The Deadly Sin of Anger
Anger, or wrath, or rage, is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus identified anger as a violation of the 5th Commandment and as endangering one’s eternal soul: “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment[.]” Matthew 5:21-22.
Pursuing Love, Patience, and Gentleness
Despite our Lord’s damning words against anger, for many of us, especially those like me who are married with young children, anger remains a recurring, if not daily, sin. So how do we overcome our anger? The answer, if not the execution, is easy enough: we overcome the vice of anger, by pursuing the virtues contrary to it.
A few weeks ago at Sunday Mass, these words from Saint Paul stood out to me: “But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.” 1 Timothy 6:11 (From the Second Reading at Mass for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time.)
For those seeking to overcome anger, I suggest that we heed Saint Paul’s admonition by pursuing, in particular, the latter three virtues he names: love, patience, and gentleness.
Do We Actually Pursue Gentleness?
And while most of us would readily agree that we as Christians should be pursuing love and patience, how many of us would list gentleness as one of our daily pursuits? Could it be that we lack this gentleness because we are not pursuing it? Or because we don’t value it? Or perhaps we excuse our lack of gentleness as necessary for effective discipline within our homes? I ask these questions because I’m certain I have been guilty in the past of all three.
Let us turn to the saints to clarify that gentleness is, indeed, a Christian virtue. A few quotes will suffice.
Saint Francis de Sales counsels:
Of course it is a duty to resist evil and to repress the faults of those for whom we are responsible, steadily and firmly, but gently and quietly. (From Introduction to the Devout Life, emphasis added.)
Saint John Bosco, known for his kindness and gentleness toward the often rough boys he shepherded and educated, likewise encourages gentle discipline and kindness:
It is easier to become angry than to restrain oneself, and to threaten a boy than to persuade him. Yes, indeed, it is more fitting to be persistent in punishing our own impatience and pride than to correct the boys. We must be firm but kind, and be patient with them . . .. They are our sons, and so in correcting their mistakes we must lay aside all anger and restrain it so firmly that it is extinguished entirely. There must be no hostility in our minds, no contempt in our eyes, no insult on our lips. (The Spiritual Testament of Saint John Bosco, from the Office of Readings for the Feast of St. John Bosco. Emphasis added).
So if we want to overcome anger, let’s heed Saint Paul (and Saints Francis de Sales and John Bosco) and pursue gentleness–especially with our spouses and children.
How We Grow In Virtue
Thus far, we have identified the virtues we should pursue to overcome anger: love, patience, and gentleness.
But pursuing the right things, while indispensable, is not enough. We cannot grow in virtue, or excise vice, merely by willing it. In pursuing virtue, we need the grace of God. So it’s not surprising that Saint Paul not only encourages us to pursue the virtues of love, patience, and gentleness, but also identifies these virtues as fruits of a life rooted in the Holy Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control[.]” Galatians 5:22-23 (emphasis added). This bears repeating: love, patience, and gentleness are fruits of the Holy Spirit. If we truly have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, the Spirit’s presence will manifest itself with the fruits of the Spirit. So if we want to obtain love, patience, and gentleness–and joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control–then we must let the Spirit dwell in us.
The Incompatibility of Anger with the Fruits of the Spirit
Reviewing these nine fruits of the Spirit should also make it obvious that anger is incompatible with them. By incompatible, I mean that you can’t have both anger and these fruits of the Spirit at the same time. That is, you can’t be joyfully angry, or peacefully angry, or gently angry.
To those who would attempt to justify or excuse their anger, or claim that their anger is righteous, I again reference the wise words of Saint Francis de Sales: “[O]n no pretext whatever suffer your heart to admit anger and passion. St. James says, plainly and unreservedly, that ‘the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.’ “ (Introduction to the Devout Life.) St. Francis de Sales continues on the subject:
Depend upon it, it is better to learn how to live without being angry than to imagine one can moderate and control anger lawfully; and if through weakness and frailty one is overtaken by it, it is far better to put it away forcibly than to parley with it; for give anger ever so little way, and it will become master, like the serpent, who easily works in its body wherever it can once introduce its head. [Introduction to the Devout Life]
Recognizing the incompatibility of anger with a life filled with the Holy Spirit can lead to some uncomfortable truths about our own anger. There are two possibilities: either (1) our anger–and corresponding lack of the fruits of the Spirit–confirms that we are not living a prayerful, spiritual life, or (2) if we are living a prayerful, spiritual life, our anger is extinguishing it. In other words, the manifestation of anger in our life either confirms the lack of an interior life, or it destroys or weakens the interior life. Conversely, the manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit correspond to and reveal the growth and depth of our interior life.
