Lichtstrahl 199 - Keeping words in the heart with care

LICHTSTRAHL 199          GOSPEL:  Luke 2 (41-52)        EPIPHANY                       19.1.25
KEEPING WORDS IN THE HEART WITH CARE
 
Dear friends!
 
The world of secrets is a mystery world.  Why are there secrets, what do secrets do to us, who knows and is to know a secret?  Firstly, it can be a very joyful experience to live in a world of secrets.  Children love them, they mostly trust that something good and meaningful is happening – like in Advent time – and the more secrets there are, the better.  But it can also be the opposite.  Secrets can exclude, they can arise fear, they can be used and misused as a power tool.
 
Today’s gospel reading about the twelve year old boy, Jesus of Nazareth, bears one of the greatest secrets in his life.  What did happen on that occasion, when he had travelled with his parents and friends to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover?  When he spent three days in the temple in the company of the wise teachers of the Jews. When his parents first did not notice that he was not with them and then frantically were searching for him.  And when they found him, it was clear that their child had undergone a complete mysterious transformation, which they could not understand.  It is a great secret and so it is also hidden away somehow in the gospels of the New Testament, because it is only Luke who tells us about it, and so it does not really seem to be of great importance.  But maybe it could be one of the most important moments in the life of Jesus.  It is a secret!  Does it have to stay a secret?
 
Secrets are only secrets as long as the time is not ripe to unveil them.  If they are kept in wise and unselfish hearts, they can wait for their time of revelation and bring a new light of insight and development.  If they are dragged out in an unhealthy und harming way too early, and are misused, they cause a lot of destruction, danger and darkness.
 
How can we live with the mystery of the world of secrets and live up to and prepare the moment of unveiling of a secret?
 
We can keep the words in our hearts.    The mother of Jesus kept this secret in her heart in such a way.  She did not understand in the beginning, but they matured in her soul and prepared her for the most difficult moments of motherhood.  At the same time we can also become aware of signs of revelation of a secret.  Such a sign are quite a few paintings about Jesus being in the Temple amongst the wise.  Many of them mysteriously show two boys, looking very similar.  The gospel does however not mention two boys …. what secret are the painters trying to reveal there?
 
Secrets need to wait for the right moment to be unveiled.  Very often we can read in the Bible that “the time was ripe”.  Very often Rudolf Steiner opened his lectures saying that “the time was ripe”, that it had become necessary (notwendig) to speak openly about things that had been kept secret up to then, that unveiling needed to start.  And in such a way he started speaking about this particular secret too.
 
The secret of the twelve year old boy in the temple, took his mother Mary 21 years to keep it in her heart, not understanding.  We know that it took nearly 2000 years for Christians to keep it in their hearts, not understanding.    But we can also observe that the revelation of this secret is underway through such new teachings, through spiritual development in humanity, through the wisdom and guidance of a spiritual world.   The time seems to be ripe! 
 
Let us become very aware and awake about what Luke is telling us today, so that we do not oversleep a critical  moment of revelation!  So that we do not leave it as a secret and believe that we will never understand what happened there in the life of the child Jesus.
 
Christine Voigts.