Who told me I was naked?

They were already naked. Both of them. And they were not ashamed. Then something spoke. And everything changed. Not the nakedness. That stayed. What changed was how they saw it.

Before the voice spoke. There is a single verse at the end of the second chapter of Genesis that is easy to pass over because it seems so simple. "And they were both naked: to wit, Adam and his wife: and were not ashamed." (Genesis 2:25, Douay-Rheims)

Not ashamed. It reads like a note of innocence, like the text is recording what had not yet developed in them. But that reading is too thin. The text is saying they stood before one another, and before God, in a state of complete transparency, and the transparency was peaceful. Their nakedness was not a problem awaiting a solution. It was a condition of right relation. They saw themselves within the gaze of God, and that gaze was light, and in that light nothing required concealment.

This matters, because it means that shame as we experience it is not native to the human creature. It is not what we are. It is something done to what we are.

If you have ever wondered about this passage, or felt that something more is happening here than is first seen, this paper is written for you. It is short. Clear. And grounded in Scripture as received in the Catholic tradition.

Format: Digital PDF, 8 pages, approx 1800 words

Language: English

Author: M.F. Robb

Published by thephilippapers.com

A Cathedral of The Fourth production.