The Shadow: Confronting Our Darkness

Sunday Awe

While the concept of the shadow has existed for a long time, psychologist Carl Jung was the first to truly name and explore it. The shadow refers to the parts of ourselves that we hide or suppress, often because we are embarrassed or were taught that they are bad or unacceptable. These parts don’t go away; instead, they retreat into the subconscious, from which they continue to exert influence over our thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

The shadow includes the traits we don’t want to admit we have, such as anger, jealousy, lust, and pride. It also encompasses buried pain, unresolved grief, and feelings of rejection and loneliness. On the other hand, the shadow can also include positive qualities like creativity, talents, and strengths that were repressed because we were told they were wrong or inappropriate. The shadow is not evil; it is simply unacknowledged and suppressed. What remains in the dark tends to act out in unhealthy, even destructive ways.

Jesus did not use the term “shadow,” but He addressed it nonetheless. His teachings constantly invited people to look beneath the surface. “You have heard it said… but I say to you…” was His refrain in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), pointing not just to actions but to the motivations of the heart. He exposed the inner life—not to shame people, but to heal them. St. Paul said, “Everything that is illuminated becomes light” (Ephesians 5:13). To bring the hidden into the light is to transform it.

Too often, we spiritually bypass. We may hide behind religious clichés, such as “I’m not perfect, just forgiven,” without ever confronting what lies behind our failings. We bypass when we deny that our hurts or childhood trauma have any bearing on our lives today or when we continue to pretend everything is okay when it is not.

Confronting the shadow is not easy. It requires honesty, humility, and courage. We must be willing to face parts of ourselves that don’t fit the image we try to project. This work is not about self-condemnation; rather, it is about loving and accepting all of ourselves. The spiritual journey is not about becoming someone we are not; it is about becoming our whole self—who we are meant to be—by bringing together all the scattered parts of ourselves, healed in the light of God’s love.

Shadow work is holy work. It is the journey of “sanctification.” As we bring our hidden selves into the light, we experience healing from the pain and freedom from the unconscious patterns that have ruled our lives. The truth that once frightened us becomes the truth that sets us free, and we begin to reclaim our inherent power. As Richard Rohr writes, “The way through the darkness is the way to God.”

To grow spiritually is to walk the path of integration. It is to bring the darkness into the light, to know that nothing within us is beyond redemption. The shadow, when embraced, becomes a place of encounter. And there, in the depths, we discover that even our darkness is not dark to God. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

Monday Awe: Recognizing the Shadow

• Carl Jung: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” (Modern Man in Search of a Soul)
• Thomas Merton: “The basic and most fundamental problem of the spiritual life is this acceptance of our hidden self, which God alone can love and accept because He alone sees it.”(New Seeds of Contemplation)
• Rumi: “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” (The Essential Rumi)
• James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” (As Much Truth As One Can Bear, The New York Times Book Review, 1962)
• 1 John 1:5: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (NIV)

Question to Ponder: How can you bring your shadow into the light of God?

Action to Take: Reflect on one fear or flaw you have avoided and ask for the light of God to enter into it.

Tuesday Awe: Facing Fear

• Seneca: “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” (Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13)
• Simone Weil: “Fear can paralyze the soul, but faith teaches us to walk forward into the unknown.” (Gravity and Grace)
• Nelson Mandela: “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” (Long Walk to Freedom)
• Laozi: “He who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty.” (Tao Te Ching)
• Isaiah 41:10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.” (NIV)

Question to Ponder: What must you do to face your fears?

Action to Take: Reflect on how fear has affected your life.

Wednesday Awe: Letting Go of Ego

• St. Francis of Assisi: “It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.” (Prayer of St. Francis)
• St. Isaac the Syrian: “This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.” (Ascetical Homilies)
• The Bhagavad Gita 2:71: “That man attains peace who, abandoning all desires, moves about without longing, without any sense of mine and ego.” (Bhagavad Gita 2:71, translated by Eknath Easwaran)
• Eckhart Tolle: “To realize that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually.” (The Power of Now)
• Matthew 23:12: “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (NIV)

Question to Ponder: How does letting go of egoic control bring you closer to God?

Action to Take: Reflect on one instance of pride and seek to replace it with humility.

Thursday Awe: Transforming the Shadow

• St. John Climacus: “The path to transformation is through repentance and humility.” (The Ladder of Divine Ascent)
• Carl Jung: “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” (Psychology and Alchemy)
• The Bhagavad Gita 2:70: “He attains peace into whom all desires enter as waters enter the ocean, which, filled from all sides, remains unmoved.”
• St. John of the Cross: “In tribulation, immediately draw near to God with confidence, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction.” (The Sayings of Light and Love)
• 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory.” (NIV)

Question to Ponder: How can God’s light transform your shadow?

Action to Take: Pray for God’s light to illuminate and transform an area of darkness in your life.

Friday Awe: Embracing Wholeness

• Henri Nouwen: “The spiritual life is a journey toward becoming all that we already are.” (Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World)
• Brené Brown: “Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.” (Daring Greatly)
• Julian of Norwich: “Sin is behovely, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” (Revelations of Divine Love)
• Parker J. Palmer: “Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.” (A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life)
• James 1:4: “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (NIV)

Question to Ponder: How can embracing your shadow bring you closer to wholeness in God?

Action to Take: Spend time journaling about an aspect of yourself you’ve struggled to accept, and pray for God’s grace to integrate it.

Saturday Awe: The Shadow: Confronting our Darkness

• Carl Jung: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” (Modern Man in Search of a Soul)
• Simone Weil: “Fear can paralyze the soul, but faith teaches us to walk forward into the unknown.” (Gravity and Grace)
• St. Francis of Assisi: “It is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life.” (Prayer of St. Francis)
• Carl Jung: “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” (Psychology and Alchemy)
• Parker J. Palmer: “Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.” (A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life)
• 1 John 1:5: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” (NIV)

Question to Ponder: Are you willing to confront your darkness in order to grow?

Action to Take: Take time to journal about your shadow and how to embrace it.