, daß alle vorangehende Erdenentwickelung die Erwartung auf dieses Ereignis von Golgatha ist, alles Folgende die Erfüllung dessen, was aus dem Mysterium von Golgatha folgen muß.
[ 15 ] Das spielte sich drüben in Asien ab. Und in Rom saß der Cäsar Augustus. Die moderne Menschheit macht sich das nicht mehr klar, was auf dem römischen Throne der Cäsar Augustus bedeutete: er saß da als die verkörperte Gottheit. Der römische Cäsar war selber ein Gott in Menschengestalt. Ein anders aufgefaßter Gott auf dem römischen Throne, ein anders aufgefaßter Gott drüben auf der Schädelstätte von Golgatha — ein gewaltiger Gegensatz! Welcher Gegensatz? Sehen wir uns den Cäsar Augustus an, diesen im Menschen verkörperten Gott nach der Anschauung seiner Anhänger, nach dem Gebote des römischen Staates. Er ist heruntergestiegen als göttliches Wesen auf die Erde. Die göttlichen Kräfte haben sich verbunden mit den Geburtskräften, mit dem Blute, und im Blute lebt, wallt und wogt die göttliche Kraft, die heruntergestiegen ist in das Irdische. So ungefähr wurde über den ganzen Erdkreis hin das Wohnen des Göttlichen auf der Erde vorgestellt, wenn auch in verschiedenen Formen. Nur bei dem jüdischen Volke war es nicht so, da es seinen Gott als im Jenseits bleibend empfunden hat. Die andern empfanden allüberall den mit den Blutskräften verbundenen Gott. Sie empfanden den Gott so, daß sie dieses Göttliche aussprechen konnten mit den Worten: Ex deo nascimur. Der Mensch fühlte sich allerdings verwandt, auch wenn er im Niedrigen lebte, mit dem, was auf den Spitzen der Menschheit in einer solchen Persönlichkeit lebte, wie in dem Cäsar Augustus. Aber alles das, was da verehrt wurde, war ein väterlich-göttliches Prinzip, denn es lebte im Blute, das dem Menschen mit seiner Geburt in die Welt hinein gegeben wird.
[ 16 ] Im Mysterium von Golgatha vereinigt sich mit dem Menschen Jesus von Nazareth das göttliche Christus-Wesen, jetzt aber nicht mit dem Blute, jetzt mit den besten, nach dem Höchsten strebenden Kräften der menschlichen Seele. Jetzt vereinigt sich ein Gott mit einem Menschen so, daß die Menschheit dem Verfallen in die bloßen irdisch-materiellen Mächte entrissen wird.
[ 17 ] Im Blute lebt der Vatergott. Der Sohnesgott lebt im Seelisch-Geistigen des Menschen. Der Vatergott führt den Menschen ein in das materielle Leben: Ex deo nascimur. Der Sohnesgott führt den Menschen wiederum heraus aus dem materiellen Leben. Der Vatergott führt aus Übersinnlichem den Menschen in das Sinnliche ein, der Sohnesgott aus dem Sinnlichen wiederum in das Übersinnliche: In Christo morimur. — Es waren zwei stark voneinander differenzierte Empfindungen da. Es war hinzugefügt die Empfindung für den Sohnesgott zu der Empfindung für den Vatergott. Allerdings, für die Menschheitsentwickelung war aus noch andern Untergründen heraus verlorengegangen diese Unterscheidung des Vatergottes von dem Sohnesgotte. Und diese Untergründe sind bis zum heutigen Tage mit der Menschheit, auch mit der Christenheit, verbunden geblieben. Wenn wir hinblicken zu der menschlichen Urweisheit, so sehen wir überall, wie die Menschen, insofern sie eingeführt werden in das, was diese Urweisheit bietet, überzeugt sind davon, daß sie heruntergestiegen sind aus göttlich-geistigen Höhen in die physisch-sinnliche Welt. Das präexistente Leben schien dem Menschen gesichert. Die Menschen blickten durch die Geburt beziehungsweise durch die Empfängnis hinauf in die göttlich-geistigen Welten, aus denen die Seele heruntersteigt, indem sie durch die Geburt ins physisch-sinnliche Dasein tritt.
[ 18 ] Wir haben in unserer Sprache allein das Wort «Unsterblichkeit». Wir haben in unserer Sprache verloren ein Wort für die andere Seite der Ewigkeit. Wir haben in unseren Sprachen nicht das Wort «Ungeborenheit». Wenn aber die Ewigkeit eine vollständige ist, dann muß das Wort Ungeborenheit so da sein, wie das Wort Unsterblichkeit. Ja, es ist noch bedeutungsvoller für den Menschen das, was in dem Worte Ungeborenheit liegen kann, als was in dem Worte Unsterblichkeit liegen kann. So wahr es ist, daß der Mensch durch des Todes Pforte geht in ein Leben in der geistigen Welt, so wahr ist es aber auch, daß heute dieses Leben in der geistigen Welt nach dem Tode den Menschen vielfach in einer außerordentlich egoistischen Weise verkündigt wird. Die Menschen leben hier auf der Erde. Sie sehnen sich nach der Unsterblichkeit. Sie wollen nicht mit dem Tode ins Nichts versinken. Und so braucht man nur an die egoistischen Instinkte der Menschen zu rühren, indem man ihnen von der Unsterblichkeit spricht.
