Et Incarnatus Est
GA 180
23 December 1917, Basel
A truth, intimately united with human aspiration and for centuries closely associated in the human heart with the festival whose modern symbol is the Christmas tree, is expressed in the words that have resounded ever since the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and that must be impressed still more deeply into the evolution of the earth. This truth, which has shone down through the ages, is associated with the words, et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine (and is born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary).
Most of the people of today seem to attach just as little significance to these words as they do to the Easter mystery of the Resurrection. We might even say that the central mystery of Christianity, the resurrection from the dead, appears to modern thought, which is no longer directed to the truths of the spiritual world, just as incredible as the Christmas mystery, the mystery of the Word becoming flesh, the mystery of the virgin birth. The greater part of modern humanity is much more in sympathy with the scientist who described the virgin birth as “an impertinent mockery of human reason” than with those who desire to take this mystery in a spiritual sense.
Nevertheless, my dear friends, the mystery of the incarnation by the Holy Spirit through the Virgin begins to exert its influence from the time of the Mystery of Golgotha; in another sense it had made itself felt before this event.
Those who brought the symbolic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the babe lying in the manger knew of the Christmas mystery of the virgin birth through the ancient science of the stars. The magi who brought the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were, in the sense of the ancient wisdom, astrologers, they had knowledge of those spiritual processes that work in the cosmos when certain signs appear in the starry heavens. One such sign they recognized when, in the night between December 24 and 25, in the year that we today regard as that of the birth of Jesus, the sun, the cosmic symbol of the Redeemer, shone toward the earth from the constellation of Virgo. They said, “When the constellation of the heavens is such that the sun stands in Virgo in the night between December 24 and 25, then an important change will take place in the earth. Then the time will have come for us to bring gold, the symbol of our knowledge of divine guidance, which hitherto we have sought only in the stars, to that impulse which now becomes part of the earthly evolution of mankind. Then the time will have come for us to offer frankincense, the emblem of sacrifice, the symbol of the highest human virtue. This virtue must be offered in such a way that it is united with the power proceeding from the Christ Who is to be incarnated in that human being to whom we bring the frankincense.
“And the third gift, the myrrh, is the symbol of the eternal in man, which we have felt for thousands of years to be connected with the powers that speak to us from starry constellations; we seek it further by bringing it as a gift to him who is to be a new impulse for humanity; through this we seek our own immortality, in that we unite our own souls with the impulse of the Christ. When the cosmic symbol of world power, the sun, shines in the constellation of Virgo, then a new time begins for the earth.”
This was the belief held for thousands of years, and as the magi felt compelled to lay at the feet of the Holy Child the wisdom of the gods, the virtues of man, and the realization of human immortality, symbolically expressed in the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, something was repeated as a historical event that had been expressed symbolically in innumerable mysteries and in countless sacrificial rituals for thousands of years. There had been presented in these mysteries and rituals a prophetic indication of the event that would take place when the sun stood at midnight between December 24 and 25 in the sign of the Virgin, for gold, frankincense, and myrrh were also offered on this holy night, to the symbol of the divine child preserved in ancient temples as the representation of the sun.
Thus, my dear friends, for nearly two thousand years the Christian words, “incarnatus de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine” have resounded in the world, and so it has been ever since human thought has existed on the earth. In our times we can now present the question, “Do human beings really know to what they should aspire when they celebrate Christmas?” Does there exist today a real consciousness of the fact that, out of cosmic heights, under a cosmic sign, a cosmic power appeared through a virgin birth—spiritually understood—and that the blazing candles on the Christmas tree should light up in our hearts an understanding of the fact that the human soul is most intimately and inwardly united with an event that is not merely an earthly but a cosmic earthly event? The times are grave, and it is necessary in such serious times to give serious answers to solemn questions, such as the one raised here. With this in mind we will take a glance at the thoughts of the leading people of the nineteenth century to see whether the idea of Christ Jesus has lived in modern humanity in such a way as to give rise to the thought: the Christmas mystery has its significance in the fact that man wills to celebrate something eternal in the light of the Christmas candles.
Firstly we will take the words of a writer, Ernst Renan, who has given much study to the personality of Jesus and who has tried to give a picture of Christ Jesus out of the consciousness of the nineteenth century. We will listen to some of the voices of leading thinkers of the nineteenth century. Ernst Renan regarded the cities of Palestine with his physical eyes in true materialistic fashion. He desired to awaken in his own soul, from a materialistic standpoint, a picture of the personality known through the centuries as the Redeemer of the world. This is what he says:
“A beautiful outer nature tended to produce a much less austere spirit—a spirit less sharply monotheistic, if I may use the expression—which imprinted a charming and idyllic character on all the dreams of Galilee. The saddest country in the world is perhaps the region round about Jerusalem. Galilee, on the other hand, was a green, shady, smiling district, the true home of the Song of Songs, and the songs of the well-beloved. During the months of March and April the country forms a carpet of flowers of an incomparable variety of colors. The animals are small and exceedingly gentle—delicate and lively turtle doves, blue birds so light that they rest on a blade of grass without bending it, crested larks that venture almost under the feet of the traveler, little river tortoises with mild, lively eyes, storks with grave and modest mien, which, laying aside all timidity, allow man to come near them, seem almost to invite his approach.”
Ernst Renan never tires of describing this idyll of Galilee, so remote from the world's historic events, so as to make it seem natural that in this idyll, in this unpretentious landscape, with its turtle doves and storks, those things could happen that humanity for centuries has associated with the life of the Savior of the world.
So, my dear friends, that truth from which the earth received its meaning, the truth toward which humanity has looked for centuries, is attractive to a thinker of the nineteenth century only as an idyll with turtle doves and storks.
Ernst Renan proceeds, “The whole history of infant Christianity has become in this manner a delightful pastorale. A Messiah at the marriage festival, the courtesan and the good Zaccheus called to his feasts, the founders of the Kingdom of Heaven like a bridal procession—that is what Galilee has boldly offered and what the world has accepted.”
This, my dear friends, is one of the voices of the nineteenth century. Let us listen now to another, the voice of John Stuart Mill, who also desires to find his way from the consciousness of the nineteenth century to the being whom humanity for hundreds of years, and to the prophetic mind of man for thousands of years, has recognized as the Savior of the world.
John Stuart Mill says, “Whatever the rationalist may destroy of Christianity, Christ remains, a unique figure as different from his predecessors as from his successors, and even from those who enjoyed the privilege of his personal instruction. This estimate is not diminished if we say the Christ of the Gospels is not historical, for we are not in a position to know how much of what is worthy in Him has been added by His followers, for who among His disciples, or their followers, has been able to think out the speeches ascribed to Jesus, or to imagine a life and personality such as is portrayed in the Gospels? Certainly not the fisher-folk from Galilee, nor even St. Paul, whose whole character and inclination are of quite another kind, nor the early Christian writers. The kind of words that could be added and inserted by a scholar can be seen in the mystical part of the Gospel of St. John, who borrowed words from Philo and the Platonists of Alexandria and put them into the mouth of the Savior, who said many things about Himself of which not the slightest trace appears in the other Gospels. The East was full of people who could have stolen any number of such sayings, even as the many sects of the Gnostics did in later times. The life and teachings of Jesus, however, bear the stamp and impression of such profundity and personal originality that, if we deny ourselves the expectation of finding scientific exactitude, the prophet of Nazareth is placed in the foremost rank of venerated people of whom the human race may boast, even in the estimation of those who do not believe his divine inspiration. As this extraordinary spirit was equipped with the qualities of the greatest reformers and martyrs who have ever lived on earth, we cannot say that religion has made a bad choice” (Made a choice! We even choose in the nineteenth century!) “that religion has made a bad choice in setting up this man as an ideal representative and leader of humanity; also it would not be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better way of giving concrete expression to the abstract laws of virtue than to accept Christ as the model for our way of living. If, finally, we admit that even for the skeptic there remains the possibility that Christ was actually the person He said He was—not God; He never made the slightest claim to that; He would have seen in such a claim as great a blasphemy as would the people who judged Him—but the man expressly entrusted by God with the unique mission of leading humanity to truth and virtue, we may surely conclude that the influences of religion upon character, which would remain after the rationalistic critic had done his utmost against religion, are worthy of retention and, though they may lack direct proof as compared with other beliefs for which better evidence exists, the greater truth and correctness of their morality more than compensate for this lack.”
There we have the picture that the rationalists of the nineteenth century, by denying their own spirit, have given to that being whom humanity for centuries has recognized as the Savior of the world. Let us hear another voice, the voice of the international spirit, Heinrich Heine, and what he has to say:
“Christ is the God whom I love most, not because He is a God by inheritance, whose Father was God who had ruled the universe from time immemorial, but because He had no love for courtly, ceremonial display, although He was born the prince of heaven; I love Him because He was no aristocratic God, no panoplied knight, but a humble God of the people, a God of the town, a good citizen. Verily if Christ were not a God, I would choose Him for one and would much rather listen to Him, the God of my choice, than to a self-decreed, absolute God.”
“Only so long as religions have to struggle with each other in rivalry, and are more persecuted than followed, are they beautiful and worthy of veneration, only then do we see enthusiasm, sacrifice, martyrs, and palms. How beautiful, holy, and loveable, how heavenly sweet was the Christianity of the first centuries, as it sought to equal its divine founder in the heroism of His suffering—there still remained the beautiful legend of a heavenly God who in mild and youthful form wandered under the palms of Palestine preaching human love and revealing the teaching of freedom and equality—the sense of which was recognized by some of the greatest thinkers, and which has had its influence in our times through the French Gospel” (of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity).
Here we have this Heine Creed which regarded Him, whom humanity for centuries has recognized as the Redeemer of the world, as worthy of praise because we ourselves would have chosen Him, in our democratic fashion, even if He had not already held that exalted position, and because He preached the same Gospel as was preached later, at the end of the eighteenth century. He was therefore good enough to be as great as those who understood this Gospel.
Let us take another thinker of the nineteenth century. You know that I think very highly of Edward von Hartmann. I mention only those whom I do admire in order to show the manner in which the thought of the nineteenth century about Christ Jesus expressed itself.
“We see,” says Edward von Hartmann, the philosopher, “that the spiritual faculties of Jesus could not have achieved such good results without the magic of an impressive and loveable personality. This personality was endowed with unusual oratorical power, but His quiet majesty and personal tenderness must have been extraordinarily charming to his followers, not only to the men but to the women who made up so large a part of his following, in which prostitutes (Luke 7:37), married women of high rank (Luke 8:3), and young maidens of all classes mingled without discrimination. They were mostly eccentric persons, the epileptic, hysterical, or crazy, who believed themselves to be healed by Him. It is a well-known fact that such women are very prone to project or individualize their religious emotions and enthusiasms onto the person of an attractive male whom they proceed to make the center of a cult. Nothing is more obvious than that these women were of such a kind, and that even if they did not awaken in Jesus the idea of His Messiah-ship, yet it was so nourished by their adoring homage that it struck deep roots. According to modern psychological and psychiatrical opinion it is not possible for healthy religious feeling to flourish in such unhealthy soil, and today we would advise any religious reformer or prophet to shake off such elements in his following as much as possible, for they would merely end in compromising both him and his mission.”
Yet another voice I wish to quote, the voice of one of the principal characters in a romance that exercised a wide and powerful influence during the latter third of the nineteenth century over the judgment of the so-called “educated” humanity. In Paul Heyse's book, Die Kinder der Welt, the diary of Lea, one of the characters in the book, is reproduced. It contains a criticism of Christ Jesus, and those who know the world well will recognize in this judgment of Lea's one which was common to large numbers of human beings in the nineteenth century. Paul Heyse has Lea write, “The day before yesterday I stopped writing because an impulse drove me to read the New Testament once again. I had not opened the New Testament for a long time; it had been a long time since its many threatening, damning, and incomprehensible speeches had estranged and repelled my heart. Now that I have lost that childish fear, and the voice of an infallible and all-knowing spirit can be heard, since I have seen therein the history of one of the noblest and most wonderful of human beings, I have found much that greatly refreshed and comforted me.