Anger in the Home
Very few of us have entirely conquered our anger, so if you occasionally raise your voice or lose your temper–and by occasionally, let’s say, a few times a month–it can be an occasion of humility and repentance and an opportunity to rededicate oneself to the spiritual life. Embrace this opportunity and keep at it! Don’t be discouraged. Turn to God in prayer. Depend on Him. He will provide. More on this below.
But I also suspect that many of us lose our temper more frequently–even daily–and tragically with those we love most: our spouses, children, parents, and siblings.
Again, do not be discouraged. Today is the day to stop excusing our anger and to conquer it. And since our anger is often directed at those nearest us, we’ll have many opportunities for practicing the virtues of love, patience, and gentleness and for monitoring our growth in the interior life.
Overcoming Anger through the Interior Life
So how do we reduce our anger and grow in peace and patience? We should already know the answer. Our anger and corresponding lack of the fruits of the Spirit means that we need the Spirit. We need prayer. We need to cultivate the interior life through good habits of prayer. We need to spend time in daily mental prayer–before the Eucharist if possible–and lectio divina. We need to frequently confess our sins and be nourished by the Eucharist. We need to give alms and discipline our flesh through fasting. We need to turn to Mary in the Rosary. And we likely need a good silent retreat to help us get started.
The Often Missing Ingredient? Daily Mental Prayer
For me personally, daily mental prayer was for too long the missing ingredient. Only when I began to spend 15 to 30 minutes in daily silence with our Lord did I begin to root out anger and grow in peace and patience. This daily mental prayer afforded me the opportunity both to pray for the virtue of patience and to anticipate those stressful parts of the day when I was most prone to raising my voice or losing my temper. Focusing on controlling the tone of voice, and recognizing when I all too frequently raised my voice, was also helpful to overcoming these outbursts. And nightly examinations of conscience helped me to recall my daily shortcomings in this area and to resolve, with the power of Christ, to do better tomorrow.
I am still imperfect in this area. From time to time I snap at my kids or raise my voice to my wife. But since adopting the habit of daily mental prayer, these outbursts of anger have become less frequent and less prolonged; and I now notice immediately when I have lost my peace, and usually I am able to quickly regain it and apologize–both to the victim of my outburst and to God.
Modelling Patience and Bringing Christ to the World
Overcoming our anger is a battle worth fighting. Not only does it imperil our souls and hurt those around us; but it also poorly models Christian discipleship, and especially for those of us who are fathers, poorly models the fatherly love of God. In contrast, when we maintain our peace and patience and model love, patience, and gentleness, we provide a powerful witness of God’s love. Maintaining peace and patience also has a salutary and pacifying effect on those around us (which also can make it easier to maintain our own peace and patience).
Lastly, maintaining our own peace, and setting this example for others, is a very real way to bring Christ to the world and even to transform it. We rightfully lament the diminishing space for Christ in the modern public square. But by our anger, we ourselves eject Christ from His rightful dwelling place within us. How can we bring Christ to the world if we ourselves lack Him? Let us correct this by conquering our anger and thereby preserving Christ’s place within us. Only then can He act through us. And He will if we let Him.
Man’s inhumanity to man begins with anger. Anger at someone’s else right to an opinion. Anger at oneself for not making the correct choices in life & taking it out on our fellows. Anger at God for permitting evil doers to unleash their wickedness on the vulnerable without redress in this life. There is much anger at the way our Pope? & prelates are leading Catholics astray by not upholding the precepts & magisterium of the CC. There is similar anger from them towards Orthodox Catholics for showing dissent taken out by nasty name-calling & ignoring their right to be heard & their requests for clarity of teaching to be honestly met. The world is extremely angry but that is exactly what Satan wishes so as to usher in the NWO. We all have an obligation to stop being angry (especially at our fellow Catholics whose views may differ from our own but not dissent from CC teaching) so that Satan’s last stand will not be accomplished.
