Soma: a gathering of eagles

Emil Bock:  

"To the request of the disciples, 'Strengthen our faith,' Christ has replied by a description of the highest aim that is appointed for faith: the perception of Christ's return. Now they put the simple but far-reaching question, 'Where, Lord?' The disciples wish to know where they must direct the gaze of the seeing heart in order not to miss the shining forth of the lightning. The answer is a mystery. The Authorized Version translates it 'Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered.' [Luke 17:37] The Greek word issoma, which means 'body,' but not the physical body which after death remains a corpse. The Greek word used in this sense would be sarx. Soma means the 'living body,' which anthroposophy calls the 'etheric body.' If we would render the answer of Christ in modern terms, we might say: 'Direct your attention into your own being, notice the finer formative forces which permeate your body; there you have coming down to you the etheric forces and the etheric sphere in which the organ is formed which can perceive the eagles of the sun, which are coming down to you.' Marvelous as it must at first appear to many, Christ, in this intimate teaching about the path, is pointing his disciples to secrets of the finer organization of man. He is not content with saying to the Pharisees 'The Kingdom of God is within you.' To the disciples he indicates more precisely, with intimate pictorial clarity, where, within them, the sphere of the eagles of the sun can be discovered."

Ex Deo Nascimur       In Christo Morimur       Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus

Source: Studies in the Gospels, volume 2, p. 172