Kings

Real kings are hard to find in our time.  For whoever calls himself king, or is so called, is at best a pale shadow of it, and at worst a mere caricature.  For how often isn’t the magic of a fairy tale coronation and a fairy tale marriage broken by the sobering reality of human weakness?

We have to look far into the past to find real kings—high initiates who led a people with sure knowledge, and who were able to transform this knowledge into laws carved in stone.  Their wisdom was derived from the stars according to the heavenly law: As above, so below.  The eternal script of the stars, the dictates of the heavenly hierarchies, was the source they drew from to order life on earth.  The symbol of this source of inspiration was of old the golden crown: from a world that rises far above earthly thoughts flowed their inspirations.

The Gospel shows that in his conduct the king followed the inspirations of the angelic world.  It is the angel’s message that causes the three kings to decide to return to their lands by a different way (Mat. 2:12).  How far do our ways seem to be removed from their royal way!  By trial and error, wandering and straying, we have to feel our way to our goal in life.  In our noisy world the voices of the angels are drowned out, have gone silent.  And yet, in every human being a capacity is hiding that can show us the way.  In each of us speaks the voice of conscience.  Even if we don’t want to know what our conscience is saying, it does not leave us in peace until we hear its voice.  That is the Christ voice of our conscience.  And whoever let themselves be led by this voice will sooner or later discover royal gifts, which are lying deeply hidden in us and are waiting to come to light.

Rev. Bastiaan Baan, January 6, 2024