This article fails to distinguish between the sinful anger that arises from mere passion and the righteous anger, motivated by reason, that is actually deserving of praise, as Saint Thomas teaches in the Summa: “Secondly, evil is found in a passion in respect of the passion’s quantity, that is in respect of its excess or deficiency; and thus evil may be found in anger, when, to wit, one is angry, more or less than right reason demands. But if one is angry in accordance with right reason, one’s anger is deserving of praise.”
This means that anger is not to be “conquered” in the sense that we are never angry about anything, but rather controlled so that we direct our anger according to right reason. The article seems to dismiss righteous anger entirely, when in fact it is often exactly what is called for in the face of evil and injustice.
Our Lord Himself exhibited furious anger when the occasion called for it, even resorting to physical punishment (the whip of cords wielded against the money changers). Francis, however, subscribing to the idea that one must never be angry about anything (except the things that anger him) has declared that Jesus “only pretended to be angry.”
Our capacity for anger over what is wrong is endowed by our Creator for a good purpose. Let us not confuse an excess of the thing with the thing itself.
I admit that my article does not emphasize righteous anger. My view is that righteous anger exists in theory, but seldom in practice. And I believe this accords with St. Francis de Sales, whom I quoted:
“Depend upon it, it is better to learn how to live without being angry than to imagine one can moderate and control anger lawfully; and if through weakness and frailty one is overtaken by it, it is far better to put it away forcibly than to parley with it; for give anger ever so little way, and it will become master, like the serpent, who easily works in its body wherever it can once introduce its head.”
So yes, our anger can be righteous, but we should be very careful with it lest, even in a legitimate cause, it control us. And the point of my article is not to address these instances of righteous anger (and perhaps we disagree over how frequently these arise), but to address the much more common anger that we indulge in all too frequently, which is why I did not want to veer too deeply into the topic of righteous anger.
I don`t think you can or should bring one up without the other. When discussing anger, I think it`s very important to distinguish the two. In this day and age, I believe there is many reasons to exercise righteous anger. I take Christ as my model and he was the perfect example of balancing the two. I fear that many in the faith today are afraid to be angry. I disagree with your quote from St Francis de Sales “Depend upon it, it is better to learn how to live without being angry than to imagine one can moderate and control anger lawfully”. God would not endow humans with an attribute without the ability to control it. I would say that; It is better to learn to live without anger if one cannot control it”. If I could not control my unrighteous anger, I would sacrifice my righteous anger in order to rid myself of unrighteous anger! Righteous anger is what motivates us to end injustice.
Exactly! In Ephesians 4, St. Paul is teaching us about how to put off the old man (our carnal nature) and put on the new man (our Christly nature as His followers). And yet, he still says in verse 26: “Be angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger.” I take this to mean that we can and should sometimes feel angry, but that the anger must not simmer and burn. I am also of the opinion that to snuff out the right, indeed at times the duty, to be angry, is to become a weak and sickly Christian. There is a time for everything.
That said, the author made many good points about the often sinful nature of anger, and that the virtues are the antidote. Additionally, we should never rule out that we can be influenced and goaded into improper displays of anger by the evil one(s). They study us, they know our unruly passions and they manipulate us. We are still culpable for the outcome, but to be able to understand that there are sometimes other forces at work can help us stay alert. St. Alphonsus Ligouri’s writings on virtue are stellar for learning to overcome our unruly passions. Many of his works (and other saints) are available for free online: http://www.traditionalcatholic.co/free-catholicbooks/.
Can you recommend a particular book?
Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus Cleanses the Temple
12 Then Jesus entered the temple[a] and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’;
but you are making it a den of robbers.”
Jesus’ righteous anger was justified of course. Why?
The key to understanding His manly action, His strong condemnations, and all righteous anger is that it was done for the sake of “My House” that is, He took action on His Father’s behalf as the people were desecrating the Temple by their activities. Righteous anger is justified when it is done to protect the honor and rights of other’s. Jesus took manly action to defend His Father’s house, the Temple, which was being taken over by sinful men.
In today’s Church we can see the robbers are actually the hierarchy , who regularly desecrate the Temple of God, so Catholic men are justified to rise in their righteous anger to defend Catholics from their enemies when the shepherds are not man enough to do it.
Catholic men are justified in being righteously angry when our hierarchy cozies up to Muslims who want to slit our innocent children’s throats and rape our women, and demolish our Churches. Again, righteous anger is justified when defending those under your protection.
I don’t expect much manly action in today’s feminized “let’s-play-nice-nice” Church.