“But its somber mood again made me depressed. What is more liberating, gracious, and comforting than joy in the beauty, goodness, and serenity of the world, yet while we are reading this book (the New Testament) we hover in a twilight of expectation and hope, the eternal is never fulfilled, it will only dawn when we have struggled through time; the full glory of joy never shines, there is no pleasantry, no laughter—the joy of this world is vanity—we are directed to a future that makes the present worthless, and the highest earthly joy of sinking ourselves deep in pure and loving thoughts is also open to suspicion, for only those can enter heaven who are poor in spirit. I am such a one, but it makes me unhappy to feel so, yet at the same time if I could break through this limitation I should no longer be what I am, thus my salvation and blessedness are not certain, for what transcends me is no longer. And then this mild, God-conscious man, in order to belong to the whole human race, departed from his own people with such strange hardness that he became a homeless one—it had to be so, but it chilled my feeling. Everything great that I had formerly loved, even when shrouded in majesty, was yet happily and comfortably linked with my being by ties of human need.”
Here you see the New Testament represented as it had to be if it was to provide satisfaction to such a typical person of the nineteenth century. Thus she says that everything great that she had formerly loved, even when shrouded in majesty, was yet happily and comfortably linked with her being by ties of human need. Because the New Testament contains a power that cannot be described in these terms, therefore, the Gospel failed to meet the needs of a person of the nineteenth century.
“When I read the letters of Goethe, of the narrow home life of Schiller, of Luther and his followers, of all the ancients back to Socrates and his scolding wife—I sense a breath of Mother Earth, from which the seed of their spirit grew, which also nourishes and uplifts mine own which is so much smaller.” Lea thus finds herself more drawn even to characters like Xanthippe than to the people of the New Testament, and this was the opinion of thousands and thousands of people in the nineteenth century.
“But this picture of a world forlorn alarms and estranges me, and I am unable to justify it by any belief that everything is guided and ordered by God.”
It is fitting, my dear friends, to ask in these grave times what is really the attitude of soul of people today with regard to the candles they burn at Christmas? For this attitude of soul is a complex of such voices as we have just examined and that could be multiplied a hundred or thousand fold. But it is not fitting in serious times to ignore and disregard the things that have been said about the greatest mystery of earthly evolution. It is much more fitting today to ask what the official representatives of the many Christian sects are able to do to check a development that has led human beings right away from an inwardly true and genuine belief in that which stands behind the lights of Christmas time. For can humanity make of such a festival anything but a lie, when the opinions just quoted from its best representatives are imposed upon that which should be perceived through the Christmas mystery as an impulse coming from the cosmos to unite itself with earthly evolution? What did the magi from the East desire when they brought divine gifts of wisdom, virtue, and immortality to the manger, after the event whose sign had appeared to them in the skies during the night between December 24 and 25 in the first year of our era? What was it these wise men from the East wished to do? They wanted, by this act, to furnish direct historical proof that they had grasped the fact that, from this time onward, those powers who had hitherto radiated their forces down to earth from the cosmos were no longer accessible to man in the old way—that is, by gazing into the skies, by study of the starry constellations. They wished to show that man must now begin to give attention to the events of historical evolution, to social development, to the manners and customs of humanity itself. They wished to show that Christ had descended from heavenly regions where the sun shines in the constellation of Virgo, a region from which all the varied powers of the starry constellations proceed that enable the microcosm to appear as a copy of the macrocosm. They wished to show that this spirit now enters directly into earthly evolution, that earthly evolution can henceforth be understood only by inner wisdom, in the same way as the starry constellations were formerly understood. This was what the magi wished to show, and of this fact the humanity of today must ever be aware.
People of today tend to regard history as though the earlier were invariably the cause of the latter, as though in order to understand the events of the years 1914 to 1917 we need simply go back to 1913, 1912, 1911, and so on; historical development is regarded in the same way as evolution in nature, in which we can proceed from effect to impulse and in the impulse find the cause. From this method of thinking, that fable convenue which we call history has arisen, with which the youth of today are being inoculated to their detriment.
True Christianity, especially a reverent and sincere insight into the mysteries of Christmas and Easter, provides a sharp protest against this natural scientific caricature of world history. Christianity has brought cosmic mysteries into association with the course of the year; on December 24 and 25 it celebrates a memory of the original constellation of the year 1, the appearance of the sun in the constellation of Virgo; this date in every year is celebrated as the Christmas festival. This is the point in time that the Christian concept has fixed for the Christmas festival. The Easter festival is also established each year by taking a certain celestial arrangement, for we know that the Sunday that follows the first full moon after the vernal equinox is the chosen day, though the materialistic outlook of the present time is responsible for recent objections to this arrangement.
To those who wish, reverently and sincerely, to tune their thoughts in harmony with the Mystery of Golgotha, the period between Christmas and Easter is seen as a picture of the thirty-three years of Christ's life on earth. Previous to the Mystery of Golgotha, with which I include the mystery of Christmas, the magi studied the heavens when they wished to investigate the secrets of human evolution or any other mysterious event. They studied the constellations, and the relative positions of the heavenly bodies revealed to them the nature of events taking place upon earth. But at that moment in which they became aware of the important event that was happening on earth, by the sign given to them through the position of the sun in Virgo on December 24 and 25, they said, “From this time onward the heavenly constellations themselves will be directly revealed in human affairs on the earth.”
Can the starry constellations be perceived in human affairs? My dear friends, this perception is now demanded of us, the ability to read what is revealed through the wonderful key that is given us in the mysteries of the Christian year, which are the epitome of all the mysteries of the year of other peoples and times. The time interval between Christmas and Easter is to be understood as consisting of thirty-three years. This is the key. What does this mean? That the Christmas festival celebrated this year belongs to the Easter festival that follows thirty-three years later, while the Easter festival we celebrate this year belongs to the Christmas of 1884. In 1884 humanity celebrated a Christmas festival that really belongs to the Easter of this year (1917), and the Christmas festival we celebrate this year belongs, not to the Easter of next spring but to the one thirty-three years hence (1950). According to our reckoning, this period—thirty-three years—is the period of a human generation, thus a complete generation of humanity must elapse between Christmas festivals and the Easter festivals that are connected with them. This is the key, my dear friends, for reading the new astrology, in which attention is directed to the stars that shine within the historical evolution of humanity itself.
How can this be fulfilled? It can be fulfilled by human beings using the Christmas festival in order to realize that events happening at approximately the present time (we can only say approximately in such matters) refer back in their historical connections in such a way that we are able to perceive their birthdays or beginnings in the events of thirty-three years ago, and that events of today also provide a birthday or beginning for events that will ripen to fruition in the course of the next thirty-three years. Personal karma rules in our individual lives. In this field each one is responsible for himself; here he must endure whatever lies in his karma and must expect a direct karmic connection between past events and their subsequent consequences.
How do things stand, however, with regard to historical associations? Historical connections at the present time are of such a nature that we can neither perceive nor understand the real significance of any event that is taking place today unless we refer back to the time of its corresponding Christmas year, that is 1884 in this case. For the year 1914 we must therefore look back to 1881. All the actions of earlier generations, all the impulses with their combined activity, poured into the stream of historic evolution, have a life cycle of thirty-three years. Then comes its Easter time, the time of resurrection. When was the seed planted whose Easter time was experienced by man in 1914 and after? It was planted thirty-three years before.
Connections that reach over intervals of thirty-three years are essential for an understanding of the time rhythms of historic evolution, and a time must come when people in the holy time that begins with Christmas Eve will say to themselves, “What I do now will continue to work on, but will arise as outer fact or deed (not in a personal but in a historic sense) only after thirty-three years. Furthermore, I can understand what is happening now in the events of the outer world only by looking back across the thirty-three years of time needed for its fulfillment.”
When, at the beginning of the 1880's, the insurrection of the Mohammedan prophet, the Mahdi, resulted in the extension of English rule in Egypt, when at about the same time a war arose through French influence between greater India and China over European spheres of control, when the Congo Conference was being held, and other events of a like nature were taking place—study everything, my dear friends, that has now reached its thirty-three years fulfillment. It was then that the seeds were sown that have ripened into the events of today. At that time the question should have been asked: what do the Christmas events of this year promise for the Easter fulfillment thirty-three years hence? For, my dear friends, all things in historic evolution arise transfigured after thirty-three years, as from a grave, by virtue of a power connected with the holiest of all redemptions: the Mystery of Golgotha.
It does not suffice, however, to sentimentalize about the Mystery of Golgotha. An understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha demands the highest powers of wisdom of which the human being is capable. It must be experienced by the deepest forces that can stir the soul of man. When he searches its depths for the light kindled by wisdom, when he does not merely speak of love but is enflamed by it through the union of his soul with the cosmic soul that streams and pulses through this turning point of time, only then does he acquire insight and understanding into the mysteries of existence. In days of old the wise men who sought for guidance in the conduct of affairs of human beings asked knowledge of the stars, and the stars gave an answer; so, today, those who wish to act wisely in guiding the social life of humanity must give heed to the stars that rise and set in the course of historic evolution. Just as we calculate the cyclic rotations of celestial bodies, so must we learn to calculate the cyclic rotations of historic events by means of a true science of history. The time-cycles of history can be measured by the interval that extends from Christmas to the Easter thirty-three years ahead, and the spirits of these time-cycles regulate that element in which the human soul lives and weaves in so far as it is not a mere personal being but is part of the warp and woof of historic evolution.
When we meditate on the mystery of Christmas, we do so most effectively if we acquire a knowledge of those secrets of life that ought to be revealed in this age in order to enrich the stream of Christian tradition concerning the Mystery of Golgotha and the inner meaning of the Christmas mystery. Christ spoke to humanity in these words, “Lo! I am with you always even to the end of the world.” Those, however, who today call themselves His disciples often say that; though the revelations from spiritual worlds were certainly there when Jesus Christ was living on earth, they have now ceased, and they regard as blasphemous anyone who declares that wonderful revelations can still come to us from the spiritual world. Thus official Christianity has become, in many respects, an actual hindrance to the further development of Christianity.
What has remained, however? The holy symbols, one of the holiest of which is portrayed in the Christmas mystery—these constitute in themselves a living protest against that suppression of true Christianity that is too often practiced by the official churches.
The spiritual science we seek to express through anthroposophy desires, among other things, to proclaim the great significance of the Mystery of Golgotha and the mystery of Christmas. It is also its task to bear witness to that which gives to earth its meaning, and to human life its significance. Since the Christmas tree, which is but a few centuries old, has now become the symbol of the Christmas festival, then, my dear friends, those who stand under the Christmas tree should ask themselves this question, “Is the saying true for us that is written by the testimony of history above the Christmas tree: Et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine? Is this saying true for us?” To realize its truth requires spiritual knowledge. No physical scientist can give answer to the questions of the virgin birth and the resurrection; on the contrary, every scientist must needs deny both events. Such events can only be understood when viewed from a plane of existence in which neither birth nor death plays the important part they do in the physical world. Just as Christ Jesus passed through death in such a way as to make death an illusion and resurrection the reality—this is the content of the Easter mystery—so did Christ Jesus pass through birth in such a way as to render birth an illusion and “transformation of being” within the spiritual world the reality, for in the spiritual world there is neither birth nor death, only changes of condition, only metamorphoses. Not until humanity is prepared to look up to that world in which birth and death both lose their physical meaning will the Christmas and Easter festivals regain their true import and sanctity.
Then, and only then, my dear friends, will our hearts and souls be filled with inner warmth of tone, fortified by which we shall be able again to speak to our little ones, to speak to them even in earliest childhood, of that Child who was laid in the manger, and of the three wise men who brought to him their gifts of wisdom, virtue, and immortality. We must be able to speak of these things to children, for what we say to the child about the Christmas mystery will be celebrated by him as an Easter festival, it will reappear in his life when he has lived through thirty-three years. For in historical evolution the responsibilities of humanity are such that one generation can only express as Christmas impulse those forces that the next generation will experience as Easter impulse. If we could realize this with consciousness, my dear friends, one generation would think of its successor in the following way: in the Christmas star I teach you to receive into your soul as truth that which will arise as the Easter star after thirty-three years. If we were conscious of this connection of the present generation and its successor, each one of us could say, “I have received an impulse for work that extends far beyond the limits of the day, for the period between Christmas and Easter is not merely the weeks that lie between these festivals but is really a period of thirty-three years; this is the true cycle of an impulse that I have implanted in the soul of a child as a Christmas impulse, and that after thirty-three years will arise again as an Easter impulse.”
