{"id":10728,"date":"2026-08-27T19:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/books-and-articles\/e90-accompaniment-02\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T19:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:03:14","slug":"e90-accompaniment-02","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/books-and-articles\/e90-accompaniment-02\/","title":{"rendered":"Accompaniment 2: Gen 3 \u2014 The effects of shame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Written for Exodus 90 in 2023, as part of a series of ten reflections on the art of accompaniment.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The necessary condition for entering into a communion of persons is what Pope St. John Paul II calls \u201coriginal nakedness.\u201d This is the personal transparency that allows the inside to be reflected on the outside. It is what enabled Adam to see Eve\u2019s heart when he first beheld her: \u201cThis at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh\u201d (Gen 2:23). He was able to look into her eyes and see a heart with a story\u2014another one who had the capacity for original solitude. All of that was immediately visible to him because of her original nakedness. This is speaking about physical nakedness but it is deeper than that. It is describing a kind of transparency by which the person\u2019s heart (interiority) is visible through his or her face, posture, voice, words, gestures, etc. It is naked because it is not covered with a mask\u2014neither with dead plants (fig leaves, cotton, etc.) nor with dead animals (leather, wool, etc.). Only the human heart of the human person is visible. It is even unselfconscious\u2014Adam and Eve did not realize they were naked. They simply wore their hearts on their sleeves, we could say.<\/p>\n<p>This original nakedness was lost to original sin. No longer unselfconscious, no longer able to let themselves be seen, they hid themselves and covered themselves. They made excuses and they placed blame, including on each other, on the serpent and even on God. Today we call these \u201cdefense mechanisms\u201d or \u201cprotectors.\u201d Adam and Eve now knew the potential price of nakedness. No longer unaware of their nakedness they now knew it was a risk. Original nakedness was gone and our experience of nakedness changed. With the knowledge that we can be wounded if we expose our hearts, we describe this experience as vulnerability. Vulnerability comes from the word \u201cvulnera\u201d which means \u201cwounds\u201d in Latin. Adam and Eve knew that without their defenses they were \u201cwoundable.\u201d With our defenses in place, we now need to make a conscious choice to enter into a communion of persons\u2014we must choose to be vulnerable. And we know now\u2014in fact we feel it spontaneously and recoil from it\u2014that if we are vulnerable we can be wounded by betrayal.<\/p>\n<p>A new experience was introduced for Adam and Eve. This spontaneous feeling with its impulse to hide ourselves is called \u201cshame.\u201d According to Pope St. John Paul II, shame has two dimensions. There is the positive dimension of protecting that which is valuable. We sense our value and we sense the danger of exposing it to another and so we protect it. That is important for ourselves and for others. Jesus was not vulnerable all the time: \u201cJesus did not trust himself to them\u2026for he himself knew what was in man\u201d (Jn 2:24,25). He taught us to be careful: \u201cDo not throw your pearls to swine\u2026\u201d [CITATION]. But there is also a negative dimension to shame, which the sociologist Brene Brown defines as \u201cfeeling unworthy of love and belonging.\u201d The positive dimension of shame recognizes that others are not ready to enter into a communion of persons with me. They need to prove they are trustworthy first. The negative dimension of shame says that I am not worthy to enter into a communion of persons, and this leads to the most destructive condition\u2014isolation. Learning to overcome the negative voice of shame in order to be vulnerable and form a communion with trustworthy persons is now our path of healing and salvation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written for Exodus 90 in 2023, as part of a series of ten reflections on the art of accompaniment. The necessary condition for entering into a communion of persons is what Pope St. John Paul II calls \u201coriginal nakedness.\u201d This is the personal transparency that allows the inside to be reflected on the outside. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":10722,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10728","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7bfMR-2N2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10736,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/books-and-articles\/e90-accompaniment-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":10728,"position":0},"title":"Accompaniment 10: Jn 13 \u2014 A new commandment","author":"Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B.","date":"August 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written for Exodus 90 in 2023, as part of a series of ten reflections on the art of accompaniment. This Gospel passage summarizes the whole of salvation history and its fulfillment in Christ with a single commandment: \u201cLove one another as I love you.\u201d Earlier Jesus indicated that the greatest\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10727,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/books-and-articles\/e90-accompaniment-01\/","url_meta":{"origin":10728,"position":1},"title":"Accompaniment 1: Gen 2 \u2014 It is not good for man to be alone","author":"Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B.","date":"August 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written for Exodus 90 in 2023, as part of a series of ten reflections on the art of accompaniment. In his monumental work on the Theology of the Body, Pope St. John Paul II introduced some key terms: \u201coriginal solitude,\u201d \u201coriginal unity,\u201d and \u201coriginal nakedness.\u201d Original solitude described the state\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10729,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/books-and-articles\/e90-accompaniment-03\/","url_meta":{"origin":10728,"position":2},"title":"Accompaniment 3: Jn 21 \u2014 Peter, do you love me? Try, fail, surrender","author":"Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B.","date":"August 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written for Exodus 90 in 2023, as part of a series of ten reflections on the art of accompaniment. As we reflected in the last article, our work of healing is to try to be vulnerable. When we try, we will inevitably fail. This failure may be our own fault\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10726,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/books-and-articles\/e90-accompaniment-00-intro\/","url_meta":{"origin":10728,"position":3},"title":"Accompaniment: Introducing my contribution","author":"Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B.","date":"August 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written for Exodus 90 in 2023, as part of a series of ten reflections on the art of accompaniment. In the Benedictine, monastic tradition, there is a strong emphasis on accompaniment. Monks learn to be monks from other monks. This only works when monks are willing to be vulnerable and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10722,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/books-and-articles\/","url_meta":{"origin":10728,"position":4},"title":"Books and Articles","author":"Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B.","date":"August 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"What I have written, in one place \u2014 the books, the articles, and the academic work. Where the full text is on this site, the title is a link. Books The Hidden Power of Silence in the Mass Sophia Institute Press, 2024 Five movements of silence in the Mass, moving\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10732,"url":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/books-and-articles\/e90-accompaniment-06\/","url_meta":{"origin":10728,"position":5},"title":"Accompaniment 6: Rm 7 \u2014 I do not do what I want","author":"Father Boniface Hicks, O.S.B.","date":"August 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written for Exodus 90 in 2023, as part of a series of ten reflections on the art of accompaniment. \u201cI see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members\u201d (Rom 7:23).\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10728\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fatherboniface.org\/wordpresshome\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}