Christ Flame Once on his bed a few weeks before his death, Steiner wrote a poem about what he felt as his mission. What he wanted to accomplish against the forces that man wants to degrade at the level of one thing, a thing that can be made according to specifications, according to external rules and thrown away after use. Once, on his sickbed, only a couple of weeks before he died, Steiner wrote a poem that tells what he felt as his mission. What he wanted to accomplish against the odds of the forces that want to degrade the human being to the level of being merely a thing, a thing that can be fashioned to specifications, that is bound by external rules, and can be discarded after being used . Dr. Ernst Katz 'The mission of Rudolf Steiner'