"Why me, Lord?"

 

Bastiaan Baan, from the Introduction to Christ and the Human Soul: 

Perhaps I might be permitted to share something from the biography of someone I knew personally, as a concrete example of one who turned to Christ with her questions — and received his answers. She was among the humblest people I have ever met. I am speaking about Magdalene von Gleich, the widow of Sigismund von Gleich. Both were contemporaries and personal co-workers of Rudolf Steiner. Magdalene belonged to the pioneers of the Waldorf School in Germany and The Netherlands.

In 1971, the house for elderly people where she lived burned down as the result of an accident. Seven of her best friends died in the flames. The next morning, standing beside the remnants of the house, Magdalene von Gleich asked Christ: "Why did I not die in the fire? Why my best friends?" Immediately, the answer came from within: "Because you have not yet suffered enough." This seems like a harsh answer. For Magdalene von Gleich, however, it was affirmation that the spiritual world knows when the time has come for us to finish our earthly task. This world needs our destinies, our sufferings, our compassion. In the years that followed, Magdalene von Gleich was able to bring these qualities into all her relationships.

With the theme of suffering and compassion, we return to a central theme of anthroposophy during the years 1912-1914. Through suffering and pain, spiitual forces can be developed that bring regeneration to the world — especially when  our capacity for passio is extended in a selfless way to compassio.This is the essence of the Christ-impulse and at the same time the task of anthroposophy, as it was expressed in the First Goetheanum and in the life and work of Rudolf Steiner.

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