A meditation from the book of James on our Shadow selves.

The Examiner ^ | 2/16/2012 | Joseph Speranzella SFO

[Catholic Examiner]

Temptation and the Shadow- a meditation

James 1:19-25

Remember this, my dear brothers: be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to rouse your temper; God's righteousness is never served by man's anger; do away with all bad habits that are left in you-accept and submit to the word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. But you must do what the word tells you to, and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves. To listen to the word and not obey is like looking at our own features in a mirror and then, after a quick look, going off and immediately forget what you looked like. But the man who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and makes that his habit-not listening and forgetting but actively putting it into practice-will be happy in all he does.

We can all find our "Shadow" in the projections we make on others. Usually, if we stop ourselves, we can see the Shadow expressing itself in the complexes revealed in our outbursts. We have become so skilled at hiding the Shadow, the unwanted or unacceptable parts of ourselves that our ego represses, that we do not even see them with conscious effort. In this scripture passage James is asking us to stop ourselves.

[marron]

Remember this, my dear brothers: be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to rouse your temper; God's righteousness is never served by man's anger; do away with all bad habits that are left in you-accept and submit to the word which has been planted in you and can save your souls. But you must do what the word tells you to, and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves. To listen to the word and not obey is like looking at our own features in a mirror and then, after a quick look, going off and immediately forget what you looked like. But the man who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and makes that his habit-not listening and forgetting but actively putting it into practice-will be happy in all he does.

Thanks for posting.

[UCANSEE2]

I’m Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change)
(Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah)