Dealing with Shame in Your Life

Shame can quietly take root in our hearts—dictating how we see ourselves, how we live, and even how we relate to God. Drawing on Scripture and the wisdom of St. John Paul II, Jeff explains the crucial difference between guilt and shame—and how Jesus not only takes away our sins but melts away our shame with His love.

Shownotes

Scripture verses

Psalm 44:15–16 (RSV-CE)

All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face,
at the words of the taunters and revilers,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

John 8:1–11 (RSV-CE)

but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?”
This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”

1 John 2:1 (RSV-CE)

My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin;
but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Hebrews 12:2 (RSV-CE)

looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Saint quotes

St. John Paul II – Love and Responsibility

“We can then say that the phenomenon of shame arises when something of its very nature or in view of its purpose, ought to be private, passes the bounds of a person's privacy, and somehow becomes public.”