The Vice of Anger
one
The Vice of Anger
a. Anger by itself is just an emotion, it’s a natural feeling
i. It’s a feeling that prompts us to correct some evil
b. But for most of us, the anger that’s meant to correct some evil normally ends up instead destroying some good
i. Anger is meant to be constructive – it’s meant to give us energy to fix problems.
ii. The vice of anger is the sin whereby our anger causes us to create problems
two
Why do we indulge in destructive anger?
a. Because it’s easier. It’s always easier to break things than to fix them.
b. It’s easier to curse, or punch a hole in the wall, or yell at our kids, or get outraged about some atrocity happening in some other part of the country or the world
i. It’s a lot easier to just indulge in that kind of anger than actually to take the time, thought and effort to:
1. Form our kids
2. Reform society
3. Maintain our house
4. Put up with the nonsense at work and just do what needs to be done
c. But it’s those things God wants us to be focused on. Not venting. Not throwing a hissy fit or being on edge or just being mad all the time.
i. He wants us to make the world and ourselves a better place. If anger doesn’t help us do that, it’s no good.
three
So anger is always vicious when it’s not constructive
a. But that also means it’s sinful when it’s disproportionate to the situation
b. If your anger is too long or too intense
i. If you blow up regularly, if you have a short fuse, if people tiptoe around you – then you’re guilty of vicious anger.
c. And probably, in those cases, your anger isn’t so much based on responding to an evil around you – it’s an egotistical way of getting people to pay attention to you and treat you carefully.
i. Remember – the saints always had thick skin. It was always hard, usually impossible, to offend them.
1. So if you take offense easily, you’re on the wrong track.
four
A final mark of sinful anger is when it’s directed to an evil it’s not your place to correct
a. When my kids were young they were constantly correcting each other, and my wife and I had to say to them: “You’re not the parent. You worry about yourself. We’ll handle the parenting.”
b. The point is if you’re getting angry about situations and policies that you can’t change, and that you have no right to change – well, how can that anger be constructive?
c. So are you always getting angry about the decisions of
1. Political authorities?
2. Church authorities?
d. What good is that kind of anger going to do anyone? Why worry about the decisions you can’t make? The point of anger is to help you carry out the decisions that are within the scope of your authority.
five
Righteous wrath
a. There is such a things as righteous anger – and the model for it is Jesus in the Temple
i. But be careful – Jesus was cleansing the Temple, and too often we read that passage and think that we should follow him primarily by getting outraged at the corruption in the Church
1. We think the primary way to imitate Jesus’ wrath is by reforming the institutional Church.
a. And certainly, we may all have some small role in reforming the Church and society.
i. But it’s a small role. Because we’re not to Pope or the President, or the bishops or the governors. We’re not even the priests or the congressmen.
b. And, of course, in the New Testament, the Temple doesn’t primarily represent the Church
i. It represents the individual Christian
ii. You and I are each, says St. Paul, “Temples of the Holy Spirit”
c. 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.
d. 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.