Contemplations
by Rev. Michaël Merle
This contemplation was originally written and shared in December 2021 (three years ago). It seems, perhaps, as relevant now (if not more so) than it was three years ago. Did it speak to us then? Does it still speak to us today?
It may seem strange that our Advent Gospel reading is from Luke 21 (a passage often referred to as “The little apocalypse”: the little revelation). We may be accustomed to readings from Luke’s first chapter which brings us the picture of the angel Gabriel announcing the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zechariah, and then announcing the birth of Jesus to his mother Mary. This first chapter also includes the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist. But what does Luke 21 offer us in this season of preparation for what is coming?
The Gospel reading makes clear that our preparation today (in our case in 2021 – and also now in 2024) is not simply for a remembrance of the birth at Christmas of the baby Jesus in the manager in Bethlehem, but rather for an encounter with The Son of Man (The Descendant of the true image of the Future Human Being). We are called to read the signs of the time and to be vigilant in our lives so as to stand upright and face the future; a future described as not just including The Son of Man but rather as being filled with the content of The Son of Man. “See the fig tree and all the trees. When they begin to bud and come out in leaf, you see it and know that summer is near. You can read the signs.”
It may seem strange that our Advent Gospel reading is from Luke 21 (a passage often referred to as “The little apocalypse”: the little revelation). We may be accustomed to readings from Luke’s first chapter which brings us the picture of the angel Gabriel announcing the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zechariah, and then announcing the birth of Jesus to his mother Mary. This first chapter also includes the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist. But what does Luke 21 offer us in this season of preparation for what is coming?
The Gospel reading makes clear that our preparation today (in our case in 2021 – and also now in 2024) is not simply for a remembrance of the birth at Christmas of the baby Jesus in the manager in Bethlehem, but rather for an encounter with The Son of Man (The Descendant of the true image of the Future Human Being). We are called to read the signs of the time and to be vigilant in our lives so as to stand upright and face the future; a future described as not just including The Son of Man but rather as being filled with the content of The Son of Man. “See the fig tree and all the trees. When they begin to bud and come out in leaf, you see it and know that summer is near. You can read the signs.”
The Banyan Fig Tree in the Botanic Garden in Durban
This prescient passage offers us a picture appropriate to our time: “On earth, confusion and tension between the nations will increase as people are overwhelmed by fear at the premonition of what is happening to the earth and humanity.” From climate change to the global pandemic response, from corruption and ‘fake news’ and ‘big lies’ in politics to seismic surveys off our coast, from border disputes and rising tensions between neighbouring countries (which in 2024 are full-scale conflicts concerning the whole globe) to inflation and exchange rate fluctuations, it seems that these words sum up the situation of our world this December. It is easy to feel overwhelmed. It seems that we have much to be concerned about and that there is much to fear.
But all is not ‘doom and gloom’ in this passage from Luke. We hear: “At the same time a new ability is awakening in humanity to perceive The Son of Man and his transforming powers of life – as he rises up the powerful and radiant release from debilitating life patterns and outdated thought forms.” Are we conscious of the thinking that is required for us to see how to view society and its spheres of activity? Are we able to identify what is debilitating in our current patterns of life? Are we preparing ourselves to be transformed by The Son of Man’s powerful life forces?
At this time (2021 – and also 2024) of Advent, are we ready for the birth of new ideas, new views and new ways that lead us to living in the reality of the appearance of Christ in the forces of life?
But all is not ‘doom and gloom’ in this passage from Luke. We hear: “At the same time a new ability is awakening in humanity to perceive The Son of Man and his transforming powers of life – as he rises up the powerful and radiant release from debilitating life patterns and outdated thought forms.” Are we conscious of the thinking that is required for us to see how to view society and its spheres of activity? Are we able to identify what is debilitating in our current patterns of life? Are we preparing ourselves to be transformed by The Son of Man’s powerful life forces?
At this time (2021 – and also 2024) of Advent, are we ready for the birth of new ideas, new views and new ways that lead us to living in the reality of the appearance of Christ in the forces of life?
by Rev. Michaël Merle (First offered in November 2017 – 7 years ago)
The night of the thirty-first of October is Halloween (All Hallows' Eve) and marks the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day). This ancient feast day in the Christian calendar sets November aside as the month of the year when those who have crossed the threshold into the worlds of Spirit are very consciously remembered.
In the tradition of the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church, in particular, the second of November is All Souls' Day. Here the soul journey of those who have died and have not yet entered the peace and rest of Heaven are remembered. This purgative time was described by Rudolf Steiner as the experience of kamaloca: "The human being passes through the kamaloca period which lasts roughly a third of the length of his earthly life - in reverse sequence...He really does go through his whole life backwards, right to the moment of birth. This is what is behind the beautiful words of Christ, when He was speaking of the human being’s entry into the spiritual world or the Kingdom of Heaven: 'Except ye...become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!' In other words, a human being lives backwards as far as his first moments and being absolved of everything, he can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and be in the spiritual world from then onwards." (The Human Being and his Future Evolution: Lecture 6: Illness and Karma - Berlin, 26 January 1909, GA107) Kamaloca is an experience of living through the pain we have caused others - both consciously and unconsciously. This experience is not a punishment but rather a necessary purgation - a purifying so that we can experience an absolution and our being is thus truly purified in love.
