Shame

[Mary96]

It is not in our strengths and wonderful qualities that we meet Christ. Our egos are so impenetrable at those points that such a union is impossible. If we will accept that little shame, we will meet the Crucified Christ at that very point, for it is He who bears our shame.

But the vulnerable stage of shame is the place where our ego can break free and where it can admit the existence of another. But this is extremely hard because the instinct of shame is to cover itself and hide. Therefore we are asked to “bear a little.”


Shame is the ego’s deepest instinct and the first recorded reaction of man after the Fall. It is the dread of being seen for who we truly are rather than who we want or pretend to be.


But there is a self that is deeper than the shame. It can be found if we are patient and we stay still for a little while. Which is hesychia and nepsis, stillness and sobriety.


This self can be described as the “place of the heart”. In this place we can stop judgement, not critique, not to measure,not to compare. It is a place where we will find union with God and the ability to pray. It is also the place where the tears of repentance can be shed.


All of this is the patient, an inner journey of repentance and the gateway into the Kingdom of God. It unites us with Christ’s bearing of the whole Adam’s shame ,the shame of the whole of humanity, which is known as His crucifixion.

 

[Hizikyah]

Hebrews 12:3-11, "For consider Him Who endured such opposition against Himself from sinners, so that you would not become weary, and faint in your minds. You yourselves have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as unto sons: My son, do not despise the chastening of Yahweh, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom Yahweh loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, Yahweh deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all are partakers, then you are bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fleshly fathers who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; should we not even more be subject to Father Yahweh, and live? For they truly chastened us for a few days as they thought best; but He, for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful at the present time, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness, that is, for those who have been trained by it"

 

[Mitspa]

It is not in our strengths and wonderful qualities that we meet Christ. Our egos are so impenetrable at those points that such a union is impossible. If we will accept that little shame, we will meet the Crucified Christ at that very point, for it is He who bears our shame.

But the vulnerable stage of shame is the place where our ego can break free and where it can admit the existence of another. But this is extremely hard because the instinct of shame is to cover itself and hide. Therefore we are asked to “bear a little.”


Shame is the ego’s deepest instinct and the first recorded reaction of man after the Fall. It is the dread of being seen for who we truly are rather than who we want or pretend to be.


But there is a self that is deeper than the shame. It can be found if we are patient and we stay still for a little while. Which is hesychia and nepsis, stillness and sobriety.


This self can be described as the “place of the heart”. In this place we can stop judgement, not critique, not to measure,not to compare. It is a place where we will find union with God and the ability to pray. It is also the place where the tears of repentance can be shed.


All of this is the patient, an inner journey of repentance and the gateway into the Kingdom of God. It unites us with Christ’s bearing of the whole Adam’s shame ,the shame of the whole of humanity, which is known as His crucifixion.

I wonder do you believe that God wants to deal with us as believers, in shame or as having been delivered from the shame that came at the fall?