Me and My Shadow

In my new formation class on the Desert Mothers, Sr. Cecilia asked the question, “What are your thoughts on what these desert dwellers could possibly have to teach us in the 21st century?”As it turns out, they have much to teach us about living simply, the need for silence and solitude, and keeping our primary focus on God. Perhaps most importantly for us today, however, is that they teach us how to struggle with temptation, which today we often call our shadow—the thoughts, feelings, and impulses within us that create fear and shame and that we thus try to bury. What we fail to appreciate is that we cannot throw light without creating a shadow. Instead of viewing our shadow as a teacher, however, we generally choose to project our own faults and failures onto others, which often leads to acts of scapegoating and exclusion.

Someone once told me that if a monster is chasing you in a dream, you should stop running, wheel around to face the creature, and shout “Why are you chasing me?” It is likely the monster will respond, “You tell me: it’s your dream!” The desert mothers and fathers sought seclusion to avoid the distractions that keep us from facing our inner monsters and our role in creating them.

We are living in a world in which people don’t know how to face their inner darkness, and they are suppressing it so thoroughly that it is exploding into consciousness through gun violence, fear of “the other” (people of different races, cultures, religions, and sexual orientation), domestic violence, and addiction. The desert mothers and fathers can give us much-needed guidance in how to face our shadow and work with it to become more whole (holy) and compassionate people.