In the tradition of the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church, in particular, the second of November is All Souls' Day. Here the soul journey of those who have died and have not yet entered the peace and rest of Heaven are remembered. This purgative time was described by Rudolf Steiner as the experience of kamaloca: "The human being passes through the kamaloca period which lasts roughly a third of the length of his earthly life - in reverse sequence...He really does go through his whole life backwards, right to the moment of birth. This is what is behind the beautiful words of Christ, when He was speaking of the human being’s entry into the spiritual world or the Kingdom of Heaven: 'Except ye...become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!' In other words, a human being lives backwards as far as his first moments and being absolved of everything, he can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and be in the spiritual world from then onwards." (The Human Being and his Future Evolution: Lecture 6: Illness and Karma - Berlin, 26 January 1909, GA107) Kamaloca is an experience of living through the pain we have caused others - both consciously and unconsciously. This experience is not a punishment but rather a necessary purgation - a purifying so that we can experience an absolution and our being is thus truly purified in love.
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November carries the signature that we form one community of the living and the dead. Those who have crossed the threshold of life on earth to life in the Spirit remain part of our community of faith. The active remembering of those who have died is a true service of love for the wholeness of the communion of saints, of which we are all a part. The tradition of such is one of this community's many virtues: a group gathers on the last Saturday of every month in remembrance of those who have died.
This sense of the oneness of our humanity sets the scene for our stepping into the beginning of our Festive Year with the celebration of Advent. |
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by Rev. Michaël Merle
To form a rainbow, you need large drops of water, the sun at your back and at the correct angle shining against a lightly clouded or slightly darkened sky. The separation of colours is referred to as dispersion and can be created by light shining through a prism. Not only prisms but also water drops, and ice crystals can cause dispersion. Raindrops act as prisms, bending and reflecting the sunlight that falls on them, just like a crystal hung in a sunny window. The classic rainbow which we know well is a single, bright, coloured arc. Red is the outermost colour of this arc, and violet is always the innermost colour.
Sometimes, you may have seen two rainbows at once. The lower rainbow is the primary rainbow and the higher, fainter, coloured arc is the secondary rainbow. The colour sequence of the secondary rainbow is opposite to the primary; red is on the inside of the arc and violet on the outside. This happens when the light reflects twice off the back of the raindrop which leads to the secondary rainbow. The second reflection causes the order of the colours in the bow to reverse. So here we have a wonderful symbol of what it means to reflect something: to show it a version of itself in reverse. A reflection is never an exact copy. It carries the same colours as the original but turns them around so as to present them in a new and fresh perspective. This quality of reflection and of new perspective is an essential part of the human experience at hand of the activity of the Christ.
When two or more are gathered the Christ is there. The possibility of true reflection in life comes when we are in relationship to another. It occurs when two or more are gathered. Alone we are not a community of Christians. That reality happens when two or more are gathered. Unlike the sending out of the twelve disciples (who become apostles - the ones sent out - once this event occurs) who are sent to lead the communities, the seventy who are sent out later are sent out in community: two-by-two. This sending is about the establishment of the human community: a society of human beings. Isolation and aloneness cut us off from each other and from many of the possibilities and potentials for growth and development. It is in a true conversation of an I-being with another I-being that the forces of the Christ in the development of the human being can take place, and then we live in the reflection of a rainbow conversation.
A double rainbow is a wonderful image of what we need to achieve in our working as a community of Christians. The many coloured aspect of the human being in becoming is reflected in the other human being in becoming. We reach the goal of the future human being as a community of individuals and not as isolated individuals. Our renewed religious organisation calls itself The Christian Community (in very specific translation from our original German naming: The Community of Christians). It is this aspect of our being (experiencing life in community) that we come to ever more in the self-realisation to which we are called as bearers of the Christ. Being a Christian is not something we can achieve on our own – it requires our communal conversation with others. This is the path of our modern initiation: building loving and true relationships with others in the light of the one Sun: the light of the true Sun-being, the Christ.
Sometimes, you may have seen two rainbows at once. The lower rainbow is the primary rainbow and the higher, fainter, coloured arc is the secondary rainbow. The colour sequence of the secondary rainbow is opposite to the primary; red is on the inside of the arc and violet on the outside. This happens when the light reflects twice off the back of the raindrop which leads to the secondary rainbow. The second reflection causes the order of the colours in the bow to reverse. So here we have a wonderful symbol of what it means to reflect something: to show it a version of itself in reverse. A reflection is never an exact copy. It carries the same colours as the original but turns them around so as to present them in a new and fresh perspective. This quality of reflection and of new perspective is an essential part of the human experience at hand of the activity of the Christ.
When two or more are gathered the Christ is there. The possibility of true reflection in life comes when we are in relationship to another. It occurs when two or more are gathered. Alone we are not a community of Christians. That reality happens when two or more are gathered. Unlike the sending out of the twelve disciples (who become apostles - the ones sent out - once this event occurs) who are sent to lead the communities, the seventy who are sent out later are sent out in community: two-by-two. This sending is about the establishment of the human community: a society of human beings. Isolation and aloneness cut us off from each other and from many of the possibilities and potentials for growth and development. It is in a true conversation of an I-being with another I-being that the forces of the Christ in the development of the human being can take place, and then we live in the reflection of a rainbow conversation.