I read the article as dealing mainly with anger in the home & community, not justifiable anger at what has been allowed to happen in society through the NWO ideology, especially in the CC.
Real and continuous outbursts of anger in the family setting for small annoyances is not justified & does untold damage within the household and often transfers into the workplace & community. Children who have been manhandled in their youth will grow into angry parents & the cycle continues. Many of the worst public offenders have come from dysfunctional homes so it makes sense to start there. Most bad tempered people have not learned to sit down & listen to other points of view which might just expand their own narrow opinions on various subjects which is very necessary in order to fully mature.
Justifiable anger also has to be controlled & a strategy put in place in order for progress to be made & eventual victory achieved. Indiscriminate acts of violence & terrorism founded on pure hate e.g. ISIS, Al-Qaeda etc. cannot in the long term achieve their goal as it will stoke similar attacks from the other side who will be justified in their retaliatory actions.
If self discipline is taught from an early age in the family home a lot of the anger we see in society could be contained. Parents must take the responsibility of talking to their children about curbing their instincts to physically hit out at others who they feel annoyed with or hurt by & adults should never lower their own behaviour to that of an undisciplined child.
Dear Anna, Sorry to interject for us as parents of two little ones the biggest thing that we are trying to convey to our kids are say your prayers, respect yourself, listen to your parents and be obedient. It’s a daily struggle and they are quite insolent, we hope that they eventually understand that we do not say NO more than YES to them because we don’t love them it’s actually because we do love them that we say NO.
Of course it is out of love you discipline your children. If you didn’t how would they know right from wrong, what behaviour is acceptable & what is not. You cannot be your child’s best friend & their parent as well. Friends are drawn from their own age group. As parents we must take responsibility & those that don’t make life very difficult for the rest of us. One of my son’s school mates was always turning up waving a lot of money (for a child) & asking him to go out to spend it. His father gave him the money so they could continue socialising. Needless to say I disallowed him to go. That young man died of drugs & alcohol in September of last year leaving a partner & child. The family was devastated & will live with the fact they put business & pleasure before his needs for the rest of their lives.
I remember reading an article by Laura Berquist a long time ago, on the age to concentrate on teaching different virtues. I thought it really interesting. I managed to find it online still https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=659 If you scroll to the bottom you can see the list.
If your children are in the 4-7years bracket it says obedience, sincerity, order which sounds just like what you are doing. It’s not like you can’t teach different virtues earlier, it lists modesty in the 13-15 years group. Modesty needs to be learnt earlier than that. But this is the age when they are capable of understanding the virtue at a deeper level. That seems right to me. I have children from 15 years old down to 3 and while the younger ones are taught modesty, the 13-15 years age range is when we have really sit down to discuss modesty in detail.
In order to teach obedience love is so essential. And so I’ll link something else I found recently which has a great talk on love (and a whole lot of other great talks). It’s a series of mp3’s on Forming Catholic Childen which is mostly by Fr. Beck http://catholicconferences.bandcamp.com/album/forming-catholic-children-frs-beck-themann-sspx Wish I could have heard these talks years ago. You can listen to them online to sample them. They cost $1 to buy the whole lot. Well worth a listen!
Dear Sharyn, It’s a pleasure to meet you. In the sense that it’s the first time that we have spoken. Thank you for taking the time to share all of your advice. We are very grateful for the information and the time that you took in writing your post.
You’re welcome 🙂 A pleasure to meet you too! Sorry for the slow reply. School has just gone back here (in Aust) and also I’m due to have my 8th soon. Getting too tired to get to the computer now.
God bless you and your family!
“My view is that righteous anger exists in theory, but seldom in practice.”
I am not sure what that means. Righteous anger means being angry when it is right to be so. The occasions for righteous anger are hardly “seldom” these days. They are legion, and they reflect what will surely be the wrath of God when His hand is no longer stayed. I grant you, however, that righteous anger can easily cross the line into excess and that pride can always subvert righteous intentions. But, again, this is to distinguish a virtue from its excess.
The same can be said of meekness, however, which can easily slide into sinful timidity in the face of evil or injustice. As Saint Thomas also teaches in the Summa: “He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices, it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but even the good to do wrong.”
“Unreasonable patience” seems to be the program of most of the hierarchy today, starting from the top and involving, above all, sins of the flesh while putative sins against “social justice” readily invoke an ostentatious anger that seems to be less than righteous.