[ 19 ] Hören Sie einmal aufmerksam darauf hin, wie in unzähligen Kanzelreden auf die egoistischen Triebe der Menschen spekuliert wird, um die Unsterblichkeit vor die menschliche Seele hinzutragen. Man kann nicht so auf die egoistischen Triebe der Menschen spekulieren, wenn man von der Ungeborenheit spricht. Denn es verlangen die Menschen nicht so egoistisch, vor ihrer Geburt, vor ihrer Empfängnis in der geistigen Welt gewesen zu sein, wie sie verlangen, nach dem Tode in der geistigen Welt zu sein. Sie sind da, damit sind sie zufrieden. Warum sollten sie sich kümmern, von wannen sie gekommen sind? Aus ihrem Egoismus heraus kümmern sie sich darum, wohin sie gehen. Wenn wir wiederum zu einer unegoistischen Weisheit kommen, dann wird die Ungeborenheit dem Menschen so wichtig werden, wie die Unsterblichkeit dem Menschen heute wichtig ist.
[ 20 ] Aber es ist eben in alten Zeiten die Verbindung zwischen der einen und andern Anschauung hergestellt worden. Da lebte man in göttlichgeistigen Welten, da stieg man durch die Geburt herunter, verband dasjenige, was man in göttlich-geistigen Welten in einer rein geistigen Umgebung hatte, mit dem Menschenblute, und lebte dieses weiter dar im Menschenblute. Es ist daraus die Vorstellung geworden: Ex deo nascimur. Der Gott, der im Blute lebt, der Gott, den der Mensch im Fleische hier darstellt, das ist der väterliche Gott.
[ 21 ] Der andere Pol des Lebens, der Tod, fordert einen andern Impuls aus dem Seelenleben heraus. Es muß im Menschen etwas sein, das sich nicht erschöpft mit dem Tode. Ihm entspricht allein eine Vorstellung vom Göttlichen, durch die das Irdisch-Physische übergeht in das Übersinnlich-Überphysische. Das aber ist im Mysterium von Golgatha enthalten. Das göttliche Vaterprinzip war stets der Übergang von dem Übersinnlichen zu dem Sinnlichen, das göttliche Sohnesprinzip der Übergang von dem Sinnlichen ins Übersinnliche: daher die Auferstehungsidee notwendig verbunden ist mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Und es gehört einmal zu dem Christentum das Paulinische Wort, daß der Christus für die Menschheit nur dadurch das geworden ist, was er geworden ist, daß er der Auferstandene ist.
[ 22 ] Durch die Jahrhunderte hindurch hat man immer mehr und mehr das Verständnis für den Auferstandenen, für den 'Todesbesieger verloren, und die aufgeklärte "Theologie der neueren Zeit hat sich allein an den Menschen Jesus von Nazareth gehalten. Dieser Mensch Jesus von Nazareth kann nicht das Zweite sein neben dem Vaterprinzip. Er könnte den Vater verkündigen, aber er könnte sich nicht im Sinne der Diskussionen der ersten Christenheit neben den Vater hinstellen. Aber gleichwertig stehen nebeneinander der göttliche Vater, der den Übergang bewirkt aus dem Übersinnlichen in dasSinnliche: Ex deo nascimur, und der göttliche Sohn, der den Übergang bewirkt von dem Sinnlichen ins Übersinnliche: In Christo morimur. —- Und erhaben über beides, über das Geborenwerden und Sterben, ist ein drittes Prinzip, das ausgeht von beiden, was gleichwertig wiederum zusammenhängt mit beiden, mit dem göttlichen Vater und dem göttlichen Sohne; der Geist, der Heilige Geist. So daß im Menschen zu erkennen ist der Übergang aus dem Übersinnlichen in das Sinnliche: Ex deo nascimur, der Übergang aus dem Sinnlichen ins Übersinnliche: In Christo morimur, und die Vereinigung von beiden, die Verbindung mit dem, worin weder Geburt noch Tod mehr eine Wesenheit haben, die Auferweckung durch den Geist: Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.
[ 23 ] Das Weihnachtsfest war durch Jahrhunderte hindurch ein Fest der Erinnerung. Wieviel verlorengegangen ist von dieser Erinnerung, das zeigt sich dadurch, daß von dem Christus Jesus gerade für die aufgeklärte Theologie nur der Jesus von Nazareth geblieben ist. Das weist uns aber auch für den heutigen Tag darauf hin, daß das Weihnachtsfest für uns aus einem bloßen Feste der Erinnerung ein Fest der Aufforderung für ein Neues werden muß. Geboren werden muß ein neues Wesen. Die Christenheit bedarf einer Erneuerung, denn sie hat damit, daß sie das volle Verständnis verloren hat für den Christus im Jesus von Nazareth, eigentlich ihren Sinn verloren. Dieser Sinn aber muß wieder gefunden werden. Erkennen muß die Menschheit wiederum, wie durch übersinnliches Verständnis allein das Mysterium von Golgatha begriffen werden kann.
[ 24 ] Es ist ein anderes aber noch hinzugetreten zu diesem Nichtverstehen des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Mit Liebe können wir hinblicken zur Krippe, aber nicht mehr mit vollem, weisheitserfülltem Verständnisse zu der Vereinigung des Christus mit dem Menschen Jesus von Nazareth. Aber auch hinaufblicken können wir nicht mehr in die Himmelshöhen mit demselben Gefühl, mit dem noch jene Zeiten hinaufgeblickt haben, in welche das Mysterium von Golgatha hereinfiel. Da hat man hinaufgesehen zu den Sternenwelten, da sah man in den Sternenbahnen, in den Sternkonstellationen etwas wie den physiognomischen Ausdruck für das göttliche Seelen- und Geisteswalten des Kosmos. Man sah in der Sonne etwas wie das Herz dieses göttlich-geistigen, kosmischen Waltens. Da konnte man in dem Christus sehen das Geistige für dieses Äußerlich-Sinnliche, das man in der herrlichen Sternenwelt sah. Für den neueren Menschen ist die Sternenwelt, ist alles das, was man in Raumesweiten draußen sieht, mehr oder weniger das Ergebnis eines Rechenezempels geworden, ein Weltmechanismus. Die Welt ist götterleer, gottesleer geworden. Aus dieser gottesleeren Welt, die wir heute durch unsere Astronomie und Astrophysik untersuchen, konnte gewiß der Christus nicht heruntersteigen. Aber für die menschliche Urweisheit war diese Welt etwas anderes. Diese Welt war der Körper des göttlichen Weltengeistes und der göttlichen Weltenseele. Und aus diesem vergeistigten Kosmos konnte der Christus auf die Erde heruntersteigen und sich mit einem Menschen im Jesus von Nazareth vereinigen.
