The greatest Christian initiate of our times once wrote:

‘As long as you feel pain that I avoid

The Christ remains unrecognized

At work in the World of Being-

For my spirit remains weak

as long as I am only capable of feeling my own pain.’

These words can remind us that within every human spirit there lives the possibility of awakening to The Christ. But this capacity to know and feel the Christ does not depend on how many bible verses I can quote or how many esoteric books I’ve read. Recognizing Christ does not depend on my ability to see auras or elemental spirits. These profound words can remind us that recognizing the Christ in us and in the world means compassion- that the very doorway to christ’s being is to feel someone else’s pain- to suffer with the other.

In these extraordinary times, when almost every morning we wake up to another world tragedy, the most recent in Nice and Ankara, in these extraordinary times our souls are being tested. We are tested by the forces working in the terror and in the media who would have our hearts succumb to fear, anxiety and prejudice, the perfect soil for the thought, enough is enough its time to exterminate this evil. Or the forces working in the terror would have our hearts succumb to numbness and despair, tempting us to go to sleep to world because the suffering is unbearable- because there is nothing that one can do.

Dear friends, as striving christians our faith must become that real compassion is profoundly meaningful for the future of our evolution. That focusing on feeling the pain of those who suffer these tragedies, practicing allowing our hearts to break and our tears to flow, overcoming fear and despair, that this is deeply meaningful. That the compassion filled heart in itself is profoundly meaningful because it enlivens Christ’s reality in this world. For as long as you feel pain that I avoid, Christ remains unrecognized at work in the World of Being.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s words and current events