You are correct that my comment was ambiguous, or confusing, or just poorly stated. I was rushing off to Mass and wrote it too quickly. Let me try again, (although, again I have little time, as now I’m heading off to my annual weekend retreat).
Righteous anger exists. Even with righteous anger, there is a danger that our passions will master us, or that we will not govern our anger with right reason. Hence, the need to be rooted in prayer and the Holy Spirit.
My article did not intend to address righteous anger, but to focus on that sinful anger that is all too common, particularly within the home. But I can see how my failure to address the topic appears as a dismissal of righteous anger. Your comment and some of the other comments provide helpful thoughts on both righteous anger and other particulars.
Thanks and God bless!
In fairness to you, the emphasis on righteous anger risks eclipsing the need for meekness and humility. Even righteous anger that is objectively warranted can be ruined by impure motives. One can actually come to enjoy being angry, and this is a serious risk.
Perhaps you have inadvertently substituted anger for peevishness. You say that you “snap” at your wife and children (and I can so relate to this), but is this real anger? Have you stopped desiring their good? I don’t think so. Rather (and I speak here for myself), selfishness and impatience have become the motivating force. Your suggestion of mental prayer is an extraordinary aid, as is the self-exam. I maintain, however, that like Christ , we must maintain an aversion to evil through righteous anger…even if it only happens once in 33 years.
I agree with the overall tenor of this article except for a couple of important points:
“But pursuing the right things, while indispensable, is not enough. We cannot grow in virtue, or excise vice, merely by willing it.” This is not exactly correct, natural virtues are obtained and therefore grown in through repetitious moral effort and the exercise of the will for the good. Grace certainly assists the pursuit of virtue and it’s purification/sanctification, but one can and in deed must grow in virtue through human effort.
CCC:
THE HUMAN VIRTUES
1804 Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions,
habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our
passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make
possible ease, self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The
virtuous man is he who freely practices the good.
The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the
fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human
being for communion with divine love.
The virtues and grace
1810 Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts
and by a perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and
elevated by divine grace. With God’s help, they forge character and give
facility in the practice of the good. The virtuous man is happy to practice
them.
1811 It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain
moral balance. Christ’s gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to
persevere in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this
grace of light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy
Spirit, and follow his calls to love what is good and shun evil.
____________________________________________________________________________
Growing in virtue happens through the repetition of the virtue, the sanctification of the virtue happens via grace.
Also, the passion of anger is morally neutral, like all of the other human passions:
CCC:
II. PASSIONS AND MORAL LIFE
1767 In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They
are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason
and will. Passions are said to be voluntary, “either because they are
commanded by the will or because the will does not place obstacles in their
way.”44 It belongs to the perfection of the moral or human good that the
passions be governed by reason.45
1768 Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or
the holiness of persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images
and affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally good
when they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case. The upright
will orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to the good and to
beatitude; an evil will succumbs to disordered passions and exacerbates them. Emotions
and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.
1769 In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as is visible in the Lord’s agony and passion. In Christ human feelings are able to reach their consummation in charity and divine beatitude.
1770 Moral perfection consists in man’s being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: “My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.”46
IN BRIEF
1771 The term “passions” refers to the affections or the feelings. By his emotions man intuits the good and suspects evil.
1772 The principal passions are love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger.
1773 In the passions, as movements of the sensitive appetite, there is neither moral good nor evil. But insofar as they engage reason and will, there is moral good or evil in them.
1774 Emotions and feelings can be taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices.
1775 The perfection of the moral good consists in man’s being moved to the good not only by his will but also by his “heart.”
And:
1765 There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love, aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and fear of the impending evil; this movement ends in sadness at some present evil, or in the anger that resists it.
____________________________________________
Anger when directed to the good and by the good in accord with right reason is the passion that assists the will in combating evil and is even necessary to do so.
Mark 3:5: And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their
hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched
it out, and his hand was restored.
Ephesians 4:26-27: Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your
anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
Anyway, I agree that the vice of Anger is a very common one that leads to great harm, however the absence of Righteous Anger is just as destructive for it permits all Evil to flourish. We certainly could have used some righteously angry bishops to confront sexual predators in the priesthood instead of a bunch of enabling effeminate moral cowards.
These are good distinctions and clarifications from the Catechism. Thank you for sharing them.