[ 25 ] In tiefer Weise kommt das in der Menschheitsentwickelung selber zum Ausdrucke. Durch alle alten Zeiten vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha hat es über die Erde hin Mysterien gegeben, heilige Stätten, die auch die höchsten Schulen waren, Schulen, in denen zu gleicher Zeit das religiöse Leben gepflegt wurde. In diesen Mysterien wurde überall hingewiesen auf das, was da kommen soll. Es wurde überall gezeigt, wie der Mensch in sich eine Kraft trägt, die Sieger ist über den Tod. Dieses Siegen über den Tod wurde in mächtigen Erlebnissen von den Eingeweihten in den Mysterien durchgemacht. Wer ein Eingeweihter werden wollte, mußte in sich jenes tiefe Erlebnis entwickeln, das ihm die erlebte Überzeugung beibrachte: Ja, du hast in dir erweckt das, was Sieger ist über den Tod. — Im Bilde erlebte der in den Mysterien Eingeweihte, was sich erst in der Zukunft wirklich vollziehen sollte vor dem ganzen Plan der Weltengeschichte. Allüberall bei den Völkern wurde in den Mysterien drinnen verkündet das heilige Geheimnis: der Mensch kann den Tod besiegen. Aber es wurde zugleich darauf hingewiesen, daß alles das, was in den Mysterien nur in Bildern dargestellt werden konnte, einmal vor der Weltgeschichte als ein einmaliges Ereignis dastehen werde. Das Mysterium von Golgatha wurde vorherverkündet auch durch die heidnischen Mysterien des Altertums. Es war die Erfüllung dessen, was gerade in den heiligen Stätten überall vorherverkündet worden ist.
[ 26 ] Wenn der Einzuweihende zuerst die Vorbereitungen in den Mysterien und dann jene schwereren Übungen durchgemacht hatte, durch die man in den alten Zeiten zur Einweihung kam, wenn er seine Seele so losbekommen hatte vom Leibe, daß diese Seele in ihrer Losgelöstheit sich vereinigen konnte mit den geistigen Welten und in den geistigen Welten wahrnehmen konnte, um zu der eigenen Überzeugung zu gelangen, daß das Leben immerdar über den Tod siege innerhalb der menschlichen Natur -—, wenn der Eingeweihte dahin gekommen war, dann wurde er der tiefsten Erfahrung entgegengeführt, die durch diese Mysterien des Altertums gesucht wurde. Und diese tiefste Erfahrung bestand darin, daß vor dem geistigen Blicke des Menschen das Erdenhindernis, das materielle Hindernis hinweggenommen war, wenn dasjenige geschaut sein sollte, was zu gleicher Zeit geistig und materiell ist: die Sonne. Und vor jene geheimnisvolle, aber jedem Eingeweihten wohlbekannte Erscheinung wurde der zu Initiierende geführt, daß er in der Mitternachtsstunde durch die Erde hindurch die Sonne sah — auf der andern Seite der Erde.
[ 27 ] Instinktive Empfindungen von dem Heiligsten und dem Höchsten sind dem Menschen doch durch die geschichtliche Entwickelung geblieben. Manche sind abgeschwächt worden im Laufe der Zeiten, aber für denjenigen, der unbefangen sein will, ist der alte Sinn noch vernehmbar. Und so lesen wir heute heraus aus der Tatsache, daß in der Weihenacht vom 24. auf den 25. Dezember um Mitternacht in jeder christlichen Kirche die Mitternachtsmesse gelesen werden soll — und die Messe ist ja nichts anderes, als in einer gewissen Weise zusammengefaßt die Mysterienriten, die zu dem Schauen der Sonne um Mitternacht führten --, wir lesen aus dieser Festsetzung der Mitternachtsweihemesse den Nachklang jener alten Einweihung heraus, die den Einzuweihenden um die Mitternachtsstunde die Sonne auf der abgewandten Seite der Erde schauen ließ, die ihn befähigte, damit das Weltenall als Geistiges wahrzunehmen, und zu gleicher Zeit, klingend durch den Kosmos, das Weltenwort zu vernehmen, das aus den Sternenbahnen heraus, aus den Konstellationen der Sterne aussprach das Weltenwesen.
[ 28 ] Das Blut entzweit die Menschen. Das Blut bindet das, was aus Himmelshöhen als Menschliches herabsteigt, an das Materiell-Irdische. Die Menschen haben, insbesondere in unserem Jahrhundert, gar sehr gesündigt gegen das christliche Prinzip, indem sie sich wiederum dem Prinzip des Blutes zugewandt haben. Aber sie müssen zurückfinden den Weg zu dem Christus Jesus, der nicht zum Blute spricht, der sein Blut vergossen hat und es mit der Erde verbunden hat, der aber zur Seele und zum Geiste spricht und alle Menschen vereint und nicht trennt. So daß in dem mit seiner Hilfe errungenen Verständnisse des: Weltenwortes «Friede unter den Menschen» auf der Erde einzieht.
