A message by Fr. John Chinenye Oluoma
“I heard your sound and I was AFRAID because I was NAKED”
The first lie recorded in the bible is: “You will not die, God knows in fact that the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil” (Gen 3:4-5). The devil told this lie.
The second is: “I was afraid because I was naked” (Gen 3:10). Adam told this lie, he just got schooled by the professor of lies as Jesus describes the devil in Jn 8:44.
Adam is forcing a correlation between NAKEDNESS and FEAR. Adam’s explanation makes it look like the reason he was afraid was because he was naked. That’s pure bull crap. He wanted nakedness to be the explanation for his fear, a futile search for a moral alibi at the scene of the first crime. He lied.
Nakedness wasn’t the reason for his fear, he took his time to sew the first “see-through” clothes (miniskirts, bum shorts, spaghetti, etc.) After eating the fruit, he never hid nor was he afraid. He became afraid only when God showed up. If God never showed up, he and Eve would have been frolicking in their newfound experience and would have eaten more of the fruits.
Nakedness begets shame and embarrassment normally. To be afraid and not ashamed when naked is a satanic substitution of the right emotion. Adam was a liar without shame.
A man is caught by his wife in a sleaze of sexual infidelity, instead of being ashamed of himself, he asserts his ego and is angry at her and anyone else who dares point out his offense.
Two ladies fight in public over a man who hasn’t engaged or paid their dowry, they call each other names, shred their clothes, and remain unashamed.
A young man boasts to his friends about his successful escapades and feels no shame.
Without shame, a minister will indulge in sexual rendezvous with multiple people in his or her congregation mount the pulpit every Sunday, and minister with pride, pomp, and pageantry with no qualms of conscience, no shame.
In 1 Cor 5:1ff, Paul cried over a young man in the Christian community who slept with his stepmum and wasn’t ashamed at all. Poor Paul, he must be biting his nails now to know that some mothers sleep with their biological sons and some fathers sleep with their biological daughters and have no ounce of shame.
Nigerian politicians will travel to Dubai, London, and other beautiful countries with fewer resources, come back here, and steal our money to go and buy up properties in those places, they are not ashamed one bit.
People whose take-home packages run into millions of naira are kicking against 60k minimum wage for commoners. Shameless lot.
You are a billionaire with sprawling mansions everywhere, yet your domestic staff finds it difficult to pay their house rents and send their children to decent schools, with all your wealth your workers appear tattered, you are shameless.
Places of worship are built and maintained with hundreds of millions of naira but the church workers don’t even get paid the government-approved minimum wage not to talk of God’s approved minimum wage, we no dey shame o.
We’ve created a society where naked people aren’t ashamed. Normally, only mad people walk naked without shame, but now sane people have joined the foray and will beat you to a pulp if you call them mad people. Things we should be ashamed of, we are proud of, and vice versa.
Mathematics competition ends with the winner going home with 500k but a show like BBN that promotes nudity and vulgarity sees the winner going home with 100m and more.
Scientists call it blushing. It’s something that’s universal and peculiar to human beings. Animals have not been known to blush. A scientific study shows that people who easily blush are more successful at monogamy, generous, have empathy, and own up to their mistakes.
Blushing or a sense of shame restrains people from certain obscenities and makes them remorseful. Check out Adam and Eve, they weren’t remorseful, they pushed the blame. No repentance, no contrition, no acceptance of responsibility.
Where there is no sense of shame, repentance becomes impossible. You can’t be naked and claim to be afraid, or afraid and claim it’s because you are naked, that’s bullshit, and our generation has got loads of it. May God have mercy on us all.
