A Ramble About the Shroud of the Dark Side

“The shroud of the dark side has fallen.” Yoda, Attack of the Clones

“The dark side is everywhere.” - Revenge of the Sith, opening crawl

These lines has been running through my mind for the past couple of days as it seems to describe the general feel or “energy” which is gripping the country and even the world right now. Principally, it is the emotion of fear and panic which is causing it, but this of course leads to anger, which leads to hatred, which leads to suffering. Master Yoda’s words, and the screenwriter’s who wrote them, have rarely been truer or wiser than now.

This “dark side energy” is just as infectious if not more so than the virus which sent it spiraling out of control. As my wife and I were discussing, it is this energy which is causing, and is going to cause, more problems and more deaths than the physical virus alone through despair and depression. As the stock market tanks, as people can’t find food and supplies because of hoarding, as they’re stuck in their homes for fear of infection, they’re going to get depressed. They’re going to get angry. They’re going to succumb to that fear and anger and they’re going to do things they wouldn’t normally do because of it.

There are a lot of Christians who think the philosophy behind the Jedi of Star Wars is completely anti-Christian. Having studied both the Scriptures and the ancient writings of the Church in some detail for the last several decades, I am not one of them. The Didache, an ancient Christian catechism from the first century begins with, “There are two paths. The path of life and the path of death.” St. Paul wrote about the distinction between the flesh and the spirit, and the descriptions of what it looked like when the Christian was operating in either one. The description of the works of the flesh is very much dark side stuff, while the description of the fruit of the Spirit is very much light side stuff. The works of the flesh are the easy path, while the fruit of the Spirit requires self-surrender and abandonment to Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to “walk in the light as He is in the light.” We are called to turn away from the darkness through recognition and practice of our co-crucifixion with Him. As St. Paul says, “because you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” As Christians, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are, fundamentally and like the Jedi, a religious community devoted to a single purpose, and that purpose is the practice and presence of Jesus Christ through us.

I leave you with a Jedi meditation with a Christian twist:

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.

There is no passion, there is serenity.

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

There is no death, there is Jesus Christ.

May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be with you, always.