[ 29 ] Daher kann auch für ein neues Verständnis des Weihnachtsfestes wieder eintreten, daß sich durch übersinnliche Erkenntnis das materielle Weltenall vor dem Seelenblicke in Geist verwandelt. Es kann die Sonne um Mitternacht wiederum sichtbar werden, das heißt, in ihrer Geistigkeit erkannt werden. Es kann damit ein Verständnis errungen werden für das überirdische Christus-Wesen, das Sonnenwesen, das sich mit dem Menschen Jesus von Nazareth verbunden hat. Und es kann damit auch wiederum ein Verständnis errungen werden für das, was über die Völker des Erdenkreises leben soll in der wirklich sie einenden friedlichen Gesinnung: «Es offenbaren sich die Wesenheiten des Gottes in den Höhen, und Friede erklingt durch diese Offenbarungen aus den Menschenherzen, die eines guten Willens sind.»
[ 30 ] Das ist der Weihnachtsspruch, das Zusammenklingen des Erdenfriedens mit dem göttlichen Lichte, das auf die Erde strahlt. Wir brauchen nicht nur die Erinnerung an den Geburtstag Jesu. Wir brauchen Verständnis für die Auffassung, daß ein neues Weihnachtsfest kommen muß, daß etwas geboren werden muß, daß ein Geburtsfest eintreten muß von der Gegenwart aus in die nächste Zukunft hinein, daß ein neuer Christus-Impuls geboren werden muß, daß der Christus wieder erkannt werden muß durch diesen neuen Christus-Impuls. Wir brauchen wiederum ein Verständnis dafür, daß die göttlich-geistigen Himmelswelten und die physisch-sinnliche Erdenwelt aneinander gebunden sind und daß das Mysterium von Golgatha der bedeutsamste Ausdruck für diese Zusammenbindung ist.
[ 31 ] Wir müssen wieder verstehen, warum in der Weihenacht in der Mitternachtsstunde gewissermaßen die Mahnung an uns erklingt, an den göttlich-geistigen Ursprung der Menschen zu denken, warum zu dieser Zeit die Mahnung an uns erklingt, die Himmelsoffenbarung mit dem Erdenfrieden verbunden zu denken. Das können wir nur, wenn wir die Weltenweihenacht zu unserer Überzeugung machen, wenn wir uns nicht in alter, gewohnheitsmäßiger Weise damit beruhigen, daß wir uns an dem Weihnachtsfeste beschenken, weil das einmal so üblich geworden ist, nachdem jene warmen Empfindungen, die Jahrhunderte hindurch die Christenheit beseelt haben, verlorengegangen sind. Aber eine neue Weihenacht brauchen wir, die Weihenacht, die nicht nur an die stattgehabte Geburt des Jesus von Nazareth erinnert, sondern eine neue Geburt bringt: die Geburt eines neuen Christus-Impulses.
[ 32 ] Aus vollem Bewußtsein heraus müssen wir wiederum verstehen lernen, wie in dem Mysterium von Golgatha ein Übersinnliches sich ausspricht, um indem Sinnlichen der Erde zur Offenbarung zu kommen, Wir müssen mit vollem Bewußtsein das, was in den alten Mysterien geklungen hat, wieder verstehen. Da hat es instinktiv geklungen; mit vollem Bewußtsein wollen wir es aufnehmen. Wiederum wollen wir verstehen lernen, wie der Mensch die mitternächtige Sonne wahrnehmen kann, wie der Mensch den wunderbaren mitternächtigen Sphärenharmonie-Zusammenklang der Himmelsoffenbarung und des Erdenfriedens empfinden kann, wenn die Weihenacht für ihn etwas Wirkliches wird.
[ 33 ] In diesem Sinne sind die Worte niedergeschrieben, welche gerade aus diesen Untergründen heraus der Weihenacht gewidmet sein sollen. Sie fassen zusammen, was ich in dieser Stunde an Ihre Seelen, an Ihre Herzen habe heranbringen wollen. Sie wollen aus dem Bewußtsein anthroposophischen Christus-Verständnisses heraus sagen, wie wir wieder kommen können zu dem, was menschliche Urweisheit, aber instinktiv, einstmals war, was in den Resten noch so weit vorhanden war zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha, daß man die Erscheinung Christi feiern konnte.
[ 34 ] Wir wollen aber dieses Verständnis des Christus als eines kosmischen Wesens, das sich mit der Erde verbunden hat, wieder erringen. Die Zeit, in der dies für einen großen Teil der Menschen auf Erden wieder errungen wird, das ist die Zeit der Weltenweihenacht, die wir heranersehnen möchten. Dann werden lebendig in uns werden Empfindungen, die ich gern mit folgenden Worten ausgesprochen haben wollte:
Die Sonne schaue
Um mitternächtige Stunde
Mit Steinen baue
Im leblosen GrundeSo finde im Niedergang
Und in des Todes Nacht
Der Schöpfung neuen Anfang
Des Morgens junge MachtDie Höhen laß offenbaren
Der Götter ewiges Wort
Die Tiefen sollen bewahren
Den friedevollen HortIm Dunkel lebend
Erschaffe eine Sonne
Im Stoffe webend
Erkenne Geistes Wonne.
