Lent is a good time to work on developing our virtues and squelching our vices. So let's consider one of the seven deadly sins, anger. What is it and can anger ever be a good thing?
In view of the fact that God often expressed anger toward the evil behavior of the Israelites and Christ expressed anger toward the money changers in the temple and the hypocrisy of the pharisees, anger cannot be a universal evil. Fr. James Schall has an interesting article on the Catholic Thing discussing anger. You may be surprised at some of what he says:
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Showing posts with label anger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anger. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Friday, July 13, 2012
Anger: The Misunderstood Virtue
I recently listened to a CD on anger by a Catholic deacon who is also a psychiatrist, or perhaps a psychologist, I don't recall which now. I found his presentation confusing and, while much was worthwhile, I disagreed with some of the points he made. He never defined his terms well. He seemed to lump all anger under the umbrella of sinful anger. He seemed to define righteous anger (he never used the term) as "indignation." And, in fact, condemned a pro-life pamphlet justifying anger against abortion which, frankly, aroused my indignation. I thought his comments were unjust and off-target and that the pro-life group was describing righteous anger that leads to action against the evil of abortion.
When I think of the murder of unborn children, indignation just doesn't cut it. Is slicing and dicing babies not a cause for anger if anything is? What arouses me to the desire to fight that injustice is hatred of its evil and anger over the murder of the innocent. Yes, anger is exactly what we should experience over such an evil and that anger should spur us to do something about it!
When I think of the murder of unborn children, indignation just doesn't cut it. Is slicing and dicing babies not a cause for anger if anything is? What arouses me to the desire to fight that injustice is hatred of its evil and anger over the murder of the innocent. Yes, anger is exactly what we should experience over such an evil and that anger should spur us to do something about it!
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