Live in the Shadow

Here is one more thought from L’Aventure Ambiguë by Cheikh Hamidou Kane.  One of the themes that occurs throughout the book is this idea of “l’ombre,” meaning shadow or partial darkness.  The contrast is made between the faith of their native culture in Africa and the stifling secular knowledge (light) from western culture.  The west, founded upon reason and science, focuses on light by demanding to see and prove everything. 

There’s no room for living a life of faith in God in the unseen because they already live as slaves “parmi une forêt de solutions” (a forest of solutions), without the need to trust in the divine.  Typically in the Church we focus on the fact that Christ is the light of the world, and we equate light with good and darkness with evil.  For example, Christ condemns the fact that “men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).  But this theme of embracing the “shadows” or a mixture of light and darkness in L’Aventure Ambiguë is not inconsistent at all with the teachings of the gospel.  In fact, I think it is what we find at its core.  Paul wrote, “We see through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12).  We see through the light of Christ, but it does not mean that we see perfectly in this life—there is still much we do not understand or foresee, which is why we need faith.  “Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32:21).  In our dispensation the Lord said it this way: “Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter” (D&C 58:3).  The science of the western world wants to see everything with natural eyes; in the gospel, we see through the light that Christ gives us, and then we trust in Him when we cannot see or understand perfectly.  To me the story that encapsulates this idea in the scriptures is that of Nephi as he headed back into Jerusalem “by night” to seek to get the plates of brass.  He was in the dark physically, “not knowing beforehand the things which [he] should do”, and yet he was led by the light of the Spirit to accomplish the mission the Lord had for him.  This is, I think, a mini allegory for our own lives: we come here in the darkness not seeing everything, but we have the light of Christ within us to guide and direct us through the shadows, getting “brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24).  We live with the motto that “the just shall live by his faith”—we don’t live by our sight (Habakkuk 2:4).  As the “knight” put it in the novel, “Vivre dans l’ombre.  Vivre humblement and paisiblement, au coeur obscure du monde” (Live in the shadow.  Live humbly and peacefully, in the obscure heart of the world).  The last chapter leaves us this statement: “L’ombre est profonde, mais elle est la paix” (The shadow is deep, but it is peace).  Peace comes from trusting in the Lord as we live by faith, not knowing all of God’s plan for the future.  The world seeks to shed secular light on everything, and if we embrace only this in the absence of faith it will leave us with exterior answers without an understanding of our own divinity as children of God.