A double rainbow is a wonderful image of what we need to achieve in our working as a community of Christians. The many coloured aspect of the human being in becoming is reflected in the other human being in becoming. We reach the goal of the future human being as a community of individuals and not as isolated individuals. Our renewed religious organisation calls itself The Christian Community (in very specific translation from our original German naming: The Community of Christians). It is this aspect of our being (experiencing life in community) that we come to ever more in the self-realisation to which we are called as bearers of the Christ. Being a Christian is not something we can achieve on our own – it requires our communal conversation with others. This is the path of our modern initiation: building loving and true relationships with others in the light of the one Sun: the light of the true Sun-being, the Christ.
by Rev. Michaël Merle
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In Norse mythology there is a rainbow bridge between Asgard (the realm of the gods) and Midgard (the Earthly world). It is called Bifröst and it translates as “the shimmering path”. This is the light-filled way that we relate to the Spiritual World and to the Divine. Part of the name denotes a momentary experience, suggesting the fleeting nature of this rainbow bridge and how we need to seize the moment when it appears. This is the true Kairos-time experience that makes the present moment fully realised in our active experience. This idea of a bridge between the land of the living and the world of the community of the heavens (often expressed as the community of the departed faithful) is captured by Thorton Wilder at the end of his short novel: The Bridge of the San Luis Rey, as follows: “There is a land of the living, and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”
Taking the idea of the bridge as love, we realise that for us as Christians this means that the bridge is Christ. Christ is the bridge between Earth and Heaven. The apostle John in his first epistle (letter) writes that “God is love”. We understand the Christ, the Son-God, to be part of the whole expression of God (Father, Son and Spirit). This aids us to understand why the only mandate (commandment) given us in the New Testament is that we love one another as Christ loves us. |
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The rainbow is often used as a symbol of diversity in unity. All the colours together form the shining bow of colour that we see spanning the heavens (and linking us to them). This bow of colour now gleams in the blessing of the Christ as the Sun-spirit par excellence. And yet our experience of the rainbow is the arch it forms as it touches the horizon of the earth. This makes it our bridge (the bridge of earthly human beings). As we reflected upon last month the rainbow is the haloed expression of our future selves: the mighty angel that descends to the earth in the vision of John, the apostle, recorded in The Book of Revelation. This rainbow halo is thus an expression of the love that is Christ as it shines from us as beings filled with the light of Christ. The Christ is in us. How do we let that power shine forth? What variety of colours appear when we allow the true-light to shine into the lives of others?
There are some modern scholars who believe that the best translation of the idea captured in the name of the rainbow bridge in Norse mythology is “the swaying road to heaven.” For us the road has been made straight, it has been clearly set in the expression of love in the Mystery of Golgotha. We are truly on the way with Christ, who is The Way. May the rainbow bridge shine brightly in every moment of our deep and true connection to the heavens so as to best fulfil our mission and purpose on the earth: to learn the lesson of love.
There are some modern scholars who believe that the best translation of the idea captured in the name of the rainbow bridge in Norse mythology is “the swaying road to heaven.” For us the road has been made straight, it has been clearly set in the expression of love in the Mystery of Golgotha. We are truly on the way with Christ, who is The Way. May the rainbow bridge shine brightly in every moment of our deep and true connection to the heavens so as to best fulfil our mission and purpose on the earth: to learn the lesson of love.
by Rev. Michaël Merle
We all know the story of Noah and the Ark. We probably have images in our memory from children’s books of the trail of animals entering the ark, and then, of the animals leaving the ark under the sign of the rainbow. This sign of the rainbow, which makes the colour spectrum of visible light visible to our sense perception is described in Genesis Chapter 9 as the sign of the covenant between God and the earth. This sign speaks to what we experience as earthly human beings when we experience what we call the grace of God. Our earthly reality is one of the experiences of “the fall”, but it is also one of the experiences of the covenant of grace: the powerful gifting in love of the Divine for the development of the earthly human being. The first sign of this care and love, this connection of divine creativity and compassion, of being and becoming is expressed in the visible colours of light in the rainbow.
These themes of care and love, of being and becoming, are expressed in the Epistle of our first liturgical season of the Christian year: Advent. This first sign remains relevant and important for us. It is not about the outer rainbow: beautiful, shining and gleaming as it is in its reflection of the light of the sun through the prism of the droplets of water against the shadow of the clouds. It is about the rainbow of our future selves that we need to develop in our becoming: our becoming evermore the human being we were creatively conceived to be in the essence of the Divine. Of course, the beauty of the external rainbow acts as a powerful visual sense-perceptible reminder of what we need to develop in ourselves at hand of our earthly covenant with God.
What is the rainbow of our future self? In Chapter 10 of The Book of Revelation we read: “And I saw another angel of great strength, he descended from heaven, clothed in a cloud. About his head the rainbow shone, his face was like the sun … He placed his right foot on the waves of the sea, the left on firm ground.” Here is the picture of the future human being – the full realisation of the heavenly human being descending (and not falling) to the earth: master of the movement and motions of the life-forces of earthly life as well as master of the firm stability and structure of the form of earthly existence. This mighty angelic being is haloed with a rainbow. What is a halo? It is a symbol of holiness, represented by an arc of light around the head of a holy person: a saint or angel. Our arc of light is the full colour-spectrum of light: it is the palette of earthly existence in all the colours of life. As human beings we are connected to the full reality of this earth existence (and we must make the spiritual colours of the spiritual light visible). Our task is to create the rainbow of spiritual existence on the earth. May the full circle of colour, the spiritual colour wheel, spin and move in our interactions and bring the vibrancy and clarity of ether-light into being in us and through us.