You’re welcome. Please know that I agree that unjust anger is a serious and deadly sin and it has a grip on many, many people. It particularly hits people who are oppressed in anyway, because they have many reasons for righteous anger, but if they are not careful then anger becomes the preferred response to just about everything they disagree with and they end up in sin. Righteous Anger doesn’t always lead to righteous behavior or decisions, many times people presume that because their cause is just then what they are doing for the cause is too, and that is not always the case.
One can begin in righteous anger and end in Mortal Sin.
A good habit to develop is:
1) Acknowledge to yourself when you are angry (many people dwell in denial.)
2) Examine the cause of the Anger:
A) If it’s unrighteous, that is based in subjective preference for a non-necessity or in error of fact/presumption (much anger is from this) then repent immediately.
B) If it’s righteous, that is based in objective truth about a necessary Good that is either being deprived or destroyed/distorted (etc….), offer it to God as a suffering and ask Him to use that suffering to bring about justice.
3) Pray and remain in prayer until one has accepted the Will of God and is at peace with the Will of God: whatever the thing is it falls under Divine Providence and God has either willed it directly or permitted it under His Providence.
4) Ask God if their is a specific action that He wants of you:
A) In the case of unjust anger do I need to make amends, did I slander someone etc…? And of course Confession (I often wonder how many self righteous Catholics receive Holy Communion while in the state of Mortal Sin because of this sin…all the while condemning others for receiving Holy Communion in a State of Mortal Sin.)
B) In the case of Just anger, is their an action I can take to promote the Good and lessen or end the evil? Is that action itself just? If so, is it within my capacity to do it? If so, is their a specific way that God wants me to do it etc… then of course ACT. Many times people fail in this area and enter into sins of omission for failing to do the good that was required of them out of fear, timidity, laziness, etc…
5) If unsure, seek the council of a wise and faithful person who isn’t prone to Anger but isn’t given to Cowardice or Pacifism either.
An excellent article on the Righteous Anger (in light of the priesthood) is by Dr. Conrad Baars titled: A priest for all seasons; Masculine and Celibate: https://www.amazon.com/priest-all-seasons-Masculine-Synthesis/dp/B0006C4EJK
It is also incorporated in a book called “I will give them A NEW HEART”
Opening Paragraph from the article “A priest for all season; Masculine and Celibate”:
“More than ever–or perhaps just as much as in past periods of crisis–the Church of today needs masculine and celibate priests; not merely priests who are “not married,” but caelbs in the true sense of the word; not merely strong priests who can do a good day’s work, but mature, masculine priests ready to do battle against evil for the sake of the good, ready to be hurt, but also, if need be, ready to hurt!”
Thank you father. GB
For dealing with unrighteous anger I found this audio sermon really helpful http://luke1128.org/2014/02/23/growing-in-virtue-by-small-sustained-mortifications/ It’s a sermon for Lent. What I liked about it was that it actually gave some tools for overcoming it. Not just ‘stop being (bad) angry’ but how to actually go about it. Must get back to Father’s suggestions myself (or is that a big interior ‘noooooo’ I hear lol), thanks for the reminder, and thanks for your suggestions too!
Spot on William. I fail daily in this area. Please pray for me in this regard.
I have often thought that the obvious sins might not be the worst sins. Gluttony, drunkenness, sexual perversions; those are all easy to see and condemn. Sins like anger and hatred; sins that result directly from Devilish pride, are hidden cancers; they are perhaps worse and more destructive. And since they are largely hidden, they may be more socially acceptable; secretly indulged in by the rich, the powerful, the “normal”; community leaders, family and friends. Yet deviant sex perverts and pitiful drunks are not as deep in Dante’s hell as are the wrathful and the violent.
We Christians frequently justify our own anger as “righteous”. We take up our whip daily to “cleanse the Temple”; all part of our day’s work. Yet, if anyone had reason and ability to wield “righteous” anger, it was our Lord. But in all of Jesus’ recorded earthly ministry, He was angry only once. Sorrowful and compassionate many times. Righteous anger once in 33 years is probably the kind of ratio we should strive for.
I REALLY like the message here, in Mr. Bloomfield’s essay. Very topical and needed right now. So much anger, and reason to be angry. Anger and wounded pride are as fundamental as the fall of Lucifer. And in hell they rule without restraint. But we are called down a different path.
