The Centrality of Christ, the Chalice at the Centre of the Altar, the first talk by Rev. Michaël Merle on the theme of the Centrality of Christ

Report by John-Peter Gernaat

This talk was given on Sunday 4 February 2024, the first day of the first Trinity period of the year. On this day a change in the movements and gestures at the altar during the Act of Consecration of Man was introduced world-wide in The Christian Community. The change means that the chalice will remain centrally placed on the altar and in the central altar space for the duration of the Eucharist service, except when Communion is brought to the congregation.

What is meant by Christ in the centre? When we encounter a circle we usually encounter the circumference of the circle, the periphery. But we can also understand that there is no circle without the centre point around which the circle is drawn. The periphery does not exist without the centre. It does not matter how large the circle is, it is held by the centre.

Our experience of life comes from the creative act of the Divine. The creative activity of the Father God is through the Son God. This is wonderfully captured in the Trinity Epistle.

We learn through the investigative work of Dr Rudolf Steiner that in development there is always a recapitulation of what came before. Thus, we may ponder what preceded the initial act of creation. The very first act of creation by the Divine was a recapitulation of the Divine essence. In the Earth Cycle of evolution there was a recapitulation of the previous stages of evolution before the full phases of our experiential reality came together. We experience four phases of matter, although schools still teach only three phases. Science has identified solid, liquid, gas and plasma as the four phases of matter experience. These are the same four phases that the ancient civilisations described as the four elements of earth, water, air and fire. They also represent the three stages of past evolution that the Earth Cycle recapitulated before the seven cultural epochs of the productive period of the Earth Cycle began. Those who have an understanding of the Great Cycles of earth evolution will know that the first can be described as Old Saturn and was experienced as warmth which we can identify with the material existence of plasma today. Rudolf Steiner has said that if we were to experience Adam and Eve, the community of the first human being, they would present as fiery beings. This was the recapitulation of Old Saturn. The second Great Cycle may be described as Old Sun and experienced as gaseous which was recapitulated in the Lemurian Epoch. The third Great Cycle may be described as Old Moon and was experienced as watery and was recapitulated in the Atlantean Epoch. This Epoch came to an end with the flood of Noah after which dry land appeared as we know it today. The first Cultural Epoch is known as the Ancient Indian Epoch; the second Cultural Epoch as the Ancient Persian Epoch, the time started with the ancient Sumerians; the third Cultural Epoch was the Egypto-Chaldean Epoch; the fourth Cultural Epoch was the Greco-Roman Epoch and we are currently in the Fifth Cultural Epoch with two more to follow. In any cycle of seven there is a turning point in the fourth period. The fourth Cultural Epoch of this time period in the Earth Cycle is marked by the birth of Christ at the baptism in the Jordan that was the beginning of the Mystery of Golgotha.

Christ influenced the Earth Cycle at the experience of a centre of time. This was the turning point of time for the Earth Cycle and for the evolution of the human being. Christ is central to the human being. The incarnation of Christ provided the human being with their incarnated centre, the ‘I’-constitution which will transubstantiate the three-fold human earthly constitution into the three-fold spiritual constitution by sacrificing itself in the process of transubstantiation to become part of the three transubstantiated bodies.

But if Christ is the centre this implies that there are two poles. These two poles provide the human being with the motivation we need as earthly beings. However, to remain fixated at either pole deprives the human being of their full development. These poles are named for the spiritual beings that influence the human being in the particular direction of the pole. Thus, we have the pole that wants us to fixate on earthly life and refute everything that is not physical and material. We speak of this as the Ahrimanic influence. The opposite pole draws us away from the earthly experience and suggests that we can skip the hardships of earth reality by withdrawing into a spiritual, dreamlike, euphoric existence. This is the influence of Lucifer.

We know through the research of Rudolf Steiner that we would not be able to walk without these influences. The Luciferic influence allows us to overcome gravity in order to lift a foot off the ground. The Ahrimanic influence ensures gravity pulls our foot back to earth so that we do not float away. These two influences work to enable life on earth. One might describe, simplistically, the influence of Ahriman as gravity and the influence of Lucifer as levity. The centre point between two opposing forces is the fulcrum. Christ is the fulcrum that allows these two forces to come into balance. We need both forces of levity and gravity and our earthly human nature will tend to pull us in one direction or the other. We may tend towards materialism or, alternatively, prefer to exist in a state of meditation, avoiding a material life. Our challenge is to maintain a balance. We need to draw from both poles to be human beings but must learn to do so without losing the balance.

How do we experience the centrality of Christ in the Act of Consecration of Man? During the Act of Consecration of Man, we are in conversation with Christ as earthly beings and as spiritual beings. The Epistle, that is a letter from the Angel of our Community that we hear and is read back to the Angel, is only possible while we are earthly beings. This is read (prayed) from the right of the altar. The right-hand side of the altar is connected with our earthly nature. The Word, the Gospel, is a message to us from Christ. It is the pure word of Christ in its ideal form, and we respond to the Word with the Creed. This ideal, spiritual proclamation and our ideal response to it, comes from the left of the altar. If we were in the spirit there would be no need for an epistle from the angel nor a proclamation from the spiritual world. The centre of the altar is the space of Christ where the substance of earth, sacrificed as the work of human labour – changing wheat into bread and grapes into ‘wine’ – can be transubstantiated through the Spirit. The transubstantiation occurs at hand of the spoken word that finds its echo in the soul of the participating congregation. The Spirit works through the words having been spoken, not just contemplated.

The movements and gestures seen at the altar should present the picture of what is occurring. Therefore, as from the first Sunday of the first Trinity Time in 2024 the celebrating priest will no longer remove the chalice from the central area of the altar except for the distribution of Communion to the congregation, when the centre comes to the periphery. The priest also will remain with the chalice once the chalice in unveiled, except for the opening prayer of the Offertory. This will probably change in the future so that the priest does not physically move away from the chalice once it has been unveiled.

This change brings the Act of Consecration of Man closer to the original celebrations as can be determined from the notebooks of the founding priests. No one is clear why the changes occurred that strayed from this original picture and it is good to return to the original. In renewing the rituals as we have done we can experience a recapitulation of what came before so that we live in the creative stream of the Divine when a new creation comes into being.