anger

“Thomas Aquinas once said "nothing great happens without anger,"

(quoted by Matthew Fox  4/11/22)

 

But “anger” has become a dirty word

 

I guess it depends on what you do with it!?

Jesus got angry

He told Peter off (a couple of times)

And tweaked a few religious leaders (gently but clearly)

And flipped a few tables

 

But Jesus didn’t carry that anger

He didn’t live from it

 

His anger was an honest response to a misunderstanding of His way

A faith system that trapped rather than freed

And, perhaps, greed

 

Still we struggle with anger

 

When we think of anger we think of

a destructive force that drives us and others

to do foolish, harmful, even destructive things

 

We think of angry young people with guns

of Oscar Night

of trolling on the Book of Faces

 

But if expressed and steered correctly

anger can lead to needed change

If woven together with love and caring

it can be the necessary fuel for transformation

 

Yes, if expressed and steered wrongly

it can lead to violence, chaos, and war

 

But where would we be without those who

In love and anger marched in Selma

protested the war in Vietnam

stood for hours in voting lines in Georgia

 

where would we be if those people had approached the pain of the world

with silent apathy?

 

where will we be

if we do not get angery

over what is wrong in this world?

 

We are living in a time full of ugliness

When there is an unjust and barbaric war

When the planet is being destroyed for profit

When there is a gap, growing daily between the very rich, and the other 95% of the human population

When partisan media sites twist the truth and tell outright lies

When politicians lie in order to stir up fear and hate

When people lie for power and wealth

 

This should all make us angry

“You should use another word” (I hear you say)

 

I have no other word

just the understanding that it must be anger steered by love

anger touched and transformed by the ever-present God (Love)

that dwells within

and drives me to love not just myself, but those around me

 

and get angry

when people are assailed by war

oppressed by injustice

minimized by hate

consumed by poverty

 

It is the wedding of love and caring with moral outrage and anger

that changes the world

 

anger alone is ugly

anger carried destroys

anger expressed in hate is appalling

but anger transformed by love?

 

I know (being human creatures) that we will never

Ever

Completely rid ourselves of anger

(call it what you will, outrage, indignation)

 

And I know that sometimes our anger will NOT be righteous

Sometimes it will be anger because

We have not gotten our way

Or because of presumed affront

In those cases, we need (as Jesus suggests several times)

to lay it aside (Matthew 5) and not “carry it to bed”

 

But sometimes our “anger” will be righteous

In those times may we be slow to anger

 

And when anger comes

May Love (God) give us the grace

Not to carry it, not to live it, not to be it

But to transform it into a desire for justice, equity and peace

 

To transform it into compassionate and constructive action

that de-escalates rather than escalates

builds rather than destroys

heals rather than harms

reconciles rather than alienates

leads to peace rather than violence

 

may our zeal, our pain, our compassion

our sense of justice and equity

(for those are perhaps the components of what we call anger)

lead us

to lovingly work

to overcome evil with good

_____________________________

 

I found this to be very difficult to write about

My head was full of “Yes!  But….”

I wish I could think of a better word, but the quote from Aquinas was provoking

 

I would also note that perhaps the opposite of anger is not peace apathy

Or perhaps it is “acedia”, "the lack of energy to begin new things." (Aquinas)

 

Anger may not be ideal

But it is also not good when we do not care

And do not act