We are reminded at Easter that Christ is risen to us as the meaning of the earth. Our earth covenant of grace with the Divine has new meaning in Christ. It is through Christ in us that the full realisation of the human being as a true being of the earth can manifest. This means that the Christ-Sun shines through us and in us and from us as we express evermore our haloed rainbow. May this reality be felt evermore in our spiritual strivings and steps.
These themes of care and love, of being and becoming, are expressed in the Epistle of our first liturgical season of the Christian year: Advent. This first sign remains relevant and important for us. It is not about the outer rainbow: beautiful, shining and gleaming as it is in its reflection of the light of the sun through the prism of the droplets of water against the shadow of the clouds. It is about the rainbow of our future selves that we need to develop in our becoming: our becoming evermore the human being we were creatively conceived to be in the essence of the Divine. Of course, the beauty of the external rainbow acts as a powerful visual sense-perceptible reminder of what we need to develop in ourselves at hand of our earthly covenant with God.
What is the rainbow of our future self? In Chapter 10 of The Book of Revelation we read: “And I saw another angel of great strength, he descended from heaven, clothed in a cloud. About his head the rainbow shone, his face was like the sun … He placed his right foot on the waves of the sea, the left on firm ground.” Here is the picture of the future human being – the full realisation of the heavenly human being descending (and not falling) to the earth: master of the movement and motions of the life-forces of earthly life as well as master of the firm stability and structure of the form of earthly existence. This mighty angelic being is haloed with a rainbow. What is a halo? It is a symbol of holiness, represented by an arc of light around the head of a holy person: a saint or angel. Our arc of light is the full colour-spectrum of light: it is the palette of earthly existence in all the colours of life. As human beings we are connected to the full reality of this earth existence (and we must make the spiritual colours of the spiritual light visible). Our task is to create the rainbow of spiritual existence on the earth. May the full circle of colour, the spiritual colour wheel, spin and move in our interactions and bring the vibrancy and clarity of ether-light into being in us and through us.
We are reminded at Easter that Christ is risen to us as the meaning of the earth. Our earth covenant of grace with the Divine has new meaning in Christ. It is through Christ in us that the full realisation of the human being as a true being of the earth can manifest. This means that the Christ-Sun shines through us and in us and from us as we express evermore our haloed rainbow. May this reality be felt evermore in our spiritual strivings and steps.
by Rev. Michaël Merle
We find ourselves at a time when many may be asking: “Why do we bother with religious life, the practice of prayer and the pursuit of spiritual experiences? The world is in a mess and God is not sorting anything out!” The response to this heartfelt and sincere view is to present a very different perspective on religious life, prayer and spiritual endeavours. If we pray and practice a religious life in order to elicit a response from God, then we are engaging in the ancient rituals of appeasing the gods in the hope of receiving a favourable outcome. What we are doing in developing a religious life today is undertaking a process of inner development, of change, of re-orientation, of ever deepening humanity, of the process of becoming evermore a person of the Christ: a Christian.
The renewal of religious life is about the renewal of the picture and the realisation of what a human being is. We are underway in our walking of the Way with Christ. Our journey on the Way is a journey of realising the power and potential of Christ in us. At this time of St John, the message of becoming awake to the need for a change in the configuration of our souls in order to receive the light of Christ in our hearts is at the forefront of our festival experience. This is the receiving of the life of Christ and it becomes in us a source for us to shine that light into the world. We should not be surprised (as much as we may be deeply saddened) by the death, the destruction, and the waging of wars that we see all around us. These examples of how the light does not shine forth should not dissuade us from working on ourselves and developing the inner way. The adversarial forces will be stronger when more human beings become conscious of their role and responsibility in being co-creators of the world with Christ.
At our Annual General Meeting last month, we shared an expression of our way of being, growing and becoming in this Community of Christians, in this Movement for the renewal of religious and Christian life. The expression can be formulated in the plural: “We are …” but it remains much more powerful in the singular, individual expression: “I am …”
Here is the formulation of what being on the Way is all about:
“I am part of a worldwide movement which seeks to fulfil the purpose of the human being – to become a co-creator in the evolution of the world and humanity. To this end, I consciously align myself Christ’s Deed of Death and Resurrection by freely participating in the ever-renewing power of the Sacraments.”
At this same Annual General Meeting we also considered what it means to unite with the world’s evolving through our thinking and willing. Rudolf Steiner describes this two-fold way of aligning our thinking in seeking the Christ (also in others) and of achieving an idealism through our initiatives. He concludes this as follows:
“And if you follow this two-fold way, the way through thinking and the way through willing, there is one thing you will certainly experience. And this can be described only as a heightened feeling of responsibility for every action one performs.
This super-sensible responsibility towards all things strikes one like a solemn warning, when one seeks the two-fold way to Christ – as though a Being stood behind one, saying repeatedly: ‘You are not responsible only to the world around you but also to the Divine-Spiritual, for all your thoughts and all your actions.’”
The renewal of religious life is about the renewal of the picture and the realisation of what a human being is. We are underway in our walking of the Way with Christ. Our journey on the Way is a journey of realising the power and potential of Christ in us. At this time of St John, the message of becoming awake to the need for a change in the configuration of our souls in order to receive the light of Christ in our hearts is at the forefront of our festival experience. This is the receiving of the life of Christ and it becomes in us a source for us to shine that light into the world. We should not be surprised (as much as we may be deeply saddened) by the death, the destruction, and the waging of wars that we see all around us. These examples of how the light does not shine forth should not dissuade us from working on ourselves and developing the inner way. The adversarial forces will be stronger when more human beings become conscious of their role and responsibility in being co-creators of the world with Christ.
