Our Dead

GA 261 — 5 February 1915, Basel

Eulogy at the Cremation of Fritz Mitscher

A hope that makes us happy:
So you entered the field,
Where the earth's spiritual blossoms,
Through the power of the soul,
to show themselves to research. Your love of truth
was akin to your yearning;
to create from the light of the spirit
was the earnest goal in life
to which you strove tirelessly. You cultivated your beautiful gifts
To the bright path of spiritual knowledge,
Undeterred by worldly contradictions,
As a faithful servant of truth,
Secure in your stride. You practiced your spiritual organs
So that they would bravely and persistently
On both sides of the path
pushed error aside
and created space for truth. To shape your self to reveal
pure light,
so that the soul's solar power
might radiate powerfully within you,
was your life's care and joy. Other concerns, other joys,
They barely touched your soul,
Because knowledge appeared to you as light,
Which gives meaning to existence,
As the true value of life. A hope that makes us happy:
So you entered the field,
Where the earth's spiritual blossoms your sense of the spheres matured. Feel how we lovingly look
into the heights that now call you
to other work.
Pass on to your abandoned friends
your strength from spiritual realms. Hear our plea,
In the confidence sent to you:
We need strong power from the spiritual realm here to do our work on earth,
which we thank our dead friends for. A hope that makes us happy,
a loss that hurts us deeply:
Let us hope that you, far away,
Shining undimmed upon our life
As a star of the soul in the realm of the spirit.

As we envision You through the innermost workings of our minds, so, dear friend, You appear to us, our soul clearly living, in order to work in the realm of that spiritual life to which we have devoted our hearts, to which we have devoted our souls in loyalty, to which You have also devoted Your soul and heart in loyalty. Truly, a hope that makes us happy. And today, we stand before the loss, which pains us deeply, with our dear mother, who is so close to all our hearts, and who, with such deep, loving understanding, kindred spirit, followed his path through life with me, not just followed it, but prepared it for you with the deepest inner knowledge of your nature, with the deepest inner love. We stand there with our dear siblings, some of whom must be far away, devoted to the duty that the times demand of so many people in the present. We stand there and can only say to our dear mother and dear siblings one word of comfort at your mortal remains: It may be a consolation, a consolation that lasts over time, that you, dear friend, have won the love of so many kindred souls who will always be willing to share the pain that your mother and siblings are experiencing.

You grasped that which permeates us as our spiritual being, as your own being. But deep in your soul glows a persistent, earnest exploratory urge, an exploratory urge that has always been intrepidly turned towards the truth, the truth alone as the shining light. I often spoke with you about your life here on earth, but often it was also as if you pushed aside what the earth could give you for your earthly life, because the spiritual light stood brightly and shiningly before you, to which your soul wanted to devote itself completely, to whose reflection your soul turned.

When people got to know you better, it was as if, deep down in your soul, you wanted to express the conviction, which never lingered in your consciousness, through this or that word: I will not have to worry about my earthly path in this incarnation. — And so, what could cause you such worry became less and less valuable to you. Instead, more and more a beautiful, wonderfully bright harmony of our spiritual life dawned on you, and what appeared to be weakness on the outside, appeared to be strength to the soul. A hidden spiritual world shone gloriously out of your soul, a rich life and striving out of the narrow horizon, and the spiritual world shone wonderfully for you. If more years had been allotted to you, what lived humbly and chastely as a spirit of research in your noble soul would have ripened into the most beautiful fruit. It was pure and chaste like those souls of researchers who work their way up from the deepest chasms, from which souls of researchers must work their way up. One of those souls in whom the powers develop slowly and gradually, so that they can then also take on that form that transforms the urge to research into the ability to teach.

So you, my friend, were on the way from research to teaching. If, as was symbolically expressed in your outer being, that which permeates so many with error and false ideas about the light of spiritual existence could not touch you, then on the other hand it was your strong will to penetrate to the very sources of existence, to seek knowledge for yourself and to give this knowledge to your fellow men. And Your strong, strong will knew how to illuminate itself with that keen sense that was able to see through error that stood in the way of truth. That was how it was. You spoke of that which You already knew how to proclaim from the source of spiritual life, as one of the first who, connected by their very own power with the divine foundations of the world, knew how to put clear truth in the place of error, which, misunderstanding and misjudging our spiritual striving, comes to us from all sides from the world. That is why You promised to become a loyal fellow warrior in that host, which wants to be devoted to the holy, eternal truth, to illuminate and warm the fleeting time, so that it may stand firmer and fit into the stream of eternal being.

