Baptism takes away Original Shame

We talk about the sin of Adam and Eve and we call it Original Sin. We often forget that before that, there was the Original Blessing. But if we read well the reading of the fall of our forefathers, the first experience of “sin” was more about shame. Adam and Eve hid because they were shy of their nakedness. That’s funny! They were naked earlier, since the beginning of their existence. Being naked was never a problem. It was never meant to be one. But their fall in the serpent’s temptation to be like God made them see what they were not supposed to see and understand. And so Original Sin can be easily called Original Shame.

God walked daily in the garden with His creatures but that day He could not find them. He called Adam and Eve, but discovered that they were shy to come out because they were naked. God asked them a very important question: Who told you that you are naked? Then, like a good mother, God came down and the first thing he did was to sow some clothes for them. He covers their nakedness, their shame.

This came to my mind as I was thinking about baptism at Easter Vigil and what it does in us. We were always taught that in baptism God takes away the Original Sin. So baptism takes away our shame as well. It’s the shame that entered when (after eating the forbidden fruit) we realised we were naked. That’s the day when we started comparing things: who’s naked and who’s clothed; who’s worthy and who’s unworthy; who’s good and who’s bad; who’s better than others; who’s holier or not; who’s in and who’s out. Jesus came to show us the truth about ourselves. He came to tell us that there’s no one better than another. We’re all the same in God’s eyes. We’re all children of God, even though we’re sinners. We just need to accept that nakedness the way God accepts it without any problem. So He is just inviting us to see differently now, to take away that shame and see in the way God sees.

But seeing differently requires a total change of vision. We need to let go our old way of seeing ourselves and others, and God and life. A change of sight requires our ego to die so that it will not give us a one-way of seeing things: our way, that of right or wrong, good or bad, naked or clothed. This change is what Paul tells us to do in baptism: to let our old self (ego) die with Christ so that Christ lives in us (Rom. 6:4). Paul tells us to renew our way of thinking (Rom. 12.2).

It’s not the water that will do this to us at baptism, but a total transformation in Christ, a new way of thinking. It’s a journey that will take us back to the time when there was no shame of who we are, as it was meant to be by the Creator. We’re all called to do that journey. Changing our way of seeing will transform our way of being. It will take away our shame.