Light & Shade

A discussion of light givers and takers in a previous post ("Giving Light" on August 30) is incomplete without identifying the shades. Shades are so consumed by evil that they have little redemptive possibility. Since the slightest possibility of redemption does exist, they are not quite evil’s surrogates.

Shades are by nature dark, as in lightless. They can be thought of as invisible 2-D shadows that depend on reflected light of the evil to give them 3-D shape. Reflected light is not divine light. It is just the opposite. Since it can be just as bright and virtually indistinguishable from true light, it is therefore absolutely deceitful.

When a shadow takes on reflected light, it assumes human form and like the reflected light from which it arises, the deceit is absolute and the entity is in all respects human even though it continues to have the character of a shade. In its human shape, a shade continues to absorb light. The more light it absorbs, the more attention it gets and the more powerful it becomes. A consistent betrayer of truth, a shade uses falsehoods to manipulate light givers into giving it light.

By the time the truth is known and light givers withdraw their light, the shade would usually have already wreaked havoc and done irreparable damage. To avoid being tricked by shades is to recognize them at the outset, but a light giver who continues to shed light on a shade to nurture its existence after its evil nature has been revealed is in the process of becoming a shade himself.

Shades stand apart by the intensity of evilness in the reflected light on which they continuously depend but telling which human is a truly a shade is not easy for even light givers are at times lit by reflected light for evil permeates all.

So what is reflected light? Think of it as a constant charge of evil energy from hell. And how does a shade use it? A hypothetical can illustrate this: a politician (a lightless figure) relying on the 9-11 disaster (through an act with enough evil energy and light to outlast human history) to be seen (becomes a hell-lit 3-D human shade).

On the other hand, a man of cloth using the crucifixion of Christ to preach to his congregation is not a shade because the crucifixion was not an act that was evil in origin. It was a preordained salvific event representing the death of original sin, the end of eternal death and the return to a place of lasting peace. Moreover, unlike a shade using an evil event to underscore its own importance, a sermon on the crucifixion does not draw attention to the speaker; rather, attention is directed away from the speaker toward the event giving it meaning, so that those listening might internalize its holy purposes.

However, in another instance, a man of cloth could certainly be a shade. When one talks ceaselessly about the need to give to the poor when he himself is adequately hydrated, fed, dressed, housed and insured, and comes under a religion that owns an impressive portfolio of real estate globally and priceless objects of art when there are still homeless people living with thirst, hunger and disease, he is existing in hypocrisy. Since hypocrisy is evil in nature, a preacher who is a hypocrite is therefore a shade, a 2-D shadow with hell's light shining on him giving him 3-D shape. [1.]

Although shades are often found among people with power or influence, including those making money or winning awards off various atrocities of human suffering past or present or created by them, there are shades that are everyday people. For example, a person who always finds the need to put someone down to gain an advantage, stab someone from behind to get ahead or betray someone's trust for improper gain, that person is a shade, for these are things that are either evil in origin or in nature and will therefore give the shade the necessary reflected light to sustain its 3-D constitution.

For any shade that is still in existence, it has a shred of redemptive possibility since it can choose divine light over reflected light to maintain its human form and become a light giver. There are countless ways to obtain divine light for there is no end to goodness but when these ways are ignored in favor of evil’s reflected light, the shade is continuing with its steadfast transformation until it is evil's surrogate at which point no redemption can occur.

[1.] An excerpt of a prayer by the companions of Francis of Assisi after his death seems appropriate here:

"Do not allow that those
who are like you by profession
be unlike you in life."

Armstrong, Regis J. O.F.M. Cap. et.al. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Volume II, The Founder. Page 392. New York: New York City Press, 2000.