What we call Original Sin in Genesis could perhaps better be called Original Shame, because the way that Adam and Eve describe themselves is that they feel naked. Then some of the first words of God to his newly created people are,  ¢â‚¬Å“Who told you that you were naked? ¢â‚¬  (Genesis 3:11). Next, in a lovely maternal image, God as seamstress sews leather garments for them (3:21). The first thing God does after creation itself is cover the shame of his new creatures. This must name something that is fundamental within any authentic experience of God.

We live not just in an age of anxiety, but also in an age of shame. I find very few people who do not feel inadequate, stupid, dirty, or unworthy. Guilt is about things we have done or not done, but our shame is about the primal emptiness of our very being, an ontological question. It is not resolved by changing behavior as much as by changing our very self-image, our alignment in the universe.

Adapted from Hope Against Darkness:  The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety, pp. 29-30