Freedom from the Shadow

ONLINE REFLECTION, PROPER 9, YEAR A, ST. PAUL’S, FOLEY

JULY 5, 2020

TEXT:   Romans 7:15-25a

Paul is approaching what I think is the high point of Christian scripture in the Epistle today. Coming weeks will have us reading Romans Chapter 8 – which is truly profound and hope-filled.

But, today, Paul – from whom we get the name of our parish – is writing about something which afflicts us all.  The desire to do one thing, but our tendency to do something that is less noble.

As the comedian Flip Wilson said many years ago, “The devil made me do it.” If Paul had been present in the 1960s, he would have seen some truth in Wilson’s joke.

It may be something less sinister that causes us to “do that which we would not do.”

Year ago, there was a Swiss psychologist – someone who was a friends and rival of Sigmund Freud.  His name was Carl Jung.  Some of his concepts have survived the years better than some of Freud’s ideas.  And some have been accepted as ways of seeing our spiritual life.

A key idea is the shadow.  It is that part of ourselves – we all have one – which we deny, disown, and act as if it doesn’t exist.  But exist it does – and the more we attempt to hide it, the more it controls our lives in hidden, perhaps toxic ways.  In other words, the part of ourselves which we seek to hide, controls us from the hidden background of our personality.

The more we seek to hide it or deny it, it influences our actions.

Hence, the shadow.

Paul expresses the human frustration we feel when we do something that we would not want to do:  “Wretched man that I am!  Who will save me from this body of death?”

But there is an answer: Name the shadow.  Bring it into the light of day. Don’t let that part of you control you and your actions.  When you do that, it loses its power.

Walking with Jesus and journeying deeply into life of the Holy Spirit – moving in your life – you may name and expose the shadow.  As you overcome the control of the darker side of you complex personality, you can say with Paul, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”