At our Annual General Meeting last month, we shared an expression of our way of being, growing and becoming in this Community of Christians, in this Movement for the renewal of religious and Christian life. The expression can be formulated in the plural: “We are …” but it remains much more powerful in the singular, individual expression: “I am …”
Here is the formulation of what being on the Way is all about:
“I am part of a worldwide movement which seeks to fulfil the purpose of the human being – to become a co-creator in the evolution of the world and humanity. To this end, I consciously align myself Christ’s Deed of Death and Resurrection by freely participating in the ever-renewing power of the Sacraments.”
At this same Annual General Meeting we also considered what it means to unite with the world’s evolving through our thinking and willing. Rudolf Steiner describes this two-fold way of aligning our thinking in seeking the Christ (also in others) and of achieving an idealism through our initiatives. He concludes this as follows:
“And if you follow this two-fold way, the way through thinking and the way through willing, there is one thing you will certainly experience. And this can be described only as a heightened feeling of responsibility for every action one performs.
This super-sensible responsibility towards all things strikes one like a solemn warning, when one seeks the two-fold way to Christ – as though a Being stood behind one, saying repeatedly: ‘You are not responsible only to the world around you but also to the Divine-Spiritual, for all your thoughts and all your actions.’”
by Rev. Michaël Merle
After over a week in hospital I was able to reflect on how once in hospital one is focussed on getting out. The opposite could be said of home (that place where comfort is found, loved ones may also live, a place that offers nurture and holding). Often when we are away from home (even if it be on a wonderful holiday) we wish to return. Once out of home we seek to go back in. Home sickness speaks to that desire to reside there where true comfort (right down to one’s own bed and pillow) and loved ones provide a safe and secure space. How distressing it is to hear of people who wish to escape their home life and environment. It is the opposite of what the idea and experience of home should be. When we prepare for a child to enter the home we often refer to the experience of nesting (providing the outer resources to support the inner life of love, acceptance and joy).
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This question of “in and out” needs to be applied to other places and experiences. Once we are in the congregation (in the heart of trying to build and participate in community) do we wish to get out as reasonably quickly as we can? Do we miss not being “in church” or do we wait with anticipation for the service to end so that we can “get out”? For many centuries church was an experience of “home” in that it was a comfortable, secure and safe space. The institutional church referred to itself as “Mother Church”. We should ask ourselves, as much as we may feel ourselves at home in The Christian Community, if we experience our time in the sacraments as holding us in a motherly way: where we are taken care of, and the work of salvation (healing) is done for us, or if our experience is different to that? Do we feel the invitation and the challenge to actively participate, truly celebrate, “worthily fulfil” The Act of Consecration of the Human Being? If we are to participate in its fulfilment, then it cannot be a passive space (enfolded in loving motherly arms) but rather an active space (albeit an inner active space) in which we feel guided by arms that indicate where we need to work and become in order for salvation to be realised.
The Christian Community sacramental space is a home but not one in which we seek comfort only. It is the space where we engage inwardly so as to manage ourselves outwardly. It is a call to come in, in order to live out. The feeling of wanting to be in the service should be accompanied by a sense of being ready to go out after the service. This is not the old-fashioned dismissal from the altar but rather a realisation that The Act of Consecration of the Human Being has come into being in us – and, in freedom, we can take it out with us into its unfolding in our daily lives. |
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by Rev. Michaël Merle
Over the four Saturdays of April, we have been considering the essential teachings, careful construction and significant understandings in the book of Daniel (part of the Old Testament). We encountered, amongst many insights, two expressions that appear for the first time in this book written in Hebrew and Aramaic. The first is a description of the most-high God as the King of Heaven. The other is a description which we can apply to an experience of life on earth when we feel ourselves disconnected from the divine (as well as a description of what happens when the very essence and centre of the Temple is removed, and any false idol placed there). This expression is translated into English as the abominable desolation (the abomination of the desolation). This can be expressed in our more modern language as a detestable desolation, an abhorrent desecration. It speaks to that which we hear in the Children’s Service: “Without love human life becomes desolate and empty (void),” “Without love…” Here in our Service for Children we hear what is missing from the human experience (from the heart of the true temple) for human life to be desolate and empty - to reflect the horror of desolation (the barrenness of life). It is love that must be at the heart of human life. The Children’s Service continues: “Christ is the teacher of the love of the Human Being.” This is more significant than we might first imagine. Two aspects are bound in this: Christ as the teacher, the supreme guide, and love as that which can be learnt. Rudolf Steiner said that the Earth was created so that we could learn the lesson of love. The new commandment (mandate) given to us at The Last Supper is not just to love one another, but to love one another as Christ loves us. This requires us to learn from Christ what love is. It places this divine love at the centre of human existence. Our lives on earth are not without purpose or meaning. Love is the central experience of this life. As the Easter proclamation makes clear to us: Christ is risen to us as the meaning of the earth. The earth exists as the place where the human being can learn (from Christ) the meaning of love.
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Without love our lives become desolate (barren) and empty (void). Without love our lives are void of meaning and purpose. Before the Children’s Service expresses this fundamental truth simply and succinctly it establishes the relationship we need to have in life in order to express this love of Christ in the world. We learn so that we can work in the world and understand it. Human beings do not simply follow the path of nature. We have to learn in order to become human. This understanding based on our working in the world (and on ourselves) engages the human will, the very soul of a human being, in the activity of become more fully human. The Service reminds us that: “The love of human beings one to another enlivens all the work of The Human Being.” This is not sentimental, soft nor easy. It comes at hand of our engagement and at the perseverance required to be a life-long learner.
