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Jesus, particularly in Matthew’s Gospel, shows himself to precede the psychologists Jung and Freud by thousands of years, with several of his extremely insightful teachings on shadow work: (1) the metaphors of “the log in your own eye and seeing the splinter in your neighbor’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5), (2) the teaching that “the eye is the lamp of the body” (Matthew 6:22-23), and (3) coming to terms with your [inner] opponent (Matthew 5:25-26) before he can “take you to court and make you pay the last penny.”
I would also like to point out a lesser-noted teaching that uses the imagery of Satan. It warn us against trying to cast out our demons, who find no place to occupy, and return to us “all swept and tidied” (Matthew 12:43-44), and then bring with them “seven other demons,” and we’re “worse than we were before.” This to me is sheer psychological brilliance on Jesus’ part, and people instead waste time arguing about whether demons really exist.
If you try to achieve a superior identity by projecting your demons onto other people or groups, and temporarily feel “swept and tidied,” you have only achieved a seeming and a very false victory. Your ego willfulness and your superiority complex are now even more disguised—from yourself. But they are still there, and now well-defended by a sense of “purity.” As Jesus says in another place, you cannot “drive out Satan by Satan,” for such a “divided house cannot stand” (Luke 11:17-18). We can only be reconciled to our shadow by honest admissions, and must never think we can dismiss it, deny it, or punish it. We cannot deny our ego, or it will only return in different forms.
— From unpublished notes
The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available
in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . .
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