Such things, my dear friends, should not encourage pride in mere theoretical knowledge; they achieve value only when they are expressed in practical deeds, when our souls become so filled with conviction concerning them that we can do nothing but to act according to their light. Only then is the soul filled with love for the great being for whom the deeds, in this light, are done; then this love becomes a concrete thing, filled with cosmic warmth, and quite distinct from that sentimental affectation that we find today on all lips but that has led, in these catastrophic times, to some of the greatest impulses of hatred among humanity. Those who for so long have talked about love have no further right to speak of it when it has turned to hate; to such persons falls rather the duty of asking themselves, “What have we neglected in our talk of love, of Christmas love, that out of it deeds of hatred have developed?” Humanity, however, must also ask, “What must we seek in the spiritual world in order to find that which is lost, that love that rules and lives warmingly in all beings but is only real love when it wells up from a vital understanding of life.”
To love another is to understand him; love does not mean filling one's heart with egotistical warmth that overflows in sentimental speeches; to love means to comprehend the being for whom we should do things, to understand not merely with the intellect but through our innermost being, to understand with the full nature and essence of our human being.
That such a love, springing from deepest spiritual understanding, may be able to find its place in human life, that desire and will should exist to cherish such love, may still be possible in these difficult times for him who is willing to tread again the path of the magi to the manger. He may say to himself, “Just as the wise men from the East sought understanding to find the way, the way of love, to the manger, so will I seek the way that will open my eyes to the light in which the true deeds of human love are performed. Just as the magi surrendered their faith in the authority of the starry heavens, added to their knowledge of the stars their sacrifice of this knowledge, and brought the union of immortality with this stellar wisdom to the Christ Child on that Christmas night, so must humanity in these later times bring its deepest impulses of soul as sacrifice to that being for whom the Christmas festival stands as the yearly symbol. Inspired by such a consciousness, the Christmas festival will again be celebrated by humanity sincerely and truly. Its celebration then will express not a denial but a knowledge of that being for whom the Christmas candles are lit.”
Erster Vortrag
Der Sinn, der verbunden ist mit der Kraft des menschlichen Sehnens, wie sie viele Jahrhunderte hindurch in den menschlichen Herzen Platz gegriffen hat mit dem Feste, dessen Symbolum in der neueren Zeit der Weihnachtsbaum geworden ist, dieser Sinn ist auszudrücken in den Worten, die da ertönen seit dem Beginn der Zeitrechnung, welche vom Mysterium von Golgatha ausgeht, und die sich in die Entwickelung des Erdenwesens weiter hineinverpflanzen sollen. Dieser Sinn, der durch diese Zeit hindurchleuchtet, ist verbunden mit den Worten: «Et incarnatus est de spiritn sancto ex Maria virgine.»
Man darf sagen, ein großer Teil der neueren Menschheit wird mit den Worten «Et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine» ebensowenig Bedeutung verbinden wie mit dem Auferstehungsmysterium der Osterzeit. Man darf gewissermaßen sagen, so unwahrscheinlich es dem nicht mehr der spirituellen Welt zugewandten neueren Sinn erscheint, das Mittelpunktsmysterium des Christentums in der Auferstehung vom Tode zu sehen, ebensowenig erscheint es demselben Denken, demselben Empfinden wahrscheinlich, die geistige Tatsache anzunehmen, die mit dem Weihnachtsmysterium verbunden ist: die Fleischwerdung, die Verkörperung aus der jungfräulichen Geburt heraus. Ja, man kann wohl sagen, ein großer Teil der neueren Menschheit wird dem Naturforscher, welcher das Mysterium der jungfräulichen Geburt genannt hat «eine freche Verhöhnung der menschlichen Vernunft», mehr zustimmen als demjenigen, der im spirituellen Sinne dieses Mysterium ernst nehmen will.
Und dennoch, in dem christlichen Sinne ist das Mysterium von der Inkarnation vom Heiligen Geiste aus Maria der Jungfrau heraus geltend seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha. In einem andern Sinne war es gültig bereits vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Diejenigen, welche dem in der Krippe liegenden Kind dargebracht haben die Symbole, oder besser gesagt die symbolischen Gaben Gold, Weihrauch, Myrrhen, sie haben in den Sternen gelesen im Sinne der alten Wissenschaft seit Jahrtausenden das Mysterium von der jungfräulichen Geburt, also das Weihnachtsmysterium. Und sie, die Magier mit dem Golde, dem Weihrauch, den Myrrhen, sie sind gekommen, weil sie die Zeichen der Zeit geschaut haben. Was waren das für Zeichen der Zeit? Die Magier mit dem Golde, dem Weihrauch, den Myrrhen, sie waren in dem Sinne, in dem die alte Weisheit dies verstand, Astrologen. Sie waren bekannt mit jenen geistigen Vorgängen, die sich im Kosmos abspielen, wenn sich gewisse Zeichen am Himmel zeigen.
Ein solches Zeichen war für sie, daß in der Nacht vom 24. auf den 25.Dezember - in dem Jahre, das wir heute als das der Geburt des Christus Jesus bezeichnen - die Sonne, das große Weltensymbolum des Weltenerlösers, herfunkelte vom Himmelsgewölbe, herfunkelte aus dem Sternbilde der Jungfrau. Sie sagten, wenn die Konstellation am Himmel eintreten werde, daß die Sonne in der Nacht vom 24. auf den 25. Dezember in dem Sternbilde der Jungfrau stehen werde, dann wird mit der Erde eine wichtige Verwandlung vor sich gehen. Dann ist die Zeit gekommen, wo wir das Gold, das heißt das Symbolum unserer Erkenntnis der göttlichen Weltenlenkung, die wir bisher in den Konstellationen der Sterne allein gesucht haben, darbringen werden jenem Impuls, der sich einfügt der irdischen Menschheitsentwickelung; wo wir den Weihrauch, den Opfersinn, der zu gleicher Zeit symbolisiert die höchste menschliche Tugend, so hinzuopfern haben, daß wir uns zur Verrichtung dieser höchsten menschlichen Tugend verbinden mit der Kraft, die von dem Christus ausgeht, der inkarniert werden soll in derjenigen menschlichen Persönlichkeit, der wir den Weihrauch als symbolische Gabe darbringen; und als drittes die Myrrhen als das Symbolum desjenigen, was ewig ist im Menschen. Was wir verbunden gefühlt haben durch die Jahrtausende mit den Kräften, die aus den Sternenkonstellationen herunter sprechen, wir suchen es im weiteren, indem wir es als Gabe darbringen Dem, der der Menschheit ein neuer Impuls werden sollte. Wir suchen unsere Unsterblichkeit dadurch, daß wir unsere Seele verbinden dem Impulse des Christus Jesus. Wenn aus der Jungfrau das kosmische Symbolum der Weltenkraft, der Sonnen-Weltenkraft, herunterleuchten wird, dann wird eine neue Erdenzeit beginnen.
So war es geglaubt, so war es angesehen durch Jahrtausende hindurch. Und als sich die Magier veranlaßt fühlten, die Weisheit vom Göttlichen, den menschlichen Tugendsinn, die Erfühlung der menschlichen Unsterblichkeit - symbolisch ausgedrückt in Gold, Weihrauch und Myrrhen - hinzulegen vor dem göttlichen Kinde, da wiederholten sie als in einem geschichtlichen Ereignisse dasjenige, was in unzähligen Mysterien, in unzähligen Opferhandlungen durch die Jahrtausende eben symbolisch dargestellt worden ist, indem man wie eine prophetische Hinweisung auf das Ereignis, das eintreten sollte, wenn die Sonne um die Mitternacht vom 24. auf den 25. Dezember aus der Jungfrau vom Himmel herunterscheint, dem symbolischen Götterkinde, das in den alten Tempeln als der Repräsentant der Sonne aufbewahrt wurde, in dieser Weihnachtsnacht opferte Gold, Weihrauch, Myrrhen. So spricht auf christliche Weise das «Incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine» seit bald zwei Jahrtausenden, so spricht dasselbe Incarnatus seit Menschengedenken auf der Erde. Die Zeit, in der wir leben, ihr gegenüber stellen wir die Frage: Wissen die Menschen noch so recht, wozu sie eigentlich aufschauen sollen, wenn sie ihr Weihnachtsfest feiern? Ist in der Gegenwart ein volles Bewußtsein vorhanden davon, daß aus kosmischen Höhen, unter kosmischen Zeichen erschienen ist eine Weltenkraft durch jungfräuliche Geburt, im spirituellen Sinne erfaßt, und daß die Weihnachtslichter in unser Herz gießen sollen ein Bewußtsein davon, daß die menschliche Seele verbunden ist, durch ihre innigsten Bande verbunden ist mit dem, was da nicht nur als ein irdisches Ereignis, was als ein kosmisch-irdisches Ereignis erschaut werden kann?
Die Zeiten sind ernst, und es ist wohl auch angemessen, in solchen ernsten Zeiten Fragen wie die eben aufgeworfenen in heiligen Stunden sich ernst zu beantworten. Und so wollen wir denn einmal zunächst eine kleine Umschau halten bei Gedanken von besten Mitgliedern der Menschheit im abgelaufenen 19. Jahrhundert, um zu sehen, ob die Idee des Christus Jesus so lebte in der neueren Menschheit, daß wir finden können: das Weihnachtsmysterium hat seinen Sinn dadurch, daß die Menschheit ein Ewiges feiern will unter dem Schein der Weihnachtslichter.
Wir wollen uns einige Stimmen bester Persönlichkeiten des 19. Jahrhunderts vergegenwärtigen. Zunächst seien Worte einer Persönlichkeit angeführt, die sich viel beschäftigt hat mit der Ergründung des Wesens Jesu, die versucht hat, ein Bild von dem Christus Jesus zu geben aus dem Bewußtsein des 19. Jahrhunderts heraus: Ernest Renan. Ernest Renan richtete seinen Blick in echt realistisch-materialistischer Weise mit äußeren physischen Augen auf die Stätten von Palästina. Wieder auferwecken will er aus der unmittelbar materiellen Anschauung in seiner eigenen Seele ein Bild derjenigen Persönlichkeit, die durch die Jahrhunderte, ja Jahrtausende hindurch genannt worden ist der Weltenerlöser. Wir hören von Ernest Renan aus dem «Leben Jesu»:
«Eine reizende Natur trug dazu bei, jenen, wenn ich sagen darf, monotheistischen Geist zu schaffen, der allen Träumen Galiläas eine idyllische und reizende Prägung gab. Der traurigste Landstrich der Welt mag vielleicht die Umgebung Jerusalems sein. Galiläa dagegen war ein sehr begrüntes, sehr schattiges und sehr lachendes Gefilde, die rechte Heimat des Hohenliedes und der Lieder des Vielgeliebten. In den Monaten März und April ist dieses Gebiet ein Blumenteppich von unvergleichlicher Farbenfrische. Die Tiere sind hier klein, aber sehr zahm. Zierliche, lebhafte Turteltauben, blaue Amseln, so leicht, daß sie sich auf einen Halm setzen, ohne ihn niederzudrücken, Haubenlerchen, die sich fast vor den Füßen des Wanderers niederlassen, kleine Bachschildkröten mit lebendigen, sanften Augen, Störche mit gravitätischen, ernsten Mienen lassen den Menschen ganz nah an sich herankommen, ja sie scheinen ihn sogar zu rufen.»
Und Ernest Renan wird nicht müde, so recht zu schildern dieses von der großen Weltgeschichte so vollständig abgelegene Idyll von Galiläa, damit sich in diesem Idyll, in dieser anspruchslosen Landschaft mit den Turteltäubchen und Störchen, dasjenige habe abspielen können, was die Menschheit durch die Jahrhunderte in Verbindung bringt mit dem Weltenerlöser.
Der Sinn der Erde, dasjenige, wozu die Menschheit durch Jahrhunderte hat aufblicken wollen, ist für den Denker des 19. Jahrhunderts nur dann reizend, wenn er es schildern kann als ein Idyll mit Turteltäubchen und Störchen.
«So ist denn die ganze Geschichte der Entstehung des Christentums» — sagt Ernest Renan weiter - «eine köstliche Idylle geworden. Ein Messias beim Hochzeitsgelage, den die Courtisane und der gute Zacchäus zu seinen Festen gerufen, die Stifter des göttlichen Reichs wie ein Zug Brautführer - das ist es, was Galiläa gewagt hat, was es zur Annahme gebracht hat.»
Dies eine der Stimmen. Hören wir daneben aus dem weiteren Chor der Stimmen des 19. Jahrhunderts eine andere Stimme, die Stimme John Stuart Mills, der sich auch zurechtfinden will aus dem Bewußtsein des 19. Jahrhunderts mit derjenigen Wesenheit, in welcher die Menschheit durch Jahrhunderte und der prophetische Sinn der Menschheit durch Jahrtausende vorher den Weltenerlöser gesehen hat.
