Es ist nachts

And: What suggestions can the cantata BWV 25 give us here?
Before I turn to this question, I will briefly discuss three contributions to the understanding of health and becoming healthy that are essential to answering this question. (With the concept of self-actualisation, we also come close to the creative aspect of the human being). And yet the metaphors chosen in the Baroque period, especially those related to illness, are also not infrequently close and immediately comprehensible to the individual in the present.

But another basis must not be overlooked here: the ability of human beings to concentrate on themselves and their own spiritual powers to such an extent and in such a way that the realisation of the integration of their own lives into a divine order becomes possible in the first place.

Border crosser Johann Sebastian Bach
But now the question arises: Is this really referring to the physically seriously ill person, or is it not rather a metaphor for illness as a consequence of sin, as is expressed in Psalm 38: “There is nothing healthy in my body because of your threatening, and there is no peace in my bones because of my sin”?
This is the place to also characterise Johann Sebastian Bach as a border crosser, as I did in the book Die Grenzgänge des Johann Sebastian Bach: Psychologische Einblicke (2nd edition, Springer Spektrum, Heidelberg 2014).

These references are clearly recognisable at the end of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life: the Great God, family members, pupils and friends, music. In this cantata, the physical and spiritual suffering of human beings is not denied: rather, the vulnerability of human beings forms its starting point. And yet, despite these health restrictions, he worked on and completed the Musical Offering, systematically continued the Art of the Fugue, which, although it could not be completely written down (the Contrapunctus 14 breaks off after the introduction of the last fugue theme), was very probably completed in Johann Sebastian Bach’s imagination, completed the B minor Mass and, shortly before his death, created the chorale Vor Deinen Thron tret ich hiermit.
If one condenses and combines the biographical statements that can be made with regard to the last years of Johann Sebastian Bach’s life and the musical-symbolic statements that form the basis of his last works, the following themes – expressed in first person – can be differentiated (the psychological term to which the respective theme can be assigned is listed in brackets):

(I) I live in God, in other people, in my work.
(relatedness)
(II) I perceive my creative powers
(self-actualisation)
(III) I shape my life
(self-shaping)
(IV) I penetrate deeper and deeper into music, strive for its perfection
(creativity)
(V) I pass on my work to future generations of musicians (generativity).
(generativity)
(VI) I take on responsibility for other people
(co-responsibility)
(VII) I perceive myself in my vulnerability
(Vulnerability)
(VIII) I perceive myself as part of the divine order
(Gerotranscendence)
(IX) I look gratefully at my life, my life as a fragment
(I-integrity)
(X) I expect the resurrection of the dead, eternal life
(Religiosity)

These themes and psychological terms reflect a rich soul-spiritual life that makes clear which creative forces can also be effective at the end of life, provided that this life stands in references that motivate to sense and realise these creative forces.

Nicht nur in der Sterblichkeit
Soll dein Ruhm sein ausgebreit':
Ich wills auch hernach erweisen
Und dort ewiglich dich preisen.
("Treuer Gott, ich muß dir klagen," last verse)