We even try to hide the fact that we feel shame. Hide from family, from friends, from fellow parishioners, even God. But hiding doesn't help. Hiding shame only makes shame grow. The parts of ourselves that are hidden from the light of day become bent and twisted and deformed, and waiting in fear of being exposed.
Shame is like toxic waste.
Once it gets into the ground it contaminates everything, until eventually it just feels like you can't live there anymore. There seems nothing else left to do. Because our very being feels like it just isn't good enough to be, let alone belong. Somehow we always seem to feel that we have to earn God's love. When I was growing up out in California and my mom had gotten sick for a while and was recuperating, we hired a maid to come in to help out.