«Was immer sonst» - sagt John Stuart Mill - «die Vernunftkritik am Christentum zerstören mag, Christus bleibt uns: eine einzig dastehende Gestalt, seinen Vorgängern so unähnlich wie allen seinen Nachfolgern, sogar denen, die sich des Vorteils seiner persönlichen Unterweisung erfreuten. Dieser Schätzung tut es keinen Eintrag, wenn man sagt, der Christus der Evangelien sei nicht historisch, und daß wir nicht wissen können, wieviel von dem, was bewunderungswürdig an ihm ist, von seinen Anhängern hinzugefügt worden sei... [Denn] wer unter seinen Jüngern oder den von diesen Bekehrten ist imstande gewesen, die Jesus zugeschriebenen Reden zu ersinnen oder ein Leben auszudenken und eine Persönlichkeit zu gestalten, wie sie uns aus den Evangelien entgegentritt? Sicherlich nicht die Fischerleute aus Galiläa, und ebensowenig St. Paulus, dessen Charakter und Neigungen von ganz anderer Art waren; am wenigsten jedoch die ersten christlichen Schriftsteller. Was von einem Schüler hinzugefügt und eingeschoben werden konnte, läßt sich aus den mystischen Teilen des Evangeliums Johannes ersehen, welche dem Philo und den alexandrinischen Platonikern entlehnt und dem Heiland in den Mund gelegt werden, und zwar in langen Reden über sich selbst, wovon die anderen Evangelien nicht die leiseste Spur enthalten... Der Orient war voll von solchen Männern, die jede beliebige Menge von solchem Zeug gestohlen haben konnten, wie es die vielerlei Sekten der orientalischen Gnostiker später taten. Aber dem I.eben und den Reden Jesu ist der Stempel des Tiefsinns und eine so persönliche Originalität aufgeprägt, daß sie - wenn wir der müßigen Erwartung entsagen, wissenschaftliche Genauigkeit da zu finden, wo es auf etwas ganz anderes abgesehen war - den Propheten von Nazareth, selbst in der Schätzung derer, welche an seine Inspiration nicht glauben, in die erste Reihe der erhabensten Männer stellen, deren unser Geschlecht sich rühmen darf. Da dieser außerordentliche Geist außerdem noch mit den Eigenschaften des wahrscheinlich größten Reformators und Märtyrers ausgestattet war, der je auf Erden gelebt hat, so kann man nicht sagen, daß die Religion eine schlechte Wahl getroffen habe» — eine Wahl getroffen! Man wählt ja im 19. Jahrhundert! - «daß die Religion eine schlechte Wahl getroffen habe, indem sie diesen Mann als idealen Vertreter und Führer der Menschheit aufstellte; auch jetzt würde es, selbst für einen Ungläubigen, nicht leicht sein, eine bessere Übertragung der Tugendregeln vom Abstrakten ins Konkrete zu finden, als so zu leben, daß Christus unser Leben guthieße. Berücksichtigt man schließlich noch, daß sogar für den Skeptiker immerhin die Möglichkeit bestehen bleibt, daß Christus wirklich das war, wofür er sich selbst ausgab - nicht Gott, denn der zu sein hatte er nie den leisesten Anspruch erhoben; auch würde er in einem solchen Anspruch wahrscheinlich eine ebenso große Gotteslästerung erblickt haben wie die Männer, die ihn verurteilten -: wohl aber der von Gott ausdrücklich mit der einzigen Mission, die Menschheit zur Wahrheit und zur Tugend zu führen, betraute Mann, so dürfen wir sicherlich schließen, daß die Einflüsse der Religion auf den Charakter, die verbleiben werden, nachdem die Vernunftkritik ihr Äußerstes gegen die Beweise der Religion getan haben wird, der Erhaltung wohl wert sind, und daß, was ihnen im Vergleiche mit denen eines andern, besser begründeten Glaubens an direkter Beweiskraft abgeht, durch die größere Wahrheit und Richtigkeit der Sittlichkeit, die sie sanktionieren, mehr als aufgewogen wird.»
Da haben wir das Bild, welches die Philistrosität des 19. Jahrhunderts, indem sie Geist von ihrem Geiste nahm, dem Wesen aufprägte, das die Menschheit durch Jahrhunderte den Weltenerlöser genannt hat. Sehen wir uns noch eine andere Stimme an eines in gewissem Sinne internationalen Geistes, Heinrich Heines:
«Christus ist der Gott, den ich am meisten liebe — nicht weil er so ein legitimer Gott ist, dessen Vater schon Gott war und seit undenklicher Zeit die Welt beherrschte: sondern weil er, obgleich ein geborener Dauphin des Himmels, dennoch, demokratisch gesinnt, keinen höfischen Zeremonialprunk liebt, weil er kein Gott einer Aristokratie von geschorenen Schriftgelehrten und galonierten Lanzenknechten, und weil er ein bescheidener Gott des Volkes ist, ein Bürgergott, un bon dieu citoyen. Wahrlich, wenn Christus noch kein Gott wäre, so würde ich ihn dazu wählen, und viel lieber als einem aufgezwungenen absoluten Gotte würde ich ihm gehorchen, ihm, dem Wahlgotte, dem Gotte meiner Wahl. ...»
«Nur solange die Religionen mit anderen zu rivalisieren haben und weit mehr verfolgt werden als selbst verfolgen, sind sie herrlich und ehrenwert, nur da gibt’s Begeisterung, Aufopferung, Märtyrer und Palmen. Wie schön, wie heilig lieblich, wie heimlich süß war das Christentum der ersten Jahrhunderte, als es selbst noch seinem göttlichen Stifter glich im Heldentum des Leidens. Da war’s noch die schöne Legende von einem heimlichen Gotte, der in sanfter Jünglingsgestalt unter den Palmen Palästinas wandelte und Menschenliebe predigte und jene Freiheits- und Gleichheitslehre offenbarte, die auch später die Vernunft der größten Denker als wahr erkannt hat, und die, als französisches Evangelium, unsere Zeit begeistert. »
Nun haben wir dieses Heine-Bekenntnis, worinnen derjenige, den die Menschheit durch Jahrhunderte den Weltenerlöser genannt hat, gelobt wird, weil man ihn nach demokratischer Weise jetzt wählen würde, wenn er nicht schon dastehen würde, und weil er dasselbe Evangelium, das dann am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts gepredigt worden ist, auch schon gepredigt hat. Er war also brav genug dazu, schon so groß zu sein wie diejenigen, die dieses Evangelium verstehen können!
Nehmen wir einen andern Geist des 19. Jahrhunderts. Sie wissen, daß ich Eduard von Hartmann sehr schätze. Ich führe nur diejenigen an, die ich schätze, um an ihnen zu zeigen, in welchem Sinne sich die Gedanken über den Christus Jesus im 19. Jahrhundert bewegt haben.
«Man sieht» - sagt Eduard von Hartmann, der Philosoph -, «daß ohne den Zauber einer imponierenden und gewinnenden Persönlichkeit Jesus durch seine geistigen Fähigkeiten nicht wohl solche Erfolge hätte erzielen können. Diese Persönlichkeit äußerte sich zunächst in einer ungewöhnlichen oratorischen Begabung. Es muß aber auch seine stille Hoheit und hingebende Weichheit etwas ungemein Fesselndes für die sich ihm Anschließenden gehabt haben, nicht bloß für Männer, sondern auch für Weiber, deren viele sich ihm anschlossen, Prostituierte (Luc. 7,37), verheiratete Frauen höherer Stände (Luc. 8,3) und ehrbare Jungfrauen ohne Unterschied. Meist waren es exaltierte Personen, Epileptische, Hysterische und Wahnsinnige, zum Teil vielleicht solche, die sich von ihm geheilt glaubten. Bekanntlich sind solche Frauen immer am leichtesten geneigt, ihre religiöse Schwärmerei auf einen anziehenden männlichen Gegenstand zu konzentrieren und zu individualisieren und diesen mit einem Kultus zu umgeben. Es kann nichts näherliegen, als daß diese Frauen es auch gewesen sind, die in Jesus die Idee seiner Messianität wo nicht geweckt, so doch genährt haben und durch ihre vergötternden Huldigungen haben Wurzel schlagen lassen. Nach unseren heutigen psychologischen und psychiatrischen Ansichten kann auf solchem krankhaften Boden eine gesunde Religiosität nicht erwachsen, und wir würden heute einem religiösen Reformator oder Propheten den Rat geben, solche Bestandteile aus seinem Gefolge nach Möglichkeit auszuscheiden, da sie ihn und seine Sache allzu leicht kompromittieren können.»
Noch eine andere Stimme möchte ich anführen, die Stimme einer der Hauptpersönlichkeiten in einem Romane, der im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts großen Einfluß gewonnen hat auf die Urteile der sogenannten gebildeten Menschen eines weiten Gebietes. In Paul Heyses «Die Kinder der Welt», findet sich das Tagebuch der Lea. In diesem Tagebuch der Lea ist ein Urteil über den Christus Jesus enthalten, und derjenige, der die Welt kennt, der weiß, daß das Urteil, das die Lea in den «Kindern der Welt» über den Christus Jesus fällt, dasjenige ist, das unzählige Menschen im Lauf des 19. Jahrhunderts gefällt haben. Paul Heyses läßt Lea schreiben:
«Ich habe vorgestern zu schreiben aufgehört, weil es mich plötzlich trieb, einmal wieder im Neuen Testament zu lesen. Ich hatte es nicht wieder aufgeschlagen, seit so mancher unbegreifliche, drohende und verdammende Spruch darin mein Herz befremdet und ganz auf sich selbst zurückgewiesen hat. Jetzt, da ich die kindische Furcht verloren, als erschalle darin die Stimme eines unfehlbaren Geistes, eines Allwissenden, seit ich die Geschichte eines der edelsten und wunderbarsten Menschen darin erblicke, jetzt habe ich viel darin gefunden, was mich sehr erquickt hat. Nur die gedämpfte Stimmung des Ganzen hat mich zuletzt wieder beklommen gemacht. Was haben wir Menschen Befreienderes, Holderes, Tröstlicheres als die Freude, die Freude an der Schönheit, an der Güte, an der Heiterkeit der Welt! Und während wir diese Schrift lesen » - sie meint also das Neue Testament - «wandeln wir immer im Halbdunkel der Erwartung und Hoffnung, das Ewige ist nie erfüllt, sondern soll erst anbrechen, wenn wir uns durch die Zeit hindurchgerungen haben, nie erglänzt ein voller Schein der Fröhlichkeit, kein Scherz, kein Lachen - die Freude dieser Welt ist eitel - wir werden in eine Zukunft verwiesen, die alle Gegenwart wertlos macht, und die höchste Erdenwonne, uns in einen reinen, tiefen und liebevollen Gedanken zu versenken, soll uns auch verdächtig werden, da nur derer das Himmelreich sein soll, die arm an Geist sind. - Ich bin es, aber es macht mich unselig, daß ich es fühle und zugleich fühle, wenn ich diese Beschränkung durchbrechen könnte, würde ich nicht mehr die sein, die ich bin, also meiner Erlösung und Beseligung doch nicht gewahr werden. Denn was über mich hinausgeht, ist doch nicht mehr mein.
Und dann, daß dieser sanfte, gottbewußte Mensch, um der ganzen Menschheit anzugehören, mit so seltsamer Härte sich von den Seinigen abwandte, daß er familienlos wurde - es hat wohl sein müssen -, aber es erkältet meine Empfindung. Alles Große, was ich sonst liebgewonnen habe, war traulich, heiter, mitten in der Majestät durch die Fäden menschlicher Bedürftigkeit mit meinem Wesen verbunden.»
Nun, da haben Sie es, wie das Neue Testament sein müßte, wenn es solch einer Repräsentantin des 19. Jahrhunderts hätte genügen sollen! Denn sie sagt, daß alles Große, was sie sonst liebgewonnen, traulich, heiter, mitten in der Majestät durch die Fäden menschlicher Bedürftigkeit mit dem eigenen Wesen verbunden sei. - Weil das Neue Testament nun doch eine Kraft enthält, die man nicht gerade bezeichnen kann so, daß man sie sanft liebzugewinnen hat, daß sie traulich ist, heiter, mitten in der Majestät durch die Fäden menschlicher Bedürftigkeit mit dem eigenen Wesen verbunden ist, so taugt das Evangelium für einen Menschen des 19. Jahrhunderts nicht mehr so recht.