In principle it is self-evident to you that you are connected with what we call the spiritual life. And that is why this being, in its quiet but unyielding zeal, had such an infinitely harmonious effect on all the souls of friends, strengthening and invigorating these souls again and rekindling in them the spark that must ignite in man if he is to find the way from time to eternity. And even if what appeared to be Your earthly life-force was sometimes weak, Your inner spiritual life always presented itself to us as an especially strong and powerful energy that knew how to walk the path it had chosen out of realization with sure steps. You stood before us as a promise of the future, as a dynamic fighter for the cause that was one with your innermost self, with which you had made this innermost one.

It cannot be for us at this hour to speak only words of comfort for those souls who must remain behind, for the dear mother and the dear brother and sister souls. For all those who were devoted to you in intimate friendship, it is fitting to live in holy sorrow since you have left this earthly field. But through the trust in the spirit that inspires us, in the spirit that lived so strongly in you, we also trust in the pain of our souls that he will find the strength to always look up to you in the regions where you will dwell and we are not lost to you through the beautiful, glorious treasures that you through your higher self, which you strove to develop during your earthly existence, collected.

You know, dear soul, how much at risk that is in our spiritual current, which is so close to our hearts, is endangered by the contradictions of the world, by error and misunderstanding. You know how we, standing here at your mortal remains, look up into the spheres that receive the spiritual. You know how difficult it is for the souls in the bodies to fight against conscious and unconscious enemies with what is so dear to us. You know how we look to You with the request to continue to unite Your power with ours. You know how we do not trust in what people encounter in the visible world. You know that we hold to the invisible world because we know that it is permeated by the souls of those who belonged to us and have left their earthly place of life. But we, who work below, want to ask You to work among us with the powers that are now at Your command.

When that which sometimes surges within us and all too strongly challenges our strength asserts itself, then it will be You who is at work in our striving. So, never lost, so united with us in intimate love, we would like to live with You in thought, to whom You will be unforgettable, far and near. And You will be able to do so, from the spiritual regions that have received You, to send Your strong powers down to us.

I see unspent powers in the life from which death has taken You away after a short existence. But you have passed through the gate of death with soul powers that are blissfully strengthened by the power of Christ, by that power of Christ, which you knew how to take in as spirit-knowledge, in your most inner feeling, in the secret of your heart, in your rich knowledge, which you knew how to take in as a living power that keeps alive throughout eternity that which which we know how to connect with this Christ-power.

You have understood how to solve the riddle of spiritual science for yourself, so that you let it enter into the center of all your longing and searching that which gives meaning to the earth, which, as the striving of humanity, is incorporated in all earthly life: the power of Christ. Strengthened and invigorated by the power of the Christ impulse, you have passed through the gate of death; with the power of the Christ impulse you are in spirit. And that in you which is connected with this power of the Christ impulse will turn to us who seek this power of the Christ impulse, so that your fire may become one with our fire, in order to achieve those goals of humanity that must incorporate into the earth's striving and working out of eternity into time.

United with the light-filled power of Christ, we now look up to You with love, to our strong support, to our bitter loss, but also to our confident consolation.

So go into the light-filled world and be assured that our love follows You, as we are certain that Your light will be with us.

A hope that makes us happy:
So you entered the field,
Where the earth's spiritual blossoms,
Through the power of the soul's being,
Want to show themselves to research. Pure love of truth being
Your longing was kindred;
To create from the light of the spirit,
That was the earnest goal of life,
Which you tirelessly pursued. You cultivated your beautiful gifts,
To walk the bright path of spiritual knowledge
Unperturbed by the contradictions of the world
As a faithful servant of truth,
Securely walking. You practiced your spiritual organs
So that they might bravely and persistently
On both sides of the path
Push error aside
And create space for truth. To shape your self to a revelation
of pure light, so that the power of the soul's sun might radiate mightily within you, was your life's concern and joy. Other concerns, other joys, they barely touched your soul, Because knowledge appeared to you as a light,
which gives meaning to existence,
as the true value of life. A hope that makes us happy:
So you entered the field,
Where the earth's spiritual blossoms
Through the power of the soul's being
Want to show themselves to research. A loss that deeply pains us,
So you disappear from the field,
Where the spirit's seeds of the earth
In the womb of the soul's being
Matured in your sense of the spheres. Feel how we look lovingly
Into the heights that now
calling you to other work.
Give your strength from spiritual realms
to your abandoned friends. Hear our souls' plea,
sent to you in trust:
We need strong strength from spiritual realms here
for our earthly work,
Which we thank to our dead friends. A hope that makes us happy
A loss that hurts us deeply:
Let us hope that You, far and near,
Do not lose our lives, but shine
As a star of the soul in the spiritual realm.