I can’t be angry anymore.
I’m not saying I don’t get angry. Of course, I do. We’ve had a lot to be angry about. But it seems to be the thing to be angry. All. The. Time.
Anger is a basic emotion, but I often abuse it. Let it simmer. Sit with it until it eats me alive.
Yes, I know that even God gets angry. In the Old Testament, whenever God is angry, it is because he sees unholiness. Yet, we are also told time and time again that the Lord is slow to anger — that he is gracious and merciful and abounding in love and kindness.
In the New Testament, Jesus gets angry when he sees vendors selling outside of the temple. They had made a holy place unholy. Jesus says to them, “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves.”
God shows us that anger is necessary to move away from that which is unholy and turn our eyes toward him. When our eyes are on God, we find grace and mercy and love and kindness there. Not more anger.
There is a righteous anger and there is an anger that confounds us. We’ve been quick to be angry. We lose control over ourselves. And I am getting the sense that people are enjoying being angry. Almost rejoicing in it. Holding on to it. Calling it righteous. When really it is just adding to the noise and causing confusion. We all think we are Jesus cracking a whip in the temple, but we are Paul before he met Jesus, passing out stones to throw at Stephen.
This anger is destroying us. Destroying our relationships with our communities, our families and our God. We can no longer see the holy.
Some translations of Psalm 4 say, “Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart in your bed, and be silent.” I think if I am honest with myself, if I search my heart, not all my anger is righteous. Much of it has to do with my own pride, with my lack of trust in God, and some of it is grief. Sometimes when we don’t allow ourselves to grieve, it comes out sideways as anger.
St. Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun set on your anger, and do not leave room for the devil” (4:26-27). He was speaking to the early church that had become divided on issues of race, politics and theology. They were so divided that they were unable to grasp God’s higher calling for them. They lost sight of the bigger picture. They lost sight of God.
St. Paul begged for unity among them, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace” (4:2).
I can’t be angry anymore. I am going in circles, anger begetting anger, when God has a higher calling for us. A calling that reflects his heart of love and kindness, of peace and gentleness, and of self-control; these are the fruits of the Spirit. Anger is not a fruit of the Spirit.
Northwest Catholic - April 2021