The Feast of the Epiphany III
[ 1 ] For centuries, Christmas was a festival of great importance for all of Christendom. And if we regard Christmas as a festival of remembrance, then we must think of everything that has been associated with this festival in the feelings and emotions of mankind throughout the centuries. We remember how this festival of December 25 did not exist in Christian development until the 4th century, and how in that 4th century, for the first time in Rome in 354, the festival of Jesus' birthday was, in a sense, presented to Christian humanity in order to pay a meaningful tribute to the times. For it was entirely in keeping with the Christian instincts of human development that such a tribute to the times should have been made in this 4th century.
[ 2 ] The Nordic peoples were rushing toward the southern European development. Much of what was pagan custom still lived on in the wide circle of the southern regions of Europe, in the Roman and Greek regions. Much of the pagan customs also lived on in North Africa, in Asia Minor, in short, in those places where Christian thought and Christian feelings were gradually entering. But Christianity had always been designed not to be a sectarian movement for this or that group of people, but, no matter how much various things within and outside its sphere opposed it, Christianity was from the outset designed to become food for the soul and heart of all people.
[ 3 ] Within the pagan circles of the north and south, there still lived that religious consciousness which connected the powers of the gods with the stars, the most powerful divine power with the sun. And within this pagan view lived the idea that when the earth experiences its darkest days at the time of the winter solstice, the moment is approaching when the sun begins to develop its victorious power for all earthly fertility once again. This feeling of the earth's dependence on itself, of its isolation from the cosmic-divine powers, this feeling of the earth's world-loneliness, so to speak, was replaced at the moment of the winter solstice by a feeling of hope: Yes, the beneficial effects of light and love will come again from the sun and awaken all that is fertile on earth.
[ 4 ] Closely connected with this feeling was the human being's conception of his own soul nature. Especially within the old pagan religions, he felt intimately connected with the earth. He felt himself, as it were, a member of the earth; he felt earthly life continuing into his own life. And so, while the earth received its most significant warmth and light from the sun in the summer, humans felt devoted to that realm from which the sun's rays of light and warmth descended to the earth. And during the height of summer, humans felt devoted to the worlds beyond. At the time of the winter solstice, they felt intimately connected with the earth, with everything that the earth had preserved from the warm, luminous summer. At first, human beings felt somewhat lonely in the universe with their earth, and they actually felt the return of the divine spirit to the earth at this time of the winter solstice.
[ 5 ] Thus, human beings had pressed into the thoughts of this festival that which had most intimately connected them with the wholeness of the cosmos in their feelings and in their entire soul and spiritual life. And because Christianity encountered something most precious in this winter solstice festival, it could not be otherwise than that Christianity itself gave its most precious gift to the peoples who opposed it at this winter solstice festival. This most precious thing was, in the sense of the turning point that had taken place between the Old and New Testaments, the memory of the birth of Jesus, which had become the most important thing for Christianity.
[ 6 ] What did it mean for the believer in the Old Testament when he expressed the whole mystery of human life and its connection with human death by saying: When the soul passes through the gate of death, it sets out on the path by which it will be reunited with its fathers. A longing to go to the fathers was a precious sentiment according to the views of the Old Testament. And in the course of the first four centuries of Christianity, this looking back to the community of the fathers was transformed into a looking forward to the birth of the being who holds Christianity together. The feeling of the Old Testament was transformed into a looking toward Nazareth or Bethlehem, into a looking toward the birth of the child Jesus.
[ 7 ] Thus, in a sense, Christianity, by establishing Christmas in the 4th century AD, paid tribute to the union of human beings on earth and associated a most precious feeling with the Christmas festival. And when we look further at how Christmas has been celebrated throughout the centuries, we see everywhere how, as this festival approaches, a real penetration of the souls of people within Christianity is connected with loving devotion to the baby Jesus. We see in this loving devotion something very special revealed in the course of the Christian centuries that followed the fourth century AD. We must truly look with deep understanding at the establishment of Christmas on December 25, around the winter solstice. For even in Rome, in 353, Christmas was not celebrated on December 25 and was not considered the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth or Bethlehem, but it was customary to celebrate the feast on January 6. This festival was intended to be a commemoration of John's baptism in the Jordan, the festival of remembrance of Christ. And this remembrance was associated with the idea that through John's baptism in the Jordan, the extraterrestrial Christ being had connected itself with the human being Jesus of Nazareth from extraterrestrial worlds, from heavenly worlds.
[ 8 ] It was not an ordinary birth that was celebrated, but the descent of the Christ being to renew earthly existence. On this day of Christ's appearance, people wanted to become conscious of the mystery that something heavenly had connected itself with the earth, that humanity had received a new impulse for development through this heavenly impact. This mystery of the descent of a super-earthly heavenly being into earthly existence was still understood at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place and for some time afterwards. At that time, remnants of ancient primordial wisdom still existed, which rose to the level of understanding such a fact, which can only be recognized in the supersensible realm. The ancient instinctive knowledge, the primordial wisdom that humanity had received as a gift from the gods when it first came into being on Earth, gradually became lost to humanity. It diminished more and more over the centuries. But at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, just enough of it remained for people to be able to comprehend the tremendous significance of what happened there.
[ 9 ] Thus, in the first centuries, the mystery of Golgotha was understood in wisdom. This wisdom had almost completely faded by the fourth century AD. People had to take other things into consideration, such as what the pagans were bringing against them from all sides, and they could no longer gain any understanding of the deeply mysterious union of Christ with the human being Jesus. In a sense, the actual mystery of Golgotha lost its possibility of understanding for the human soul. And so it remained for the following centuries. The original wisdom was lost to humanity. It had to be lost because humanity could never have achieved its freedom, its self-reliance, from this original wisdom. Humanity had to enter into darkness for a time, so to speak, in order to gain its own self-strength in freedom out of this darkness. But the Christian instinct has replaced the wisdom with which the mystery of Golgotha was welcomed within the Christian world, with which the mystery of Golgotha was discussed in a certain way until it was no longer understood. The Christian instinct has replaced this wisdom with something else.