«Wenn ich Goethe’s Briefe lese - Schillers enge Häuslichkeit - von Luther und den Seinigen - von Ältern noch, bis zu Sokrates’ böser Frau - immer spüre ich einen Hauch von dem Mutterboden, aus dem die Pflanze ihres Geistes gewachsen ist,» - also selbst von der seligen Xanthippe fühlt sich die gute Lea noch mehr angezogen, als von den Gestalten des Neuen Testaments! - «der auch meinen so viel geringeren nährt und trägt.»
So ist dasjenige, was die Meinung von Tausenden und aber Tausenden von Menschen des 19. Jahrhunderts ist.
«Aber die Weltlosigkeit ängstigt und entfremdet mich, und zur Entschuldigung dafür habe ich freilich nicht den guten Glauben, daß das alles, als bei einem Gott, ganz in der Ordnung sei. »
Es geziemt sich wohl, in dieser ernsten Stunde zu fragen: Was ist also eigentlich der Gehalt in der Seele, den heute die Menschheit den Weihnachtslichtern entgegenbringt? Denn dieser Gehalt in den Seelen setzt sich zusammen aus solchen Stimmen, wie wir sie jetzt vernommen haben und wie wir sie vermehren könnten ins Hundertfache, ins Tausendfache. Und es geziemt sich nicht, in ernster Stunde leichten Sinnes hinwegzusehen über dasjenige, was in bezug auf das größte Mysterium des Erdenwesens gesagt worden ist. Es geziemt sich vielmehr, heute zu fragen: Was vermochten die offiziellen Vertreter des Christentums aller Konfessionen zu tun, um hintanzuhalten eine Entwickelung, die also hinweggeführt hat von einem wirklich innerlich wahrhaftigen und ehrlichen Sich-Bekennen zu demjenigen, was hinter den Weihnachtslichtern steht? Denn, kann eine Menschheit ein solches Fest als etwas anderes denn als eine umfassende Lüge feiern, wenn sie die eben vorgebrachten Gedanken in ihren besten Repräsentanten an diejenige Wesenheit anknüpft, welche durch das Weihnachtsmysterium geschaut werden soll als der Impuls, der sich aus dem Kosmos heraus mit dem Erdengeschicke verbunden hat?
Was wollten die Magier aus dem Morgenlande, als sie göttliche Weisheit, Tugend und Unsterblichkeit hintrugen zu der Krippe, nach dem Ereignisse, das sie in dem Zeichen des Erscheinens der Sonne aus dem Sternbilde der Jungfrau geschaut hatten in der Nacht vom 24. auf den 25.Dezember, im ersten Jahre unserer Zeitrechnung? Was wollten die Magier aus dem Morgenlande? Sie wollten damit den großen geschichtlichen Beweis liefern, daß sie verstanden haben, daß dasjenige, was an Kräften aus dem Kosmos auf die Erde herunterströmte bisher, nicht in derselben Weise - durch bloßes Hinaufblicken zum Kosmos, zu den Konstellationen der Sterne - in der Zukunft für die Menschen erreichbar ist. Sie wollten zeigen, daß notwendig ist, daß die Menschen nunmehr beginnen, den Blick hinzuwenden selbst auf dasjenige, was innerhalb des geschichtlichen Werdens, des sozialen, des sittlichen Werdens in der Erdenmenschheit selbst geschieht, daß der Christus beruntergestiegen ist aus den Regionen, aus denen die Sonne aus der Jungfrau erscheint, aus denen alle Sternkonstellationen mit ihren Kräften kommen, die den Mikrokosmos als ein Nachbild des Makrokosmos erscheinen lassen. Daß dieser Geist, daß dieses Wesen eingezogen ist in die unmittelbare Erdenentwickelung, daß die Erdenentwickelung selber fortan mit solcher innerer Weisheit nur durchschaut werden kann, wie früher die Sternkonstellationen durchschaut worden sind, das wollten die Magier aus dem Morgenlande sagen. Und dessen muß man heute noch immer eingedenk sein.
Der Mensch sieht heute auf die Geschichte so hin, als ob immer nur das Frühere die Ursache des Späteren wäre, als ob, wenn wir die Ereignisse des Jahres 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917 betrachten wollen, wir einfach zurückgehen müßten auf 1913, 1912, 1911 und so weiter, um das geschichtliche Werden so zu betrachten, wie man auch das natürliche Werden betrachtet, wo man von der Wirkung aus auf das Anstoßende geht, um in diesem Anstoßenden die Ursache zu finden. Aus dieser Gesinnung heraus hat sich jene Fable convenue gebildet, die heute unserer Jugend zu deren Unheil als «Geschichte» eingeimpft wird.
Wahres Christentum und insbesondere ehrliches und aufrichtiges Durchschauen des Weihnachts- und Ostermysteriums ist der schärfste Protest gegen diese ins Naturwissenschaftliche verkarikierte Weltgeschichte. Das Christentum hat die Weltgeheimnisse in Zusammenhang gebracht mit dem Jahreslauf. Es läßt in der Zeit, die immer erinnern soll an die Urkonstellation vom Jahre 1, vom 24. auf den 25.Dezember, vom Erscheinen der Sonne aus dem Sternbilde der Jungfrau, es läßt diese Zeit jedes Jahr als das Weihnachtsfest feiern. Die christliche Anschauung hat das Weihnachtsfest unter diesem Gesichtspunkt festgesetzt. Sie läßt dann Ostern feiern, indem sie eine gewisse Himmelskonstellation nimmt; wir wissen, der Sonntag nach dem ersten Vollmond nach Frühlingsanfang ist der festgesetzte Tag der heute schon von der materialistischen Gesinnung bestritten wird -, der festgesetzte Tag für die Feier des Osterfestes.
In der Zeit von Weihnachten bis zu Ostern schaut im Jahreslauf als einen Teil desselben derjenige, der in ehrlicher und aufrichtiger Weise seinen Sinn verbinden will mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha, ein Bild des dreiunddreißigjährigen Christus-Lebens. Vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha, zu dem ich auch das Weihnachtsmysterium rechne, wiesen die Magier auf den Himmel, wenn sie irgendwelche Geheimnisse, auch über die Menschheitsentwickelung, behandeln wollten. Auf die Konstellationen wiesen sie hin. Wie ein Stern sich zum andern stellt, in dem erschauten sie, was hier unten auf der Erde vor sich geht. In dem Augenblicke aber, als sie geschaut haben, was auf der Erde vor sich ging, aus dem Zeichen des Standes der Sonne in der Jungfrau vom 24. auf den 25. Dezember, da sagten sie: Es muß nun auch die Sternenkonstellation in den menschlichen Handlungen auf der Erde selbst in unmittelbarer Weise geschaut werden.
Ist Sternenkonstellation in den menschlichen Handlungen? Meine lieben Freunde, lesen können, das ist die Anforderung; lesen können dasjenige, was gemeint ist mit der wunderbaren Anleitung zum Lesen, die in den Jahresmysterien des Christentums gegeben ist, welche Jahresmysterien nur wiederum aufgebaut sind auf den sämtlichen andern Jahresmysterien aller Völker des Erdenlebens. Dreiunddreißig Jahre sind gemeint für die Zeit von Weihnachten zu Ostern. Das muß verstanden werden, das muß ins Auge gefaßt werden. Dreiunddreißig Jahre, so ist die Meinung, sollen vergehen zwischen Weihnachten und Ostern.
Was folgt daraus? Daraus folgt, daß das Weihnachtsfest, das wir dies Jahr feiern, erst gehört zu dem Osterfeste, das in dreiunddreißig Jahren kommen wird, und daß das Osterfest, das wir in diesem Jahre [1917] feierten, zu dem Weihnachtsfeste gehört vom Jahre 1884. 1884 feierte die Menschheit ein Weihnachtsfest, welches zu dem diesjährigen Osterfest gehört. Und das Weihnachtsfest, das wir in diesem Jahre feiern, das gehört nicht zu dem Osterfeste des nächsten Jahres, das gehört zu dem OÖsterfeste, das dreiunddreißig Jahre darauf folgen wird. Eine vollständige Menschheitsgeneration ist die Zeit von dreiunddreißig Jahren, so rechnet man. Eine Menschheitsgenerationszeit muß vergehen zwischen dem zusammengehörigen Weihnachts- und Osterfeste. Dies ist die Anleitung, um die neue Astrologie zu lesen, jene Astrologie, welche auf die Sterne, die in der geschichtlichen Menschheitsentwickelung selber glänzen, das Augenmerk hinlenkt.
Wie kann das erfüllt werden? So kann das erfüllt werden, daß der Mensch das Weihnachtsfest dazu anwendet, um sich bewußt zu werden: Dasjenige, was ungefähr - man kann natürlich von diesen Dingen nur sagen ungefähr - in dieser Zeit geschieht, weist im historischen Zusammenhang so zurück, daß es seinen Geburtsausgang genommen hat vor dreiunddreißig Jahren, daß es selber wiederum der Geburtsausgang ist für dasjenige, was sich im Lauf der nächsten dreiunddreißig Jahre abwickelt.
Im einzelnen persönlichen Leben, im individuellen Dasein, waltet unser Karma. Da ist jeder für sich selbst verantwortlich; da muß aber auch jeder dasjenige, was in seinem Karma liegt, hinnehmen. Da muß er erwarten, daß ein unbedingter Zusammenhang besteht im karmischen Sinne zwischen dem Vorangehenden und Nachfolgenden.
Wie ist es mit dem geschichtlichen Zusammenhange? Mit dem geschichtlichen Zusammenhange ist es so, daß für unseren gegenwärtigen Menschheitszyklus wir nicht verstehen können, wir nicht begreifen und richtig empfinden können ein Ereignis, das sich heute, 1917, vollzieht, wo sein Osterjahr ist, wenn wir nicht zurückschauen bis in die Zeit, da sein Weihnachtsjahr war, wenn wir nicht zurückschauen in das Jahr 1884. Für das Jahr 1914 ist also zurückzuschauen in das Jahr 1881. Was die Generation, die vorher an der Geschichte mitgetan hat, für Impulse hineingeworfen hat in den Strom des geschichtlichen Werdens, das hat eine Lebenszeit von dreiunddreißig Jahren; dann ist sein Osteranfang, dann ist seine Auferstehung. Wann wurde der Keim gelegt zu jenen Ostern, die die Menschheit nun durch Jahre, seit dem Jahre 1914 hat? Vor dreiunddreißig Jahren.
Zusammenhänge in Intervallen von dreiunddreißig zu dreiunddreißig Jahren, das ist dasjenige, was Verständnis bringt in dem fortlaufenden Strom des geschichtlichen Werdens. Und eine Zeit muß kommen, wo der Mensch in der Weihezeit, die ihren Anfang nimmt mit der Weihenacht vom 24. auf den 25.Dezember, sich darauf besinnt: Was du - so möge er sich sagen -, was du jetzt tust, das wird fortwirken und erst auferstehen und erst äußere Tat werden, nicht im persönlichen, im geschichtlichen Sinne, nach dreiunddreißig Jahren. Ich verstehe dasjenige, was jetzt geschieht, wenn ich zurückblicke — selbst im äußeren Geschehen verstehe ich dasjenige, was jetzt geschieht - auf die Zeit, die sich jetzt nach der Regel der dreiunddreißig Jahre erfüllen muß.
Als im Beginne der achtziger Jahre der Aufstand des mohammedanischen Propheten, des Mahdi, auftrat, als er damit endete, daß die englische Herrschaft sich über Ägypten ausdehnte, als in derselben Zeit von französischer Seite Hinterindien sogar durch einen Krieg mit China für die europäische Herrschaft erobert werden mußte, als die Kongo-Konferenz gehalten worden ist, als die andern Ereignisse von dieser Art stattfanden - studieren Sie alles, was jetzt, 1917, eine dreiunddreißigjährige Erfüllung hat! -, da wurde die Ursache gelegt zu demjenigen, was jetzt geschieht. Damals hätten die Menschen sich fragen sollen: Welche Aussichten für das Ostern nach dreiunddreißig Jahren verspricht das Weihnachten von diesem Jahre? - Denn alle Dinge im geschichtlichen Werden erstehen nach dreiunddreißig Jahren in verwandelter Gestalt aus dem Grabe, durch eine Gewalt, die zusammenhängt mit dem Heiligsten und Erlösendsten, das die Menschheit durch das Mysterium von Golgatha bekommen hat.
