Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

The Shadow in Christianity

We can patiently accept not being good. What we cannot bear is not being considered good, not appearing good.—St. Francis of Assisi

If you are willing to bear serenely the trial of being displeasing to yourself, you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter. —St. Thérèse of Lisieux

The two Christian mystics quoted above have helped me to escape the trap of perfectionism which always leads to an entrenched shadow. The wise Benedictine Brother David Steindl-Rast describes this common ploy:

In its enthusiasm for the divine light, Christian theology has not always done justice to the divine darkness. . . . We tend to get trapped in the idea of a static perfection that leads to rigid perfectionism. Abstract speculation can create an image of God that is foreign to the human heart. . . [A God that does not contain our shadows.] Then we try to live up to the standards of a God that is purely light, and we can’t handle the darkness within us. And because we can’t handle it, we suppress it. But the more we suppress it, the more it leads its own life, because it’s not integrated. Before we know it, we are in serious trouble.

You can get out of that trap if you come back to the core of the Christian tradition, to the real message of Jesus. You find him, for instance, saying, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” [Matthew 5:48]. Yet he makes it clear that this is not the perfection of suppressing the darkness, but the perfection of integrated wholeness. [Richard: Emphasis mine.] That’s the way Matthew puts it in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus talks of our Father in heaven who lets the sun shine on the good and the bad, and lets the rain fall on the just and the unjust alike [see Matthew 5:45]. It’s both the rain and the sun, not only the sun. And it’s both the just and the unjust. Jesus stresses the fact that God obviously allows the interplay of shadow and light. God approves of it. If God’s perfection allows for tensions to work themselves out, who are we to insist on a perfection in which all tensions are suppressed? . . .

[As Paul writes,] “By grace you have been saved” [Ephesians 2:8]. That’s one of the earliest insights in the Christian tradition: it’s not by what you do that you earn God’s love. Not because you are so bright and light and have purged out all the darkness does God accept you, but as you are. Not by doing something, not by your works, but gratis you have been saved. That means you belong. God has taken you in. God embraces you as you are—shadow and light, everything. God embraces it, by grace. And it has already happened.

David Steindl-Rast, “The Shadow in Christianity,” in Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature, ed. Jeremiah Abrams and Connie Zweig (Jeremy P. Tarcher: 1991), 132,133.

4. Poem by Mary Oliver

“Wild Geese”

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Why we love this poem: If you’ve ever felt that the world was falling down around you, this poem serves as a soothing reminder to connect with yourself, with nature, and with others around you. Oliver’s image of geese in flight is meant to lift the reader and carry them out of any despair and loneliness that they might be feeling.

5. Prayer

https://www.ibelieve.com/faith/a-prayer-for-love.html?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj21Z72nMTxAhWPaM0KHWv2B9gQ9QF6BAgKEAI

Father,

Thank you for your great love for us. You sent your only Son to live with us and show us how to love. He gave His life for us and resurrected on that third day so that we could also be with you in eternity!

Lord, to feel just an inch of the radiance of your love and the glow from your excellence will be more than we can imagine. Knowing your love for us is humbling too.

We are imperfect humans moving around on this Earth day to day attempting to live lives that are worthy of the calling you have on us. We need your guidance and direction.

Father, for the woman that needs to feel your love today, I pray that you give her eyes to see and ears to hear your love for her. You know her name, her past, her triumphs, and her wounds. Let her know it is never too late to call on you, ask for your forgiveness, give her life to your service, rebuke the sin that is entangling her, and live free as a Child of God. For those alone or feeling unloved, let their love for you be so fierce that it radiates back to them. Let them live each day forward knowing you love them more than they can imagine and that they are not alone.

Father, for the woman that finds it easier to love herself than others, give her eyes to see how special all of your children are. Give her opportunities to sit down with those that don’t look or think like her so that she can learn what it really means to love her neighbor. Help her to be kind, encouraging, forgiving, loving to those that may never realize her impact, and move forward with the ability to treat others with love no matter what. Give her the grace and strength to move from day to day with an outpouring of love for her neighbor.

Father, for the woman that finds it easier to love others more than herself, give her the gift of self-love and forgiveness. Hold her and embrace her. Give her permission to take care of herself, to enjoy the things that make her heart sing, and give her the time it takes to do those things. You love her servant heart, Lord, please let her feel the peace that your love wants to give her in these busy days we all live in.

Thank you Father that no matter where our hearts are you are always reaching out to love us unconditionally! You are the ultimate example of love and we are so grateful for that!

In Jesus’ Holy name we pray,

Amen.

6. Relaxing Zen Music with Water Sounds • Peaceful Ambience for Spa, Yoga and Relaxation - YouTube