Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 337

Know this, my dear brothers and sisters:
everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger
for anger does not accomplish
the righteousness of God.

Recently, I listened to an audio presentation by a Christian scholar about anger. The professor drew a sharp line between our tradition and modern psychology. He was adamant that anger is a sin; wrath, as it’s traditionally called, is one of the seven deadly sins. There is no justification for it. But he sounded like a very angry man.

Sin is ordinarily understood as an act done by one who is fully conscious of the decision and its moral dimensions. He or she knows it’s wrong. The professor did not touch upon unconscious or unacknowledged anger and how it plays havoc in our lives.

There may be people who take pleasure in consciously, intentionally working themselves into anger. Some people go to weepy movies to cry; others attend comedies to laugh and horror movies to be afraid. There are people who love to be angry; they favor propaganda like talk radio and racist, sexist or homophobic stories. When they cause a lot of unnecessary hurt and distress for themselves and others, they commit sin.

Most of us don’t enjoy anger; our Christian tradition has taught us to be wary of it. But, like the other emotions – glad, sad and scared – it is not intrinsically evil. If I throw a brick through a show window in sheer joy because my team won the championship, it’s just as wrong as if I had done the same in anger. Sometimes a healthy individual needs the pure energy of anger to deal with conflict.

The question is, “Do I use my anger only for myself or do I place it at the service of God?” Sometimes I get angry enough to clean my room, though it's only been four months since the last time! We may need that energy to draw the boundaries between myself and others, or around my family and the demands of school, work and society.

It takes a measure of anger to step out of my routines and change things. There are serious injustices which must be challenged. We have only to think about abortion, sexual exploitation of children or political corruption to think, “I should do something. I can do something.”

Our faith teaches us to let the Holy Spirit use our sacred energies of joy, sorrow, fear and anger in God’s service. We must be wary of self-righteousness in our struggle --  and anger has a way of justifying foolishness -- but we should be ready to do battle for righteousness. 

As Saint Paul says,

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹²For our^* struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. ¹⁴Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. ¹⁵As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. ¹⁶With all of these,^* take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.