The Easter Mystery is of no value if it is not understood and taken into the experience of life on earth as a Mystery of Love. Without love … there is no Easter Resurrection, no new life, no possibility for human beings to discover the true idea in the mind and heart of God for the creation and redemption of the Human Being. With love, as expressed in Christ and through Christ, our desolation, isolation and emptiness is changed and filled into consolation, meaning, purpose and abundance of joy: “Abide in me as I abide in you … so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” |
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Forming the Beloved Community
by Rev. Michaël Merle
“The Beloved Community” is an expression of an idea that was first used by an early 20th century philosopher-theologian Josiah Royce, who founded the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Royce used the expression to convey an understanding of what a true community such as that of the early Christian communities is all about. It was not meant as a reference to what was but to what at any stage, we, as loving and concerned human beings, can achieve at hand of collaboration with the grace of the Divine. However, it was Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, also a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who popularised the expression and through his work in the peace movement could imbue it with a deeper meaning which has captured the imagination of people of goodwill all over the world. It was exemplified in the deep friendship the Dr King developed with Thich Nhat Hanh. This friendship transversed different cultures, religions and, at the time, countries at war with each other. This friendship built on mutual respect and care, a deep sense of the importance of peace and the full recognition of the innate spiritual dignity of every human being, was an example of what it means to form a community based on seeing the true essence of the other: sensing the spiritual being of the other.
Royce wrote a book which he titled The Problem of Christianity some three years before his death in 1916. It is in that book that he named and described what he called the Beloved Community. What Royce saw as the problem of Christianity was that despite its many positive and ameliorating effects over the centuries, it had become institutionalised in such a way that it had become corrupted and had exerted a power based on political control that betrayed the origins of a community of the Christ. So many people today suffer from the trauma of the inhuman control that they felt was exerted on them at hand of the authority of a Christian church and its externalised moral code that had negatively influenced society at large.
With the founding of The Christian Community, Movement for Religious Renewal, an opportunity presented itself for the Christian path to be encountered as the way of the developing conscious human being who recognises that the Community of the Christ embraces all of humanity in the true sensing of the spiritual essence of every person. In this community of love, respect and understanding, we stand as the individuals that we are but also as the community members of the community that lives in the gaze and embrace of Christ as his beloved.
Are we conscious of the forming of this Beloved Community? Do we feel that the great Mystery of Easter makes it possible for us to form this Community of the Beloved: this Community of human beings in becoming, mandated to love one another as Christ loves us?
It is Christ who, through the Mystery of Life and Death on Golgotha, makes our hearts to be at peace, strengthens our wills and unites us as humankind. Thus, in this unity we are able to become the Community of the Christ: The Community of the Beloved, the Beloved Community of the Becoming Human Being.
Royce wrote a book which he titled The Problem of Christianity some three years before his death in 1916. It is in that book that he named and described what he called the Beloved Community. What Royce saw as the problem of Christianity was that despite its many positive and ameliorating effects over the centuries, it had become institutionalised in such a way that it had become corrupted and had exerted a power based on political control that betrayed the origins of a community of the Christ. So many people today suffer from the trauma of the inhuman control that they felt was exerted on them at hand of the authority of a Christian church and its externalised moral code that had negatively influenced society at large.
With the founding of The Christian Community, Movement for Religious Renewal, an opportunity presented itself for the Christian path to be encountered as the way of the developing conscious human being who recognises that the Community of the Christ embraces all of humanity in the true sensing of the spiritual essence of every person. In this community of love, respect and understanding, we stand as the individuals that we are but also as the community members of the community that lives in the gaze and embrace of Christ as his beloved.
Are we conscious of the forming of this Beloved Community? Do we feel that the great Mystery of Easter makes it possible for us to form this Community of the Beloved: this Community of human beings in becoming, mandated to love one another as Christ loves us?
It is Christ who, through the Mystery of Life and Death on Golgotha, makes our hearts to be at peace, strengthens our wills and unites us as humankind. Thus, in this unity we are able to become the Community of the Christ: The Community of the Beloved, the Beloved Community of the Becoming Human Being.
The Last Supper by Emil Nolde (1909)
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Christ – the full expression of the Divine
by Rev. Michaël Merle
On the two Sundays before Passiontide, we prepare the journey to that season (that leads us into Easter) with Gospel readings (pericopes) that prepare us for the way of Passiontide. In the reading on the last Sunday before Passiontide we hear in the passage form Matthew’s Gospel depicting the Transfiguration that a voice speaks from the bright shining cloud. In the passage a Greek word appears to describe the relationship of the Divine Father to this beloved Son: eudokeo. This is variously translated as the one in whom “my pleasure is revealed”, in whom “I am well pleased”. Yet, this combined word of “eu” and “dokeo” express much more than simply good pleasure – a well satisfied experience.
The “eu” is well known to us in English in such words as “eulogy”, “euphemism”, ‘eucharist” and “Eurythmy”. It is also the root of what through Latin came into English as “ev”. This gives us “evangelisation”, for example. The short word “eu” or “ev” means well, good or beautiful, hence giving us the spreading of the good news (evangelisation), beautiful movement (eurhythmy), and the presentation of a well-intentioned speech or study of a person’s life (eulogy). So here we have the word that translates as good or well, as in that which is experienced as complete: well and good in its fullness: fully fulfilled.
