One of the worst things to hear from someone is "Shame on you!" Whatever the cause, shame strikes to the heart of who we are. It is a dreadful emotion felt only in relationship to someone when a bond is ruptured, severed, or damaged. Shame makes us feel unworthy and hideously unloved. Maybe that's why we always turn our eyes away? Not Jesus. He looks squarely at us. He strikes the source of our guilt and imparts to his first priests in the Gospel reading: " “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Jesus gives the Church the liberating antidote-- we call it the Sacrament of Confession.