Aber das Mysterium von Golgatha will nicht nur sentimental beschwätzt werden. Das Mysterium von Golgatha will verstanden werden mit den höchsten Weisheitskräften, die dem Menschen zugänglich sind. Das Mysterium von Golgatha will empfunden werden mit dem Tiefsten, was der Mensch in seiner Seele erregen kann, wenn er das, was die Weisheit in ihm entzünden kann, in den Untergründen der Seele selber sucht, wenn er von Liebe nicht bloß redet, sondern diese Liebe entflammt dadurch, daß er seine Seele verbindet mit dem, was als Weltenseele wallt und strömt durch der Zeiten Wende, wenn er sich aneignet Sinn und Verständnis für die Geheimnisse des Werdens. Denn so, wie einstmals zu den alten Magiern sprach der Sternenhimmel, wie sie ihn fragten, wenn sie irgend etwas vollbringen wollten im sozialen Menschenwerden, so hat derjenige, der in der heutigen Zeit irgend etwas im sozialen Menschenwerden vollbringen will, hinzuschauen auf die Sterne, die auf- und untergehen im geschichtlichen Werden. Und wie berechnet worden ist die Umlaufszeit der Sterne um die Sonne, so ist berechnet in der wahren geschichtlichen Menschenweisheit die Umlaufszeit der geschichtlichen Ereignisse. Und diese Umlaufszeit ist von einem Weihnachten zu einem Ostern, das dreiunddreißig Jahre nachher liegt. So regeln die Geister der Umlaufszeiten dasjenige, in dem die Menschenseele lebt und webt, indem sie nicht bloß eine persönliche Wesenheit ist, indem sie eine in das geschichtliche Werden hineinverwobene Wesenheit ist.
Wenn wir in dieser Zeit uns versenken in das Weihnachtsmysterium, tun wir es dann am besten, wenn wir uns bekanntmachen mit den Geheimnissen, die enthüllt werden sollen gerade in unserer Zeit, um die bereichert werden soll der Strom der christlichen Überlieferung, wie sie sich anschließt an das Mysterium von Golgatha und an dasjenige, was durch das Weihnachtsmysterium ausgedrückt wird. Der Christus sprach zu der Menschheit: «Ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis ans Ende der Erdenzeiten.» Diejenigen, die sich heute seine Jünger nennen, die sprechen aber oftmals davon, daß die Offenbarungen aus der geistigen Welt wohl da waren zur Zeit des Christus Jesus selber, daß sie aber aufgehört haben, und daß heute derjenige etwas Ruchloses vollbringt, der behauptet, daß jetzt noch immer in wunderbarer Weise aus der geistigen Welt heraus die spirituellen Offenbarungen geschehen können. So ist in vieler Beziehung dasjenige, was sich heute offizielles Christentum nennt, eine Bestrebung geworden zur Verhinderung der christlichen Entwickelung.
Dasjenige aber, was geblieben ist, die heiligen Symbole - und eines der heiligsten ist dasjenige, das aus dem Weihnachtsmysterium spricht -, sie sind selber ein lebendiger Protest gegen die Unterdrückung des wahren Christentums, wie sie oftmals durch das offizielle Christentum verkündet wird.
Zeugnis geben will anthroposophisch orientierte Geisteswissenschaft - unter manchem andern, was sie will - von der Bedeutung des Mystetiums von Golgatha, von der Bedeutung des Weihnachtsmysteriums. Und es gehört zu ihrer Aufgabe, Zeugnis von dem zu geben, was der Erde Sinn, und Bedeutung gibt dem Menschenleben. Und wenn der Weihnachtsbaum in der neueren Zeit - er ist ja kaum mehr als einige Jahrhunderte alt - zum Symbolum der Weihnachtsfeier geworden ist, so möge derjenige, der heute unter dem Weihnachtsbaum steht, sich fragen: Ist es noch eine Wahrheit für dich, was über dem Weihnachtsbaum geschrieben steht? Geschrieben steht durch das Zeugnis der Geschichte: «Et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine.» Ist es noch eine Wahrheit für dich? - Daß es Wahrheit ist, das zu erkennen, dazu braucht man spirituelle Erkenntnis. Und keine Naturforschung kann Antwort geben auf die Fragen nach der jungfräulichen Geburt und nach der Auferstehung, sondern jede Naturforschung muß ablehnen die jungfräuliche Geburt und die Auferstehung. Verstanden werden können sie nur aus einem Gebiete heraus, in dem da nicht waltet Geburt in der Art, wie sie in der Sinneswelt waltet, und nicht der Tod waltet, wie er in der Sinneswelt waltet. Wie der Christus Jesus so durch den Tod gegangen ist, daß dieser Tod eine Maja ist und die Auferstehung die Wahrheit - was das Ostermysterium enthält -, so ist auch der Christus Jesus durch die Geburt gegangen, so daß diese Geburt eine Maja ist, und die Wahrheit eine Verwandlung des Wesens innerhalb der geistigen Welt ist. Denn in der geistigen Welt gibt es nicht Geburt und Tod, sondern nur Verwandlung, wie wir wissen, nur Metamorphose.
Nur wenn die Menschheit geneigt sein wird, aufzublicken zu derjenigen Welt, wo Geburt und Tod im sinnenfälligen Sinne ihren Sinn verlieren, werden Weihnachtsfest und Osterfest ihren würdigen Inhalt bekommen. Dann, aber auch nur dann wird sich auch unser Herz, wird sich unsere Seele erfüllen mit jener Wärme des Tones, mit der ausgerüstet wir wiederum hintreten können vor diejenigen, vor die wir hintreten sollen, um ihnen schon in der allerfrühesten Kindheit zu sprechen von dem Kinde, das in der Krippe gelegen hat, und von den Magiern des Morgenlandes, und wie von ihnen jenem Kinde Weisheit, Tugend und Unsterblichkeit dargebracht worden sind. Den Kindern gegenüber müssen wir davon reden können. Denn, was wir zu dem Kinde von dem Weihnachtsmysterium heute sagen, das wird in dem Kinde das Osterfest feiern, auferstehen, nachdem das Kind dreiunddreißig weitere Jahre durchgemacht hat.
Im geschichtlichen Werden ist die Menschheit so mit Verantwortlichkeit durchtränkt, daß die vorhergehende Generation in den Weihnachtsimpuls nur legen kann, was die nachfolgende Generation als Osterimpuls zu empfangen hat. Werde man sich bewußt, daß eine Generation zu der nachfolgenden so hinzuschauen hat, daß sie zu gedenken hat: Im Weihnachtssterne lehre ich dich pflanzen in deiner Seele als Geburt dasjenige, was auferstehen wird im Ostersterne nach dreiunddreißig Jahren. Weiß ich diesen Zusammenhang zwischen dieser und der folgenden Generation, dann habe ich gewonnen - so kann sich jeder sagen - einen Impuls in aller Arbeit, der hinausreicht über den Tag. Denn die Zeit zwischen Weihnachten und Ostern dauert nicht nur die Wochen, die verlaufen zwischen Weihnachten und Ostern; sie dauert in Wahrheit dreiunddreißig Jahre, so lange als umläuft ein Impuls, den ich in die Seele eines Kindes versenkt habe als einen Weihnachtsimpuls, der nach dreiunddreißig Jahren auferstehen wird als ein Osterimpuls.
Solche Dinge sind nicht allein für theoretisches, eitles Wissen. Solche Dinge gewinnen einen Wert allein, wenn sie praktische Tat werden, wenn unsere Seele sich erfüllt mit der Überzeugung von ihnen also, daß sie gar nicht anders kann, als in ihrem Lichte handeln. Dann aber ist die Seele voll von Liebe zu denjenigen Wesen, an denen die Taten in diesem Lichte getan werden sollen. Dann ist die Liebe eine konkrete, dann ist die Liebe eine solche, welche mit der Weltenwärme verbunden ist, und hat nichts von jener sentimentalen Liebe, die heute auf allen Lippen ist und die zum größten Hassesimpuls in der Menschheit in unserem katastrophalen Zeitalter geführt hat.
Diejenigen, die lange Zeit die Liebe im Munde führten, die haben kein Recht, weiter zu sprechen von dieser Liebe, die sich in Haß umgedreht hat; sie haben vielmehr die Pflicht, sich zu fragen: Was haben wir mit unserem Liebesgerede, mit unserem WeihnachtsLiebesgerede unterlassen, daß also eine Saat des Hasses daraus werden konnte? - Zu fragen aber hat die Menschheit: Was haben wir zu suchen in den geistigen Welten, damit wir wieder finden können dasjenige, was verloren ist: die Liebe, welche durch alle Wesen wärmend wallt und lebt, aber Liebe nur ist, wenn sie herausquillt aus dem lebendigen Verständnis des Seins. Denn lieben ein Wesen heißt, dieses Wesen verstehen. Lieben heißt nicht, sein Herz mit egoistischer Wärme so zu erfüllen, daß der Mund in sentimentalen Reden übersprudelt; lieben heißt, die Wesen, an denen man Taten tun soll, so in sein Auge fassen zu können, daß man sie bis ins Innerste hinein versteht, versteht nicht nur mit dem Intellekt, versteht mit dem ganzen Wesen seines menschlichen Seins.
Daß solche Liebe, die aus spirituell-innigstem Verständnis quellen kann, in der Menschheit Platz greife, daß nach solcher Liebe Sehnsucht ist, daß es Wille werde, solche Liebe zu pflegen, das möge sich jetzt in dieser ernsten Zeit der Mensch sagen, der nachfolgen will den Magiern aus dem Morgenlande zur Krippe von Bethlehem hin. Er möge sich sagen: So wie die Magier aus dem Morgenlande Verständnis suchten, um zu finden den Weg, den Weg der Liebe zu der Krippe von Bethlehem hin, so will ich suchen den Weg, der mir den Einblick eröffnet in jenes Licht, unter dem die wahren Taten der Menschenliebe getan werden.
Wie die Magier aus dem Morgenlande die äußeren Sternenkonstellationen als nicht mehr maßgeblich hielten, sondern hintrugen das Wissen von diesen Sternenkonstellationen, den Opfersinn für diese Sternenkonstellationen, die Verbindung der Unsterblichkeit mit diesen Sternenkonstellationen vor das Christus-Kind der Weihnachtsnacht, so trage die neuere Menschheit dasjenige, was sie an tiefsten Impulsen in ihrer Seele aufbringen kann, hin vor dasjenige, wofür das Weihnachtsfest der symbolische Jahresausdruck ist! In solchem Bewußtsein werden wiederum würdige Weihnachtsfest, ehrliche, aufrichtige Weihnachtsfeste von der Menschheit gefeiert werden. Denn in dem Feiern wird liegen nicht eine Ableugnung, sondern ein Wissen von dem Wesen, dem wir die Weihnachtslichter anzünden.
First Lecture
The meaning connected with the power of human longing, which has taken root in human hearts for many centuries with the festival whose symbol in modern times has become the Christmas tree, this meaning is expressed in the words which have resounded since the beginning of time, originating from the mystery of Golgotha, and which are to be transplanted further into the development of the earthly being. This meaning, which shines through this period, is connected with the words: “Et incarnatus est de spiritn sancto ex Maria virgine.”
It can be said that a large part of modern humanity attaches as little meaning to the words “Et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine” as it does to the mystery of the Resurrection at Easter. One may say, in a sense, that just as it seems unlikely to the newer sense, which is no longer turned toward the spiritual world, to see the central mystery of Christianity in the resurrection from the dead, so it seems equally unlikely to the same thinking, the same feeling, to accept the spiritual fact connected with the mystery of Christmas: the incarnation, the embodiment from the virgin birth. Yes, one can safely say that a large part of modern humanity will agree more with the natural scientist who called the mystery of the virgin birth “an insolent mockery of human reason” than with those who want to take this mystery seriously in a spiritual sense.
And yet, in the Christian sense, the mystery of the Incarnation of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary has been valid since the mystery of Golgotha. In another sense, it was already valid before the mystery of Golgotha. Those who brought the symbols, or rather the symbolic gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, to the child lying in the manger had read in the stars, in the sense of ancient science, the mystery of the virgin birth, that is, the mystery of Christmas, for thousands of years. And they, the magi with their gold, frankincense, and myrrh, came because they had seen the signs of the times. What were these signs of the times? The magi with their gold, frankincense, and myrrh were, in the sense understood by ancient wisdom, astrologers. They were familiar with the spiritual processes that take place in the cosmos when certain signs appear in the sky.