Then “dokeo” means quite simply an opinion or an expression of a certain perspective. Here we are not dealing with the Divine Father’s preferred view (often translated as “pleasure”) but rather of His expression of that alone which he can express: the reality of His being, the true essence of Himself. So, this is no opinion – no personally biased view. It is the expression of self that is the very nature of the Divine Father. Hence, what is spoken form the cloud is about the one in whom “I am fully expressed: well and truly revealed”.
Christ is the full, true revelation (complete expression) of divinity. This presence in the being of Jesus: the Christ, fully reveals the nature of the Divine Father. This is the Mystery of Incarnation which realises the mission of Incarnation in the Mystery of Golgotha (the Mystery of Death and Life, of Resurrection on Easter morning). The fulfilment of Divine activity is in the very being of Jesus Christ. He is the full and complete revelation of God. It is this reality that changes the sacrifice of the cross into the full salvation of the human being. In this lies our hope of future development, evolution of spirit and the becoming of the Future Human Being (the full realisation of the picture held in the words expressed for centuries in English as “The Son of Man”).
As we journey in March through Passiontide (and Holy Week) to Easter Sunday, may this realisation grow brighter and stronger in us and in our becoming.
The “eu” is well known to us in English in such words as “eulogy”, “euphemism”, ‘eucharist” and “Eurythmy”. It is also the root of what through Latin came into English as “ev”. This gives us “evangelisation”, for example. The short word “eu” or “ev” means well, good or beautiful, hence giving us the spreading of the good news (evangelisation), beautiful movement (eurhythmy), and the presentation of a well-intentioned speech or study of a person’s life (eulogy). So here we have the word that translates as good or well, as in that which is experienced as complete: well and good in its fullness: fully fulfilled.
Then “dokeo” means quite simply an opinion or an expression of a certain perspective. Here we are not dealing with the Divine Father’s preferred view (often translated as “pleasure”) but rather of His expression of that alone which he can express: the reality of His being, the true essence of Himself. So, this is no opinion – no personally biased view. It is the expression of self that is the very nature of the Divine Father. Hence, what is spoken form the cloud is about the one in whom “I am fully expressed: well and truly revealed”.
Christ is the full, true revelation (complete expression) of divinity. This presence in the being of Jesus: the Christ, fully reveals the nature of the Divine Father. This is the Mystery of Incarnation which realises the mission of Incarnation in the Mystery of Golgotha (the Mystery of Death and Life, of Resurrection on Easter morning). The fulfilment of Divine activity is in the very being of Jesus Christ. He is the full and complete revelation of God. It is this reality that changes the sacrifice of the cross into the full salvation of the human being. In this lies our hope of future development, evolution of spirit and the becoming of the Future Human Being (the full realisation of the picture held in the words expressed for centuries in English as “The Son of Man”).
As we journey in March through Passiontide (and Holy Week) to Easter Sunday, may this realisation grow brighter and stronger in us and in our becoming.
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Christ and the Mystery of Resurrection
by Rev Michaël Merle
Central to the Christian Faith – to the path of being Christian, to walking the way of Christ that transforms us – is the Mystery of Resurrection. This mystery is beautifully described in the parable of the Prodigal Son – that parable which accompanies our thoughts between St John’s and Michaelmas – a time in the season between (which we call Trinity Time). As we begin four weeks between the season of Epiphany and that of Passiontide, we may well reflect on the mystery that is so central to the experience and manifestation of being Christian (of feeling oneself united in a community to which all belong who are aware of the health bringing power of the Christ).
A lovely reflection on this was written by a priest of The Christian Community some years ago and his words are worth reflecting upon:
“The central event of Christianity is the mystery of Golgotha – the mystery of death and resurrection. The words of the father in the parable of The Prodigal Son remind us of its mystery: “My son was dead, and he is alive.” A quality belonging to the son is that he rises from death. The Greek word for resurrection is anastasis. In this parable it appears twice in active form as a verb: “I will arise and go to my father” and “he arose and came to his father.” We mustn’t overlook the importance of rising from death. It might be expressed as ‘through the power of resurrection in him’ he arose. Christ works within the human being so that we can rise from death; that we can rise above forces that would pull us down. Through Christ’s power at work within me, I become a ‘son’.
The prodigal son returns home to be welcomed by his father, not as a new servant but as a much-loved son. As long we have still to find our true selves then we remain servants, needing to be told what to do and how to go about it. Once we have learned to take responsibility for ourselves, to be truthful and ‘for real’, then we become a ‘son’. Whether male or female, every human being is called to become a ‘son’ of God by developing their true self or their ‘I am’. We do this by remembering our heavenly origin, by learning to see, read and understand our lives from the vantage point and by implementing the changes that will help us to serve the heavenly worlds working through us on earth. All of this is possible through the power of resurrection working in us. It brings our true self or ‘I am’ to life, and renews it over again in our thinking. We are called to be sons of God.” (Hartmut Borries)
When the prodigal son returns home the father recognises the power of resurrection in him, that he has arisen and come into himself, that the activity of ‘I am’ has awoken in him, and so he invests him with a stole. This Greek word: stole is the word for the archetypal garment of the king and of the priest. This human being is now invested as (consecrated in the garment of) priest and king. As Christians (Becoming Human Beings) we are called to become a priestly and kingly people: those with the power to bring about change, those with the power to manage and direct ourselves. This power is the power of Christ in us, the power of the mystery of resurrection.