The Beatitudes govern heaven. And heaven is promised to those who live their earthly lives governed by them. They are counterintuitive, like so much of the “foolishness of God” that is the Gospel of Jesus. It would do us much good to really practice Matt 5,6 in the days God gives us, and discipline ourselves, daily, to really know what it means to be meek; to be a peacemaker.
Excellent advice. Anger/resentment is the leading cause of alcoholism according to folks in AA. This is a defect you must ask God to help you remove. Anger is an expression of pride. And we know conquering pride is a lifelong pursuit. The BIG FIRST STEP is to recognize your anger and resentment which is often hard to do as it is veiled by pride.
Pionono’s comments below expressed admirably my sentiments. Anger for the sake of anger is just that, a sinful loss of self-controls and self-disciplines, while justifiable anger is valid, vis-a-vis, the US Supreme Courts long history of bad rulings, the current histories of 2 presidential candidates , specifically one as “Liar-In-Chief,” no need to say more.
St Francis de Sales understood the dangers of good righteous anger since he was a holy man and probably KNEW the dangers of all sin intimately, not because he was a terrible sinner, but because his understanding came from the purification of his own soul by sanctifying grace which means his understanding was not primarily conceptual. I. E., not knowledge ABOUT sin. And wasn’t he the saint who had a great struggle with his own anger? So, he was super cautious.
The way I understand the dangers of righteous anger, given our wounded souls by Adam’s sin of pride, is that it can become self-righteous, full of hatred and unforgiveness, which, in their turn come from the same sin of pride in our souls.
There are plenty of reasons for righteous anger today. Think Jorge Bergoglio, the devastated church, and society teetering on the edge of oblivion. Almost as bad, it’s not “nice” to be angry at evil. It’s seen as a psychological issue. An aberration.
‘And wasn’t he the saint who had a great struggle with his own anger? ‘
He was. Can’t remember where I read/heard this but apparently the desk at which he would receive people coming for his advice had gouges out of the underneath of it where he would scratch with his fingers rather than get angry. I told my children about this when we were talking about anger and meekness a few weeks back. I joked with them, that I need a bit of wood hanging about my neck to scratch when I’m feeling a bit angry, and that I might need replacements from time to time when it wears out lol.
Hi Sharyn, I just remembered. It was a video of Fr. Paul Scalia. I don’t remember the topic. He does some great videos for The Institute for Catholic Culture on Utube.
His most memorable was his video on Modernism. It was my introduction to this worst of all heresies that began to infiltrate the church at the end of the 19th century. It was a bit sanitized; but he is a gifted priest. It’s just that I disagree with his hands off approach to Vat ll and the internal collapse of the church since then.
Yes, I guess having a piece of wood to grab hold of, when your little angels get too rowdy, would come in handy during those times.
When you mentioned Fr. Scalia it it seemed to ring a bell, but I went back and watched the two video’s of his that I remember watching (the modernism one and ‘you can’t love another person apart from the truth’) and couldn’t find it. It could be that I missed it though as I listened while doing other things.
At any rate I’m intrigued now to learn more about St. Francis de Sales. I’ve found a biography to read and I had just started reading ‘Intro to the devout life’ for the first time. All these years I’ve seen it recommended, but it seems the right book to read right now.
Little angels lol. They are very good children, I’m very proud of them. But still children. And I wonder that the advice of St Francis de Sales might be a good thing for this mother to read for help when she feels the need to scratch a piece of wood 😉
Sorry for the slow reply. The school term has just started back and it also seems that I need to retire from online commenting for now as I’m just too tired now with baby due so soon.
God bless!
That is such a profound truth, that.”love” and “truth” cannot be separated. Only our Catholic Church teaches that. And that is so desperately needed today, when generations of children are taught love is whatever you feel, no matter what. And they are taught there is no truth. Truth is whatever you decide for yourself. Scary stuff!!
Anyway Sharyn, your time must be getting very short, and you’re tired a lot. May God bless you and your eagerly anticipated bundle of joy, due any day now.
I am discussing such things with my eldest lately. And she will sit and listen, and discuss for as long as I have the time. Thank you God! God be my guide!
Thank you for your blessing Tom! Please say a little prayer for us! 🙂 (oh, and due in about five weeks. Today would have been lovely, the feast of St. Teresa of Avila. But I whispered to baby, that November would still probably be the better time. And five weeks is a very short time 🙂