One such sign was that on the night of December 24 to 25—in the year we now call the birth of Christ Jesus—the sun, the great world symbol of the world redeemer, sparkled from the vault of heaven, sparkled from the constellation Virgo. They said that when the constellation appeared in the sky, when the sun stood in the constellation of Virgo on the night of December 24 to 25, an important transformation would take place on Earth. Then the time will have come when we will offer the gold, that is, the symbol of our knowledge of the divine guidance of the worlds, which we have hitherto sought only in the constellations of the stars, to that impulse which is becoming part of the earthly evolution of humanity; when we will have to offer the incense, the spirit of sacrifice, which at the same time symbolizes the highest human virtue, so that we may unite ourselves with the power emanating from Christ, who is to be incarnated in that human personality to whom we offer the incense as a symbolic gift, in order to perform this highest human virtue; and thirdly, the myrrh as the symbol of that which is eternal in the human being. What we have felt connected to throughout the millennia with the forces that speak down from the constellations, we seek further by offering it as a gift to the One who was to become a new impulse for humanity. We seek our immortality by connecting our soul to the impulse of Christ Jesus. When the cosmic symbol of the world force, the sun world force, shines down from the Virgin, then a new earth age will begin.
This was believed and regarded as true for thousands of years. And when the Magi felt compelled lay down the wisdom of the divine, the human sense of virtue, the feeling of human immortality — symbolically expressed in gold, frankincense, and myrrh — before the divine child, they repeated as a historical event what had been symbolically represented in countless mysteries and countless sacrificial acts throughout the millennia, by sacrificing gold, frankincense, and myrrh on this Christmas night to the symbolic divine child who was kept in the ancient temples as the representative of the sun, as a prophetic reference to the event that was to occur when the sun would appear from the sky at midnight on December 24 to 25, shining from the Virgin. Thus, in a Christian way, the “Incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine” has been speaking for almost two millennia, and the same Incarnatus has been speaking on earth since time immemorial. We confront the times in which we live with the question: Do people still really know what they are supposed to look up to when they celebrate Christmas? Is there a full awareness today that a world force has appeared from cosmic heights, under cosmic signs, through a virgin birth, understood in a spiritual sense, and that the Christmas lights are meant to pour into our hearts an awareness that the human soul is connected, bound by its most intimate ties, to that which can be seen not only as an earthly event, but as a cosmic-earthly event?
The times are serious, and it is probably also appropriate in such serious times to answer questions such as those just raised seriously in holy hours. And so let us first take a brief look at the thoughts of the best members of humanity in the past 19th century to see whether the idea of Christ Jesus lived so much in the newer humanity that we can find that the Christmas mystery has its meaning in the fact that humanity wants to celebrate something eternal under the glow of the Christmas lights.
Let us recall some of the voices of the best personalities of the 19th century. First, let us quote the words of a personality who was deeply concerned with exploring the nature of Jesus and who attempted to give a picture of Christ Jesus from the consciousness of the 19th century: Ernest Renan. Ernest Renan looked at the sites of Palestine in a truly realistic and materialistic way with his physical eyes. From his immediate material perception, he wants to revive in his own soul an image of the personality who has been called the Savior of the world for centuries, even millennia. We hear from Ernest Renan in “The Life of Jesus”:
“A charming nature contributed to creating, if I may say so, the monotheistic spirit that gave all the dreams of Galilee an idyllic and charming character. The saddest region in the world is perhaps the area around Jerusalem. Galilee, on the other hand, was a very green, very shady, and very cheerful region, the right home for the Song of Songs and the songs of the Beloved. In March and April, this area is a carpet of flowers of incomparable freshness of color. The animals here are small but very tame. Delicate, lively turtle doves, blue blackbirds, so light that they can perch on a blade of grass without bending it, crested larks that settle almost at the feet of the wanderer, small pond turtles with lively, gentle eyes, storks with solemn, serious expressions allow people to come very close to them; indeed, they even seem to call to them.
And Ernest Renan never tires of describing this idyll of Galilee, so completely isolated from world history, so that in this idyll, in this unassuming landscape with turtledoves and storks, what has connected humanity throughout the centuries with the Savior of the world could take place.
The meaning of the earth, that which humanity has sought to look up to for centuries, is only appealing to the thinker of the 19th century if he can describe it as an idyll with turtledoves and storks.
“Thus the whole history of the origin of Christianity,” Ernest Renan continues, “has become a delightful idyll. A Messiah at a wedding feast, invited by courtesans and the good Zacchaeus to his celebrations, the founders of the divine kingdom like a procession of bridesmaids—that is what Galilee dared, what it brought about."
This is one of the voices. Let us listen to another voice from the wider chorus of voices of the 19th century, the voice of John Stuart Mill, who also wants to find his way out of the consciousness of the 19th century with the essence in which humanity has seen the world's savior for centuries and the prophetic sense of humanity for millennia before that.
“Whatever else,” says John Stuart Mill, “the criticism of reason may destroy in Christianity, Christ remains to us: a unique figure, so unlike his predecessors and all his followers, even those who enjoyed the advantage of his personal instruction. This assessment is not diminished by saying that the Christ of the Gospels is not historical, and that we cannot know how much of what is admirable in him was added by his followers... [For] who among his disciples or those converted by them would have been capable of inventing the sayings attributed to Jesus or of conceiving a life and shaping a personality such as we encounter in the Gospels? Certainly not the fishermen from Galilee, nor St. Paul, whose character and inclinations were of a completely different nature; and least of all the first Christian writers. What could have been added and inserted by a disciple can be seen in the mystical parts of the Gospel of John, which were borrowed from Philo and the Alexandrian Platonists and put into the mouth of the Savior in long speeches about himself, of which the other Gospels contain not the slightest trace... The Orient was full of such men who could have stolen any amount of such material, as the various sects of Oriental Gnostics later did. But the life and speeches of Jesus are marked by such profundity and personal originality that, if we renounce the idle expectation of finding of finding scientific accuracy where something quite different was intended—place the prophet of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those who do not believe in his inspiration, in the first rank of the most exalted men of whom our race can boast. Since this extraordinary mind was also endowed with the qualities of probably the greatest reformer and martyr who ever lived on earth, one cannot say that religion made a bad choice” — a choice! One chooses in the 19th century! — “that religion made a poor choice in setting this man as the ideal representative and leader of mankind; even now, it would not be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better way of translating the rules of virtue from the abstract into the concrete than to live in such a way that Christ would approve of our life. Finally, if we consider that even for the skeptic there remains the possibility that Christ really was what he claimed to be—not God, for he never made the slightest claim to be so; indeed, he would probably have regarded such a claim as blasphemy, just as the men who condemned him did— but the man expressly entrusted by God with the sole mission of leading humanity to truth and virtue, we may surely conclude that the influences of religion on character, which will remain after the criticism of reason has done its utmost against the proofs of religion, are well worth preserving, and that what they lack in comparison with those of another, better founded beliefs in direct proof, is more than offset by the greater truth and correctness of the morality they sanction."
Here we have the image that 19th-century philistinism, by taking the spirit out of its spirit, imposed on the being whom humanity has called the Savior of the world for centuries. Let us look at another voice of a spirit that is international in a certain sense, Heinrich Heine:
Christ is the God I love most—not because he is such a legitimate God, whose father was already God and has ruled the world since time immemorial: but because, although he was born a Dauphin of Heaven, he is nevertheless democratically minded, does not love courtly ceremonial pomp, because he is not a god of an aristocracy of shaven-headed scribes and gilded lancers, and because he is a modest god of the people, a citizen god, un bon dieu citoyen. Truly, if Christ were not yet a god, I would choose him as such, and I would obey him much more willingly than an imposed absolute god, him, the god of my choice, the god of my choice. ..."
"Only as long as religions have rivals and are persecuted far more than they persecute themselves are they glorious and honorable; only then is there enthusiasm, sacrifice, martyrs, and palm branches. How beautiful, how holy, how sweet, how secretly lovely was Christianity in its first centuries, when it still resembled its divine founder in the heroism of suffering. There was still the beautiful legend of a secret God who walked among the palm trees of Palestine in the gentle form of a young man, preaching love for humanity and revealing the doctrine of freedom and equality, which later the greatest thinkers recognized as true and which, as the French Gospel, inspires our age.”
Now we have this confession by Heine, in which he praises the one whom humanity has called the Savior of the world for centuries, because he would now be elected in a democratic manner if he were not already here, and because he preached the same gospel that was preached at the end of the 18th century. He was therefore good enough to be as great as those who can understand this gospel!
Let us take another spirit of the 19th century. You know that I hold Eduard von Hartmann in high esteem. I only cite those whom I esteem in order to show how thoughts about Christ Jesus moved in the 19th century.
“One sees,” says Eduard von Hartmann, the philosopher, “that without the magic of an impressive and winning personality, Jesus could not have achieved such success through his spiritual abilities alone. This personality was initially expressed in an unusual oratorical talent. But his quiet majesty and devoted gentleness must also have had something incredibly captivating for those who followed him, not only for men, but also for women, many of whom joined him, prostitutes (Luke 7:37), married women of higher social standing (Luke 8:3), and respectable virgins without distinction. Most of them were exalted persons, epileptics, hysterics, and lunatics, some of whom perhaps believed themselves to have been healed by him. It is well known that such women are always most inclined to concentrate and individualize their religious enthusiasm on an attractive male object and to surround him with a cult. It is only natural that it was these women who, if not awakened, at least nourished the idea of Jesus' messianic character and allowed it to take root through their idolatrous homage. According to our current psychological and psychiatric views, healthy religiosity cannot grow on such sickly ground, and we would today advise a religious reformer or prophet to exclude such elements from his followers as far as possible, as they can all too easily compromise him and his cause.
I would like to quote another voice, that of one of the main characters in a novel that had a great influence on the opinions of so-called educated people in a wide area in the last third of the 19th century. In Paul Heyse's “Children of the World,” we find Lea's diary. This diary contains a judgment about Jesus Christ, and those who know the world know that the judgment Lea passes on Jesus Christ in “The Children of the World” is the same judgment that countless people passed in the course of the 19th century. Paul Heyse has Lea write:
“I stopped writing the day before yesterday because I suddenly felt compelled to read the New Testament again. I had not opened it since many incomprehensible, threatening, and damning sayings in it had alienated my heart and turned it completely inward. Now that I have lost my childish fear, now that I see in it the voice of an infallible spirit, of an omniscient being, now that I see in it the story of one of the noblest and most wonderful men who ever lived, I have found much in it that has greatly refreshed me. Only the subdued mood of the whole has made me feel uneasy again in the end. What do we humans have that is more liberating, more delightful, more comforting than joy, the joy of beauty, of goodness, of the cheerfulness of the world! And while we read this writing” - she means the New Testament - ”we always walk in the semi-darkness of expectation and hope; the eternal is never fulfilled, but is only to dawn when we have struggled through time, never does a full glow of happiness shine forth, no jest, no laughter—the joy of this world is vain—we are consigned to a future that renders all the present worthless, and the highest earthly delight, to immerse ourselves in a pure, deep, and loving thought, is also to be regarded with suspicion, since only those who are poor in spirit shall inherit the kingdom of heaven. - It is I, but it makes me unhappy that I feel this and at the same time feel that if I could break through this restriction, I would no longer be who I am, and thus would not attain my salvation and bliss. For what is beyond me is no longer mine.
And then, that this gentle, God-conscious man, in order to belong to all mankind, turned away from his own with such strange harshness that he became family-less—it must have been necessary—but it chills my feelings. Everything great that I have otherwise come to love was familiar, cheerful, connected to my being in the midst of majesty through the threads of human need.”
Well, there you have it, how the New Testament should be if it were to satisfy such a representative of the 19th century! For she says that everything great that she has otherwise come to love is familiar, cheerful, connected with her own being in the midst of majesty through the threads of human need. - Because the New Testament does contain a power that cannot exactly be described as gentle, cheerful, or connected to one's own being through the threads of human need in the midst of majesty, the Gospel is no longer really suitable for a person of the 19th century.
"When I read Goethe's letters—Schiller's close domesticity—about Luther and his family—about older people, even as far back as Socrates' evil wife—I always feel a touch of the soil from which the plant of their spirit grew.” – even the good Lea feels more attracted to the blessed Xanthippe than to the figures of the New Testament! – “which also nourishes and sustains my much lesser one.”
Such is the opinion of thousands upon thousands of people in the 19th century.
