Father Chet, July 1983
All of us participate in the collective shadow of the human race. What is the collective shadow? Broadly speaking, it is the total potential for good that exists in the universe.
Another way to look at it is that part of God’s power and energy which are not yet activated and actualized. This is the realm of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit holds this psychic energy of the divine (collective) shadow that is available for us.
Evil or Good
As this divine energy issues forth from the collective unconscious, it is simply raw energy. Our human ego and our conscious faculties choose the direction these energies should go.
Much of the power of evil comes from the power of our instinctual drive toward wholeness. When this drive gets warped, distorted, and confused, it manifests in a negative direction. Hitler and Nazi Germany chose to use these energies primarily for destruction and evil. On the other hand, Gandhi and Martin Luther King chose to use this divine energy to benefit humankind.
Taking Responsibility
We are free to make this choice. God entrusted us with the tremendous responsibility to use these raw psychic energies for the benefit of humanity. This is a responsibility we must not shirk.
In other words, the responsibility is twofold: first, for the proper development of our own personal shadow. And, second, for the shadow of the entire human race.
The influences we have inherited affect us as individuals. It also influences us as members of a collective which includes all other human beings. We cannot cut ourselves off from that. This is the meaning of the effects of original sin.
Whether we like it or not, we are survivors of many ancient shipwrecks, and we are now afloat together upon the life-raft of present-day consciousness.
Even if we desired, we could not cut ourselves adrift from our responsibilities to the rest of God’s creation. It is difficult enough to deal with our own personal shadow. Yet we must also do everything in our power to rectify the mistakes of our ancestors and the faults of our nation, both past and present.
Energies of Love
Seen in this light, the whole mystery of evil begins to make sense. We are called to the awesome task of rectifying past mistakes. We can do so by discovering the proper method to release and put to good use the repressed psychic energies of love residing in the collective shadow of the human race.
If such a task were solely our responsibility, the effort would be overwhelming and impossible. The Incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ is proof that God is able and willing to help us. Jesus reminds us that he will not accomplish the task alone. “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and follow in my steps” (Mark 8:34).
Rectifying the Collective Shadow
To take up and carry our crosses means to take responsibility for rectifying as much as possible the universal shadow which belongs to us as participants in God’s creation. However, for many Christians, the cross is such a familiar image that it has lost its meaning. It has become a lifeless symbol. It should not be.
If we assume our obligation to cooperate in the redemption of the shadow of the human race, we will literally find ourselves stretched on a cross between the different pairs of opposites that make up the totality of reality.
Carrying our crosses means we are pulled in many directions. Our commitment to the duties of our conscious life and the obligation to be open to the psychic energies of the unconscious shadow pulls us. Our duties to God, to ourselves, and to our fellow human beings pulls us. And our duties to the people of this generation, to the unfulfilled tasks of past generations, and our responsibilities to generations to come pulls us.
Editor’s Note: This is the third of four installments of Fathers Chet’s writings on wholeness and the shadow. The first two were published in April and June respectively; the final reflection will be in October.