Live 4 The LORD

Anger 

Anger is a God given emotion meant to prompt us to achieve something difficult, correct some evil, or endure something we can’t change without giving up. Anger is meant to be constructive. It’s meant to give us energy, the power to correct an evil we can change or endure an evil we cannot change. 

Anger becomes sinful when it’s destructive, or when anger is disproportionate to the situation, it’s too strong and lasts too long, like going postal over minor things or holding on to grudges, resentment, and hatred. Or when anger is directed to an evil that is not your place to correct. 

We overcome sinful anger by meekness. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is the calm strength that harnesses the power of anger and directs it to the good. We don’t want to get rid of the power of anger, just harness it for good. We harness the power of anger and become meek by two steps: check and command. When the emotion of anger begins to rage, check the anger that is getting out of control, stop it. Then command the right response. 

So, when you face something which causes anger: stop, check it. Then, think before you react. Ask yourself, what do I really want in the end? I want union with God; to love him and to love my neighbor and even my enemies. Keep that in the front of your mind. 

Then think: What can I do in this situation?  If there is something you can or should do, then Act. Do what you can, change what is possible. If this thing is not your responsibility or there is nothing you can do, it is beyond my control, then stay calm and stay out of it. Then command the right response. 

There is such a thing as righteous anger, and the model for it is Jesus in the Temple. And, of course, in the New Testament, the Temple doesn’t primarily represent the Church. It represents the individual Christian. You and I are each, says St. Paul, “Temples of the Holy Spirit”

So, against what evil should our wrath primarily be directed? What corruption are we primarily called to reform? Us. Our sin. Our evil. Our vice. Our corruption. That’s the primary evil we know, that’s the primary evil we’re called to correct.

If you’re going to get angry, get angry about your own sins. And then use that energy to cleanse God’s temple, which is your own soul. Anger is the God given energy first to change the evil within us, the only thing we can control.