Shame

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.