[ 10 ] Christianity today has little understanding of the profound discussions that took place among the wise fathers of Christianity in the first centuries, such as how the two natures, the divine and the human, were united in the personality of Jesus of Nazareth. This was something that spoke to a living wisdom in the first Christian centuries, but which later turned into empty abstractions. And little remains in Western Christianity of that holy zeal with which people wanted to understand how the divine and the human were united in the mystery of Golgotha. But the Christian impulse is a powerful one, the Christian impulse is a mighty one. And so, in place of the wisdom with which the mystery of Golgotha was greeted when it shone forth upon the earth, love took its place. And it is wonderful what abundance of love has been brought forth over the centuries of Christian development in view of the baby Jesus, lying in the manger. It is wonderful how this love continues to have an effect in the Christmas plays that shine down on us in such a wonderful way from earlier Christian centuries.
[ 11 ] Those who allow all this to sink into their souls understand how strongly Christmas was a festival of remembrance. Anyone who allows all this to sink in understands that just as the people of the Old Testament wanted to gather in wisdom with their fathers, so the people of the early Christian centuries wanted to gather in their earthly lives with the devotion of their best, with the devotion of their love for the innocent child around the manger at Christmas. But who could deny that this love, which flowed from so many hearts to the origin of Christianity, has gradually become more or less a habit in our time! Who would deny that we live in a time when Christmas no longer has the liveliness it once had! Even in the most recent times, something very important has emerged from the love that was dedicated to Christmas. The people of the Old Testament wanted to return to its origins by saying that they wanted to be gathered together with their fathers. Christians want to look back to the original human nature by looking forward to the birth of Jesus. Out of this Christian instinct, the origin of mankind on earth was connected with Christmas, and December 24, the day of Adam and Eve, was placed before the actual birthday of Jesus. And finally, out of a deep instinct, the tree of paradise became a symbol of Christmas.
[ 12 ] We first look to the stable in Bethlehem, to the child among the animals, before his blessed mother. We look at this heavenly sign of the origin of humanity. And humanity was compelled by its feelings to look at the same time at the earthly origin of man, at the tree of paradise, and connected the manger with the tree of paradise, just as the holy legend had already connected the origin of man on earth with the mystery of Golgotha, the legend that says that the wood of the tree of paradise was miraculously passed down from generation to generation until the time of the mystery of Golgotha, and that the cross on the place of the skull at Golgotha, on which Christ Jesus hung, was made of the same wood as the tree of paradise. Thus we see how the heavenly origin of man is condensed in the legend with the earthly origin of man.
[ 13 ] But all this has, in another sense, blurred the actual Christian fundamental feeling. And who can deny that in the present state of humanity we see little sense of how, on the one hand, the Godhead is revered as a father, but on the other hand, the Godhead can be regarded as the principle of the Son? The separate feeling toward the Father God and the Son God has been more or less lost to humanity, lost even in enlightened modern theology. And because this separate feeling has been lost, we see respected theologians of the latest times holding the view that the Son does not really belong in the Gospels at all, but only the Father, and that Jesus of Nazareth was only the great teacher, the proclaimer of the Father God. People today speak of Christ, and they still have some remnants of everything connected with the sacred history of Christ; but they no longer have a clear and distinct sense of the Son of God on the one hand and the Father God on the other.
[ 14 ] When the mystery of Golgotha struck the earth's evolution, this feeling was truly alive enough. Over in Asia, in a place little noticed by Rome at that time, the Christ arose in Jesus of Nazareth, according to the view of the first Christians, the divine being who animated a human being in a way that had never happened before on earth and would never happen again on earth. Thus, this one event at Golgotha, this one animation of a human being with a divine being, with Christ, is what gives meaning to the entire evolution of the earth, and it must be imagined that all previous earth evolution is the anticipation of this event at Golgotha, and everything that follows is the fulfillment of what must follow from the mystery of Golgotha.
[ 15 ] This took place over in Asia. And in Rome sat Caesar Augustus. Modern humanity no longer realizes what Caesar Augustus meant on the Roman throne: he sat there as the incarnate deity. The Roman Caesar was himself a god in human form. A differently conceived god on the Roman throne, a differently conceived god over there on the skull place of Golgotha — what a tremendous contrast! What contrast? Let us look at Caesar Augustus, this god incarnate in human form according to the view of his followers, according to the commandment of the Roman state. He descended as a divine being onto the earth. The divine powers have united with the powers of birth, with the blood, and in the blood lives, surges, and swells the divine power that has descended into the earthly realm. This is roughly how the dwelling of the divine on earth was imagined throughout the world, albeit in different forms. Only the Jewish people did not believe this, as they perceived their God as remaining in the hereafter. Everywhere else, people perceived God as connected with the forces of blood. They perceived God in such a way that they could express this divinity with the words: Ex deo nascimur. Even if they lived in lowly circumstances, human beings felt related to what lived at the pinnacle of humanity in a personality such as Caesar Augustus. But everything that was revered there was a fatherly-divine principle, for it lived in the blood that is given to human beings at birth.
[ 16 ] In the Mystery of Golgotha, the divine Christ being unites with the human being Jesus of Nazareth, but now not with the blood, but with the best forces of the human soul striving for the highest. Now a god unites with a human being in such a way that humanity is snatched from its decline into mere earthly, material forces.
