For there is a shame that brings sin; and there is a shame which is glory and grace.
Read Chapter 4
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
"Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces and your forehead hard against their forehead." Just as shame is laudable when confronting evil, so it is reproachful in dealing with what is good. To blush because of evil is to act like a wise person; to blush because of good is a foolish thing. Therefore it is written, "There is the shame of one who confesses his sin, and there is the shame of one who boasts." One who blushes, repenting of the evil he has committed, enjoys the freedom of life; one who is ashamed of doing good, however, falls from his upright state and tends toward damnation, as the Redeemer says: "If someone is ashamed because of me and because of my words, the Son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his majesty." And there are some who already conceive the good in their minds, but their word not being credible, they are not able to defend the truth. He is able to defend the truth who is neither afraid nor ashamed to say what he righteously thinks....
Surely it ought not to seem heavy or difficult, not even for a fragile body, to reserve a part of the week, the two nights of Saturday and Sunday, for the divine office. For with these two we can sanctify, so to speak, all the other five days or nights passed in the heavy sleep of the flesh and in the mud of mundane works. Nor should anyone blush at dedicating himself with holy fervor to the devout practices. No, the wicked do not blush in committing abominable works! The biblical proverbial expression is not put forward in vain: "There is a shame that leads to sin." It is a sin to feel ashamed for good works, while it is deadly not to be ashamed for this wickedness. If you are holy, then you love the vigils that enable you to so carefully guard your treasure and enable you to preserve yourself in holiness. If you are a sinner, you have all the more reason to keep watch and pray in order to obtain purification, beating yourself on your chest and begging even more often, "Cleanse me, Lo...
