Shame

Feeling shame can be good or bad. It depends on what we are ashamed of.  

Shame is good when it alerts us that our intimate space is being invaded. Shame then prompts us to act with modesty.  Shame is also good when it exposes our sin and moves us to avoid them and to repent. 

Shame is bad when we want to hide our faith and moral values to be acceptable in some circles. It is bad when we are ashamed of what is good and holy.  

What good is shame?
YOUCAT quiestion 464

Shame safeguards a person's intimate space: his mystery, his most personal and inmost being, his dignity, but especially his capacity for love and sexual self-giving. It relates also to that which only love may see.

Many young Christians live in an environment where it is taken for granted that everything should be on display and people are systematically trained to ignore feelings of shame. But shamelessness is inhuman. Animals experience no shame. In a human being, in contrast, it is an essential feature. It does not hide something inferior but rather protects something valuable, namely, the dignity of the person in his capacity to love. The feeling of shame is found in all cultures, although it assumes different forms. It has nothing to do with prudery or a repressive upbringing. A person is also ashamed of his sins and other things that would demean him if they were made generally known. Someone who offends another person's natural feeling of shame by words, glances, gestures, or actions robs him of his dignity. (YOUCAT question 464)