A lovely reflection on this was written by a priest of The Christian Community some years ago and his words are worth reflecting upon:
“The central event of Christianity is the mystery of Golgotha – the mystery of death and resurrection. The words of the father in the parable of The Prodigal Son remind us of its mystery: “My son was dead, and he is alive.” A quality belonging to the son is that he rises from death. The Greek word for resurrection is anastasis. In this parable it appears twice in active form as a verb: “I will arise and go to my father” and “he arose and came to his father.” We mustn’t overlook the importance of rising from death. It might be expressed as ‘through the power of resurrection in him’ he arose. Christ works within the human being so that we can rise from death; that we can rise above forces that would pull us down. Through Christ’s power at work within me, I become a ‘son’.
The prodigal son returns home to be welcomed by his father, not as a new servant but as a much-loved son. As long we have still to find our true selves then we remain servants, needing to be told what to do and how to go about it. Once we have learned to take responsibility for ourselves, to be truthful and ‘for real’, then we become a ‘son’. Whether male or female, every human being is called to become a ‘son’ of God by developing their true self or their ‘I am’. We do this by remembering our heavenly origin, by learning to see, read and understand our lives from the vantage point and by implementing the changes that will help us to serve the heavenly worlds working through us on earth. All of this is possible through the power of resurrection working in us. It brings our true self or ‘I am’ to life, and renews it over again in our thinking. We are called to be sons of God.” (Hartmut Borries)
When the prodigal son returns home the father recognises the power of resurrection in him, that he has arisen and come into himself, that the activity of ‘I am’ has awoken in him, and so he invests him with a stole. This Greek word: stole is the word for the archetypal garment of the king and of the priest. This human being is now invested as (consecrated in the garment of) priest and king. As Christians (Becoming Human Beings) we are called to become a priestly and kingly people: those with the power to bring about change, those with the power to manage and direct ourselves. This power is the power of Christ in us, the power of the mystery of resurrection.
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Peace on earth to people of goodwill
by Rev Michaël Merle
This aspect of the Christmas message proclaimed from the realm of the angels to the people of earth (the humble shepherds): “peace on earth" may often strike us as unrealised. We live in such a chaotic, conflicted age, still manifesting in the conflicts that bring death and destruction in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and in parts of Africa and across the globe. Does all this mean that 2024 will again be a year in which the full reality of the Christmas message remains unrealised? What is the peace that the angels' message promised? Could it be the peace that is indeed realised in the Mystery of the Resurrection?
In The Act of Consecration of Man (The Future Human Being) we hear that Christ gave us the peace that enables us to stand at peace with the world. This is the peace breathed upon the disciples on Easter day. We, who are the inheritors of this peace, are like the first disciples: those who are underway in walking the Way of Christ with Christ. He has given us his peace, the peace to stand at peace with the world. This is a very different reality to the external peace we so obviously lack and which we clearly have yet to achieve. Living with a sense of peace in our hearts and in the way in which we take a stance in our lives and in the world does not lessen our responsibility to work towards an external peace – if anything it heightens that responsibility.
Peace in the world does not start out there but in us, in our inner orientation towards all that faces us, all that confronts us and all that challenges us. How do we stand at peace? The simple truth is that we cannot manage it at hand of anything other than working with the gift of peace given us by the grace of Christ’s Deed. Yet, as the words of our Eucharist Sacrament reminds us, we have to work with this gift to wrest ourselves free from the load of sin, and in the full clarity of our thinking and in the execution of our will (our truly good will – our loving devoted will) join with Christ and so unite ourselves with the world's evolving: an evolution in peace, an evolution for peace, an evolution realised from the peace within the human being.
May we find in all the small events and experiences of everyday life the peace of Christ, the peace that makes it possible for us to stand in such a way that hate, fear, greed, personal ambition, anger and hurt are able to dissipate in the full power of Christ's peace, that peace promised to all people of goodwill on that first Christmas night. Then true recognition, respect and love for all human beings becomes possible – when, in good will, we stand at peace with ourselves.
In The Act of Consecration of Man (The Future Human Being) we hear that Christ gave us the peace that enables us to stand at peace with the world. This is the peace breathed upon the disciples on Easter day. We, who are the inheritors of this peace, are like the first disciples: those who are underway in walking the Way of Christ with Christ. He has given us his peace, the peace to stand at peace with the world. This is a very different reality to the external peace we so obviously lack and which we clearly have yet to achieve. Living with a sense of peace in our hearts and in the way in which we take a stance in our lives and in the world does not lessen our responsibility to work towards an external peace – if anything it heightens that responsibility.
Peace in the world does not start out there but in us, in our inner orientation towards all that faces us, all that confronts us and all that challenges us. How do we stand at peace? The simple truth is that we cannot manage it at hand of anything other than working with the gift of peace given us by the grace of Christ’s Deed. Yet, as the words of our Eucharist Sacrament reminds us, we have to work with this gift to wrest ourselves free from the load of sin, and in the full clarity of our thinking and in the execution of our will (our truly good will – our loving devoted will) join with Christ and so unite ourselves with the world's evolving: an evolution in peace, an evolution for peace, an evolution realised from the peace within the human being.
May we find in all the small events and experiences of everyday life the peace of Christ, the peace that makes it possible for us to stand in such a way that hate, fear, greed, personal ambition, anger and hurt are able to dissipate in the full power of Christ's peace, that peace promised to all people of goodwill on that first Christmas night. Then true recognition, respect and love for all human beings becomes possible – when, in good will, we stand at peace with ourselves.
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