Casting Shadows

"I wish that even my shadow might do good." Blessed Alfonso Marie Fusco                                                            

   This quote I found on a friend's profile page speaks to me of someone who deeply desires holiness and actively seeks God’s will. Of course if we consider the implications on a literal level it is only when we are doing good that our shadow will also be doing good.

     I like the richer meaning implied. If we are so steeped in
God’s love, stripped of selfishness, pride, and fear, then only good will come from us. Even the shadows we cast won’t be looming or very dark. God’s light will shine through and prevail.
     Sometimes our shadows—our dark, distorted false selves—grow much larger than we are. These ominous forms stick to surfaces, stretch out, and pull apart from who we are and want to be. They become as difficult and obstinant as the free-ranging shadow in Peter Pan, seeming to act on their own without permission from the owner.
     At times in life, we tend to focus in on the shadows, waiting to see if someone will make a wrong move, watching to see where others go, what people do when they think no one else is watching. If we avoid temptation and even the near occasion of sin, then not even our shadows will get dirty. There won’t be any gossip to report.
     Children will sometimes follow an adult like a shadow. Each move is observed, learned, and imitated. The presence of an impressionable young person at my heels makes me acutely aware of what I say and do. I don’t want my shadow to stumble and fall. It is then, when I know someone is watching closely to see what I do with a possible intention of repeating it that I most wish that even my shadow would do good.