[ 17 ] The Father God lives in the blood. The Son God lives in the soul and spirit of the human being. The Father God leads man into material life: Ex deo nascimur. The Son God leads man out of material life. The Father God leads man from the supersensible into the sensible, the Son God from the sensible back into the supersensible: In Christo morimur. — There were two strongly differentiated feelings. The feeling for the Son God was added to the feeling for the Father God. However, for the development of humanity, this distinction between the Father God and the Son God was lost for other reasons. And these reasons have remained connected with humanity, including Christianity, to this day. When we look at the original wisdom of humanity, we see everywhere how people, insofar as they are introduced to what this original wisdom offers, are convinced that they have descended from divine-spiritual heights into the physical-sensory world. Pre-existing life seemed assured to human beings. Through birth or conception, people looked up into the divine-spiritual worlds from which the soul descends by entering physical-sensory existence through birth.
[ 18 ] In our language, we only have the word “immortality.” We have lost a word in our language for the other side of eternity. We do not have the word “unborn” in our languages. But if eternity is complete, then the word “unborn” must exist just as the word “immortality” does. Indeed, what lies in the word ‘unborn’ is even more meaningful to humans than what lies in the word “immortality.” As true as it is that man passes through the gate of death into a life in the spiritual world, it is also true that today this life in the spiritual world after death is often proclaimed to people in an extremely selfish way. People live here on earth. They long for immortality. They do not want to sink into nothingness with death. And so one need only touch upon the selfish instincts of human beings by speaking to them of immortality.
[ 19 ] Listen carefully to how countless sermons speculate on the selfish instincts of human beings in order to present immortality to the human soul. One cannot speculate about the selfish instincts of human beings in this way when speaking of unbornness. For human beings do not demand so selfishly to have been in the spiritual world before their birth, before their conception, as they demand to be in the spiritual world after death. They are here, and that is enough for them. Why should they care where they came from? Out of their egoism, they care about where they are going. When we come to an unselfish wisdom, then unbornness will become as important to humans as immortality is important to humans today.
[ 20 ] But in ancient times, the connection between the one view and the other was established. People lived in divine-spiritual worlds, descended through birth, connected what they had in divine-spiritual worlds in a purely spiritual environment with human blood, and continued to live this in human blood. This gave rise to the idea: Ex deo nascimur. The God who lives in the blood, the God whom man represents here in the flesh, is the fatherly God.
[ 21 ] The other pole of life, death, demands a different impulse from the soul life. There must be something in human beings that is not exhausted by death. This corresponds solely to an idea of the divine, through which the earthly-physical passes into the supersensible-superphysical. But this is contained in the mystery of Golgotha. The divine Father principle has always been the transition from the supersensible to the sensible, the divine Son principle the transition from the sensible to the supersensible: hence the idea of resurrection is necessarily connected with the mystery of Golgotha. And it belongs to Christianity to say, as St. Paul did, that Christ became what he became for humanity only because he is the risen one.
[ 22 ] Throughout the centuries, understanding of the risen one, of the conqueror of death, has been increasingly lost, and the enlightened “theology of modern times” has clung solely to the man Jesus of Nazareth. This man Jesus of Nazareth cannot be second to the Father principle. He could proclaim the Father, but he could not stand alongside the Father in the sense of the discussions of early Christianity. But standing side by side as equals are the divine Father, who brings about the transition from the supersensible to the sensible: Ex deo nascimur, and the divine Son, who brings about the transition from the sensible to the supersensible: In Christo morimur. —- And exalted above both, above being born and dying, is a third principle that proceeds from both, which in turn is equally connected with both, with the divine Father and the divine Son; the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Thus, in man we can recognize the transition from the supersensible to the sensible: Ex deo nascimur, the transition from the sensible to the supersensible: In Christo morimur, and the union of both, the connection with that in which neither birth nor death have any essence, the resurrection through the Spirit: Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.
[ 23 ] For centuries, Christmas was a festival of remembrance. How much of this remembrance has been lost is evident from the fact that, especially for enlightened theology, only the Jesus of Nazareth has remained of the Christ Jesus. But this also points out to us today that Christmas must become for us not merely a festival of remembrance, but a festival calling us to something new. A new being must be born. Christianity needs renewal, for by losing its full understanding of the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth, it has actually lost its meaning. But this meaning must be found again. Humanity must recognize once again that the mystery of Golgotha can only be understood through supersensible understanding.
[ 24 ] There is something else, however, that has been added to this lack of understanding of the mystery of Golgotha. We can look with love at the manger, but no longer with full, wisdom-filled understanding of the union of Christ with the human being Jesus of Nazareth. Nor can we look up to the heavens with the same feeling as those who looked up in the times when the mystery of Golgotha fell upon the world. Then people looked up to the starry worlds, and in the paths of the stars, in the constellations, they saw something like the physiognomic expression of the divine soul and spirit working in the cosmos. They saw in the sun something like the heart of this divine-spiritual, cosmic working. In Christ, one could see the spiritual element in the external, sensory world that one saw in the magnificent world of the stars. For modern man, the world of the stars, everything that can be seen in the vastness of space, has become more or less the result of a mathematical calculation, a world mechanism. The world has become godless, empty of God. Christ certainly could not descend from this godless world that we investigate today through our astronomy and astrophysics. But for the ancient wisdom of mankind, this world was something else. This world was the body of the divine world spirit and the divine world soul. And from this spiritualized cosmos, Christ was able to descend to earth and unite with a human being in Jesus of Nazareth.
[ 25 ] This is expressed in a profound way in the evolution of humanity itself. Throughout ancient times before the Mystery of Golgotha, there were mysteries throughout the earth, sacred places that were also the highest schools, schools where religious life was cultivated at the same time. In these mysteries, everywhere reference was made to what was to come. Everywhere it was shown how human beings carry within themselves a power that is victorious over death. This victory over death was experienced in powerful ways by those initiated into the mysteries. Anyone who wanted to become an initiate had to develop within themselves that deep experience which taught them the conviction that: Yes, you have awakened within yourself that which is victorious over death. In images, those initiated into the mysteries experienced what was only to be truly accomplished in the future, before the whole plan of world history. Everywhere among the peoples, the sacred secret was proclaimed within the mysteries: man can conquer death. But at the same time it was pointed out that everything that could only be represented in images in the mysteries would one day stand before world history as a unique event. The mystery of Golgotha was also foretold by the pagan mysteries of antiquity. It was the fulfillment of what had been foretold everywhere in the holy places.
[ 26 ] When the initiate had first undergone the preparations in the mysteries and then those more difficult exercises through which one attained initiation in ancient times, when he had freed his soul from the body to such an extent that this soul, in its detachment, could unite with the spiritual worlds and perceive in the spiritual worlds, in order to arrive at his own conviction that life always triumphs over death within human nature — when the initiate had reached this point, he was led to the deepest experience sought through these mysteries of antiquity. And this deepest experience consisted in the fact that before the spiritual eyes of man, the earthly obstacle, the material obstacle, was removed, so that he could see that which is at the same time spiritual and material: the sun. And the initiate was led before this mysterious but well-known phenomenon, so that at midnight he saw the sun through the earth — on the other side of the earth.
[ 27 ] Instinctive feelings for the most sacred and the highest have nevertheless remained with human beings through historical development. Some have been weakened in the course of time, but for those who wish to be unbiased, the old meaning is still perceptible. And so today we read from the fact that at midnight on Christmas Eve, December 24, the midnight mass is to be read in every Christian church — and the mass is nothing other than a summary of the mystery rites that led to the viewing of the sun at midnight — we read in this establishment of the midnight Mass the echo of that ancient initiation which allowed the initiate at midnight to see the sun on the far side of the earth, enabling him to perceive the universe as spiritual and, at the same time, resounding through the cosmos, hear the world word that spoke from the paths of the stars, from the constellations of the stars, the world being.
[ 28 ] Blood divides people. Blood binds what descends from the heights of heaven as humanity to the material, earthly realm. People, especially in our century, have sinned greatly against the Christian principle by turning back to the principle of blood. But they must find their way back to Christ Jesus, who does not speak of blood, who shed his blood and connected it with the earth, but who speaks to the soul and spirit and unites all people rather than dividing them. So that, with his help, the understanding of the world word “peace among men” may be achieved on earth.
[ 29 ] Therefore, a new understanding of Christmas can also emerge, namely that through supersensible knowledge, the material universe is transformed into spirit before the soul's gaze. The sun can become visible again at midnight, that is, it can be recognized in its spirituality. This can lead to an understanding of the super-earthly Christ being, the sun being, who connected himself with the human being Jesus of Nazareth. And it can also lead to an understanding of what should live above the peoples of the earth in a truly unifying spirit of peace: “The beings of God reveal themselves in the heights, and peace resounds through these revelations from the hearts of people who are of good will.”
[ 30 ] This is the Christmas message, the harmony of earthly peace with the divine light that shines upon the earth. We do not need only the memory of Jesus' birthday. We need an understanding of the idea that a new Christmas must come, that something must be born, that a birthday celebration must take place from the present into the near future, that a new Christ impulse must be born, that Christ must be recognized again through this new Christ impulse. We need to understand once again that the divine-spiritual worlds of heaven and the physical-sensory world of earth are bound together and that the mystery of Golgotha is the most significant expression of this connection.
[ 31 ] We must understand again why, at midnight on Christmas Eve, we hear a kind of admonition to think of the divine-spiritual origin of human beings, why at this time we hear the admonition to think of the revelation of heaven as connected with peace on earth. We can only do this if we make the World Christmas our conviction, if we do not content ourselves in the old, habitual way with giving each other gifts at Christmas because it has become customary to do so after the warm feelings that inspired Christianity for centuries have been lost. But we need a new Christmas, a Christmas that not only commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, but brings a new birth: the birth of a new Christ impulse.
[ 32 ] With full consciousness, we must learn to understand once again how something supersensible expresses itself in the mystery of Golgotha in order to reveal itself through the sensual world of the earth. We must understand with full consciousness what sounded in the ancient mysteries. It sounded instinctively; let us take it in with full consciousness. Let us learn to understand once again how human beings can perceive the midnight sun, how they can feel the wonderful midnight harmony of the spheres, the harmony of the heavenly revelation and the peace on earth, when Christmas becomes something real for them.
[ 33 ] In this sense, the words that are to be dedicated to Christmas Eve have been written down, coming from this very background. They summarize what I have wanted to bring to your souls and hearts at this hour. They are meant to express, out of the consciousness of an anthroposophical understanding of Christ, how we can return to what was once, instinctively, the original human wisdom, which was still present in remnants at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, so that the appearance of Christ could be celebrated.
[ 34 ] But we want to regain this understanding of Christ as a cosmic being who has connected himself with the earth. The time when this will be regained for a large part of the people on earth is the time of the World Consecration Night, which we long for. Then feelings will come alive in us that I would like to express with the following words:
Let the sun look
At midnight hour
With stones build
In the lifeless groundSo find in decline
And in the night of death
The new beginning of creation
The young power of the morningLet the heights reveal
The eternal word of the gods
The depths shall preserve
The peaceful refugeLiving in darkness
Create a sun
Weaving in matter
Recognize the joy of the spirit.