“But the worldlessness frightens and alienates me, and to excuse this I certainly do not have the good faith to believe that all this is entirely in order with God.”
It is fitting to ask at this solemn hour: What is it that humanity actually finds in the Christmas lights today? For this content in the souls is composed of voices such as we have now heard and such as we could multiply a hundredfold, a thousandfold. And it is not fitting, at this solemn hour, to overlook lightly what has been said about the greatest mystery of earthly existence. It is rather fitting to ask today: What have the official representatives of Christianity of all denominations been able to do to prevent a development that has led away from a truly inner, sincere, and honest confession of what lies behind the Christmas lights? For can humanity celebrate such a festival as anything other than a comprehensive lie when it associates the thoughts just expressed in its best representatives with the being who, through the Christmas mystery, is to be seen as the impulse that has connected itself with the destiny of the earth from the cosmos?
What did the Magi from the East want when they brought divine wisdom, virtue, and immortality to the manger after the event they had seen in the sign of the sun rising from the constellation Virgo on the night of December 24 to 25, in the first year of our calendar? What did the Magi from the East want? They wanted to provide the great historical proof that they understood that the forces that had hitherto streamed down to Earth from the cosmos would not be accessible to human beings in the same way in the future, simply by looking up at the cosmos and the constellations of the stars. They wanted to show that it was necessary that human beings now begin to turn their gaze to what is happening within the historical, social, and moral development of humanity itself on Earth, that Christ has descended from the regions from which the sun appears in the Virgin, from which all the constellations come with their forces that make the microcosm appear as an image of the macrocosm. That this spirit, this being, has entered into the immediate development of the earth, that the development of the earth itself can henceforth only be understood with such inner wisdom as the constellations of the stars were understood in former times, is what the magi from the East wanted to say. And we must still remember this today.
People today look at history as if the past were always the cause of the present, as if, when we want to consider the events of 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, we simply had to go back to 1913, 1912, 1911, and so on, in order to view historical development in the same way as natural development, where one proceeds from the effect to the cause in order to find the cause in the effect. From this attitude, a fable convenue has developed which is today instilled in our youth as “history” to their detriment.
True Christianity, and in particular an honest and sincere understanding of the mysteries of Christmas and Easter, is the strongest protest against this world history that has been reduced to natural science. Christianity has linked the mysteries of the world to the cycle of the year. It celebrates this time every year as Christmas, in remembrance of the original constellation of the year 1, from December 24 to 25, when the sun appeared from the constellation Virgo. The Christian view has established Christmas from this point of view. It then celebrates Easter by taking a certain constellation in the heavens; we know that the Sunday after the first full moon after the beginning of spring is the fixed day for the celebration of Easter, which is already disputed today by the materialistic mindset.
In the period from Christmas to Easter, those who wish to connect their minds in an honest and sincere way with the mystery of Golgotha see in the course of the year a picture of the thirty-three years of Christ's life. Before the mystery of Golgotha, which I also include in the mystery of Christmas, the Magi pointed to the heavens when they wanted to discuss any mysteries, including those concerning human evolution. They pointed to the constellations. In the position of one star in relation to another, they saw what was happening here below on earth. But at the moment when they saw what was happening on earth, from the sign of the position of the sun in Virgo from December 24 to 25, they said: Now the constellation of the stars must also be seen in a direct way in human actions on earth itself.
Are there constellations in human actions? My dear friends, to be able to read is the requirement; to be able to read what is meant by the wonderful instruction in reading given in the annual mysteries of Christianity, which annual mysteries are in turn built upon all the other annual mysteries of all peoples of earthly life. Thirty-three years are meant for the time from Christmas to Easter. This must be understood, this must be taken into account. Thirty-three years, so it is believed, should pass between Christmas and Easter.
What follows from this? It follows that the Christmas festival we celebrate this year belongs to the Easter festival that will come in thirty-three years, and that the Easter festival we celebrated this year [1917] belongs to the Christmas festival of 1884. In 1884, humanity celebrated a Christmas festival that belongs to this year's Easter festival. And the Christmas we celebrate this year does not belong to next year's Easter, but to the Easter that will follow thirty-three years later. A complete human generation is the time of thirty-three years, according to calculations. A human generation must pass between the Christmas and Easter celebrations that belong together. This is the instruction for reading the new astrology, the astrology that draws attention to the stars that shine in the historical development of humanity itself.
How can this be fulfilled? It can be fulfilled by using Christmas to become aware of the following: What happens during this period—and of course one can only speak in general terms—has its origins in the historical context, in that it began thirty-three years ago and is itself the beginning of what will unfold over the next thirty-three years.
In our personal lives, in our individual existence, our karma reigns supreme. There, each person is responsible for themselves; but there, each person must also accept what lies in their karma. There, they must expect that there is an unconditional connection in the karmic sense between what precedes and what follows.
What about the historical connection? The historical connection is such that, for our present human cycle, we cannot understand, cannot comprehend, and cannot correctly perceive an event that is taking place today, in 1917, which is its Easter year, unless we look back to the time when its Christmas year was, when we do not look back to the year 1884. For the year 1914, we must therefore look back to the year 1881. What the generation that previously participated in history threw into the stream of historical becoming as impulses has a lifetime of thirty-three years; then is its Easter beginning, then is its resurrection. When was the seed sown for those Easters that humanity has now experienced for years, since 1914? Thirty-three years ago.
Connections in intervals of thirty-three to thirty-three years—that is what brings understanding to the continuous stream of historical development. And a time must come when human beings, in the consecrated period that begins with the consecrated night of December 24 to 25, reflect on this: What you are doing now, they may say to themselves, will continue to have an effect and will only rise again and become an outer deed, not in a personal sense, but in a historical sense, after thirty-three years. I understand what is happening now when I look back — even in external events I understand what is happening now — to the time that must now be fulfilled according to the rule of thirty-three years.
When, at the beginning of the 1880s, the uprising of the Mohammedan prophet, the Mahdi, took place, ending with the extension of English rule over Egypt, when at the same time the French had to conquer the Indian subcontinent for European rule, even through a war with China, when the Congo Conference was held, when other events of this kind took place—study everything that now, in 1917, has been fulfilled over a period of thirty-three years!—the cause was laid for what is happening now. At that time, people should have asked themselves: What prospects for Easter after thirty-three years does this year's Christmas promise? For all things in historical development arise after thirty-three years in a transformed form from the grave, through a power connected with the most sacred and redeeming thing that humanity has received through the Mystery of Golgotha.
But the mystery of Golgotha does not want to be sentimentalized. The mystery of Golgotha wants to be understood with the highest powers of wisdom accessible to human beings. The mystery of Golgotha wants to be felt with the deepest depths of the human soul, when one seeks in the depths of the soul itself that which wisdom can ignite within, when one does not merely speak of love, but this love is kindled by connecting one's soul with that which surges and flows as the world soul through the turning of the ages, when he acquires meaning and understanding for the mysteries of becoming. For just as the starry sky once spoke to the ancient magicians when they asked it if they wanted to accomplish anything in social human development, so must those who want to accomplish anything in social human development today look to the stars that rise and set in historical development. And just as the period of the stars' revolution around the sun has been calculated, so the period of historical events has been calculated in true historical human wisdom. And this period of revolution is from one Christmas to one Easter, which is thirty-three years later. Thus, the spirits of the periods of revolution regulate that in which the human soul lives and weaves, in that it is not merely a personal entity, but an entity woven into historical development.
When we immerse ourselves in the mystery of Christmas at this time, we do so best when we familiarize ourselves with the secrets that are to be revealed precisely in our time, in order to enrich the stream of Christian tradition as it follows on from the mystery of Golgotha and from that which is expressed through the mystery of Christmas. Christ said to humanity: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” Those who call themselves his disciples today often say that the revelations from the spiritual world were indeed present at the time of Christ Jesus himself, but that they have ceased, and that today anyone who claims that spiritual revelations can still occur in a miraculous way from the spiritual world is committing something wicked. Thus, in many respects, what today calls itself official Christianity has become an endeavor to prevent Christian development.
But what has remained, the sacred symbols—and one of the most sacred is that which speaks from the mystery of Christmas—are themselves a living protest against the suppression of true Christianity as it is often proclaimed by official Christianity.
Anthroposophically oriented spiritual science wants to bear witness—among many other things—to the significance of the mystery of Golgotha and the significance of the Christmas mystery. And it is part of its task to bear witness to what gives meaning and significance to human life on earth. And if the Christmas tree has become a symbol of Christmas celebrations in recent times – it is, after all, only a few centuries old – then those who stand under the Christmas tree today should ask themselves: Is what is written above the Christmas tree still true for you? Written through the testimony of history is: “Et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto ex Maria virgine.” Is it still true for you? To recognize that it is true, one needs spiritual insight. And no natural science can answer the questions about the virgin birth and the resurrection; rather, all natural science must reject the virgin birth and the resurrection. They can only be understood from a realm in which birth does not occur in the way it does in the sensory world, and death does not occur in the way it does in the sensory world. Just as Christ Jesus passed through death in such a way that this death is a Maya and the resurrection is the truth—which is what the mystery of Easter contains—so also Christ Jesus passed through birth in such a way that this birth is a Maya and the truth is a transformation of being within the spiritual world. For in the spiritual world there is no birth and death, but only transformation, as we know, only metamorphosis.
Only when humanity is inclined to look up to that world where birth and death lose their meaning in the sense of the senses will Christmas and Easter receive their worthy content. Then, but only then, will our hearts also be filled our souls will be filled with that warmth of tone with which we can once again stand before those before whom we should stand, in order to tell them, even in their earliest childhood, about the child who lay in the manger, and about the Magi from the East, and how they offered wisdom, virtue, and immortality to that child. We must be able to talk about this to the children. For what we say to the child today about the mystery of Christmas will celebrate Easter in the child, will rise again after the child has lived through thirty-three more years.
In the course of history, humanity is so steeped in responsibility that the previous generation can only place in the Christmas impulse what the next generation must receive as the Easter impulse. If we become aware that one generation must look to the next in such a way that it must remember: In the Christmas star, I teach you to plant in your soul as birth that which will rise again in the Easter star after thirty-three years. If I know this connection between this generation and the next, then I have gained—as everyone can say—an impulse in all my work that reaches beyond the day. For the time between Christmas and Easter does not only last for the weeks that pass between Christmas and Easter; in truth, it lasts thirty-three years, as long as it takes for an impulse that I have sunk into the soul of a child as a Christmas impulse to rise again after thirty-three years as an Easter impulse.
Such things are not just theoretical, vain knowledge. Such things only gain value when they become practical deeds, when our soul is filled with the conviction that it cannot act otherwise than in their light. But then the soul is full of love for those beings on whom the deeds in this light are to be done. Then love is concrete, then love is connected with the warmth of the world and has nothing of that sentimental love that is on everyone's lips today and has led to the greatest impulse of hatred in humanity in our catastrophic age.
Those who have long spoken of love have no right to continue speaking of this love that has turned into hatred; rather, they have a duty to ask themselves: What have we failed to do with our talk of love, with our Christmas talk of love, that it could turn into a seed of hatred? But humanity must ask itself: What are we seeking in the spiritual worlds so that we can find again what has been lost: the love that warms and lives through all beings, but is only love when it springs from a living understanding of being. For to love a being is to understand that being. To love is not to fill one's heart with selfish warmth so that one's mouth overflows with sentimental words; to love is to be able to look into the eyes of those for whom one is to do deeds, so that one understands them to their very core, understands them not only with the intellect, but with the whole being of one's human existence.
That such love, which can spring from the most spiritual and intimate understanding, may take root in humanity, that there may be a longing for such love, that it may become the will to cultivate such love, may now be said by those who, in this solemn time, wish to follow the Magi from the East to the manger in Bethlehem. Let them say to themselves: Just as the Magi from the East sought understanding in order to find the way, the way of love, to the manger in Bethlehem, so will I seek the way that opens my eyes to that light under which the true deeds of human love are done.
Just as the Magi from the East no longer considered the external constellations of stars to be authoritative, but brought before the Christ Child on Christmas night the knowledge of these constellations, the spirit of sacrifice for these constellations, and the connection of immortality with these constellations, so should the new humanity bring before the Christ Child what it can muster in its deepest impulses in its soul before that for which Christmas is the symbolic expression of the year! With this awareness, worthy Christmas celebrations, honest and sincere Christmas celebrations, will once again be celebrated by humanity. For in the celebration there will lie not a denial, but a knowledge of the being for whom we light the Christmas lights.