Thank you for this article, Father! Righteous anger is something that has always seemed a bit grey to my conscience; how can one truly know whether anger is righteous or simply being selfishly justified in the emotion of the situation? I look forward to reading more of your writings on anger. May God bless you!
I think time can certainly assist if we are trying to discern the anger in the moment. Anger can tend to be connected to anxiety, which decreases our critical thinking. Our critical thinking should be somewhat lacking because "anger" exists there so that we act quickly. Our heart starts beating, adrenaline rushes through our veins, all so that we act. The passion anger can therefore trigger a response to "act" and thus will likely decrease our discernment of how to act. This can be a very good thing. When we are in a burning house, we will not consider taking a shower, but either get out this way or that way.
So anger isn't the enemy as far as Passion goes. It is a very useful passion; but when we do not need to act right away, its good to allow the anger to cool off, with perhaps the intention to return to it. In that case, I suggest going for a long walk, a work-out, or find a trusted friend who can assist in good council.
I have found these two dimensions incredibly helpful. Even when I've been wronged, a friend who can help me integrate love, and prudence, into my reaction aid my mind in regaining some critical thinking that I've lost in the midst of this passion.
I think this means that we are "instilling" meekness into our approach. Sometimes our advice will be "you need to act on this now" and sometimes we will have the certainty to act on it "now." But if its grey, we should seek council or time.
I've also prayed to Christ, and communicated my anger to him. I have an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in my bedroom where he points to his thorn-crowned heart with one hand, while offering his priestly blessing with the other hand. That has often chastened my own wrath, when I approach the image of Him with an open heart.
This is an excellent article. I sometimes deal with anger. Like Chantel I find it hard to distinguish between righteous anger and sinful anger especially when someone is being verbally abusive.
As Chesterton would say, "We are all on the same boat, and we are all seasick." I think the virtue of prudence tends to be one of the virtues that gets uprooted through wrath, because of a reactive disposition that anger causes. Taking a break from the anger for the sake of coming back to it can be helpful. May our guardian angels remind us of this in the moment though! :)
I appreciate the recommendations you present, Father. This is something I have been working on for a while with some success. That image of Mary, asking for clarification got me thinking. What would you recommend to someone that's trying not to be dominated by the passion of anger and have better control on it?
Emotions are meant to "passive" to underlying thoughts and attitudes about what is just/unjust, what is it that we have control/hope over. These attitudes can exist within us as automatic, conscious, or subconscious. So when we have the emotional experience of anger, it reveals to us something going on, and teaches us about our own interior attitudes. What isn't enough is us simply reacting to the emotion. We have to dig deeper into our attitudes, and have an honest conversation with ourselves. It can be that the emotion is righteous as we see in Jesus. The reality is, however, we are all fallen. Thus, it is likely that something sinful may cling from time to time to our anger. And its worth examining, albeit not scrupulously.
I think its helpful to look at our anger as an "effect" not to principally to something that happens, but to an attitude within ourselves that reacts to something that happens. Then we will not blame our exterior environment for our emotions, but take responsibility for that state.
Jesus' example of righteous anger gives us a good juxtaposition to a fallen reaction of anger. His love for the Father is what caused him to become Angry. His anger was intentionally expressed (he was in control of it), as a way of giving Glory to God. IT seems to me that he never boiled up with anger when defending his own glory.
So controlling our emotions occurs reasonably when the attitudes are aligned to reason/reality. That is why checking in with our attitudes seems to be the best way to discern this. But in order for us to do that, we often need to give ourselves a break from the passion. That means a distraction can help us take a step back and return to the matter at hand, and examine it critically. Practically that may mean going for a walk, talking to a friend (about something else) or seeking advice once we've cooled down.
Thank you for this article, Father! Righteous anger is something that has always seemed a bit grey to my conscience; how can one truly know whether anger is righteous or simply being selfishly justified in the emotion of the situation? I look forward to reading more of your writings on anger. May God bless you!
I think time can certainly assist if we are trying to discern the anger in the moment. Anger can tend to be connected to anxiety, which decreases our critical thinking. Our critical thinking should be somewhat lacking because "anger" exists there so that we act quickly. Our heart starts beating, adrenaline rushes through our veins, all so that we act. The passion anger can therefore trigger a response to "act" and thus will likely decrease our discernment of how to act. This can be a very good thing. When we are in a burning house, we will not consider taking a shower, but either get out this way or that way.
So anger isn't the enemy as far as Passion goes. It is a very useful passion; but when we do not need to act right away, its good to allow the anger to cool off, with perhaps the intention to return to it. In that case, I suggest going for a long walk, a work-out, or find a trusted friend who can assist in good council.
I have found these two dimensions incredibly helpful. Even when I've been wronged, a friend who can help me integrate love, and prudence, into my reaction aid my mind in regaining some critical thinking that I've lost in the midst of this passion.
I think this means that we are "instilling" meekness into our approach. Sometimes our advice will be "you need to act on this now" and sometimes we will have the certainty to act on it "now." But if its grey, we should seek council or time.
I've also prayed to Christ, and communicated my anger to him. I have an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in my bedroom where he points to his thorn-crowned heart with one hand, while offering his priestly blessing with the other hand. That has often chastened my own wrath, when I approach the image of Him with an open heart.
This is an excellent article. I sometimes deal with anger. Like Chantel I find it hard to distinguish between righteous anger and sinful anger especially when someone is being verbally abusive.
As Chesterton would say, "We are all on the same boat, and we are all seasick." I think the virtue of prudence tends to be one of the virtues that gets uprooted through wrath, because of a reactive disposition that anger causes. Taking a break from the anger for the sake of coming back to it can be helpful. May our guardian angels remind us of this in the moment though! :)
I appreciate the recommendations you present, Father. This is something I have been working on for a while with some success. That image of Mary, asking for clarification got me thinking. What would you recommend to someone that's trying not to be dominated by the passion of anger and have better control on it?
Emotions are meant to "passive" to underlying thoughts and attitudes about what is just/unjust, what is it that we have control/hope over. These attitudes can exist within us as automatic, conscious, or subconscious. So when we have the emotional experience of anger, it reveals to us something going on, and teaches us about our own interior attitudes. What isn't enough is us simply reacting to the emotion. We have to dig deeper into our attitudes, and have an honest conversation with ourselves. It can be that the emotion is righteous as we see in Jesus. The reality is, however, we are all fallen. Thus, it is likely that something sinful may cling from time to time to our anger. And its worth examining, albeit not scrupulously.
I think its helpful to look at our anger as an "effect" not to principally to something that happens, but to an attitude within ourselves that reacts to something that happens. Then we will not blame our exterior environment for our emotions, but take responsibility for that state.
Jesus' example of righteous anger gives us a good juxtaposition to a fallen reaction of anger. His love for the Father is what caused him to become Angry. His anger was intentionally expressed (he was in control of it), as a way of giving Glory to God. IT seems to me that he never boiled up with anger when defending his own glory.
So controlling our emotions occurs reasonably when the attitudes are aligned to reason/reality. That is why checking in with our attitudes seems to be the best way to discern this. But in order for us to do that, we often need to give ourselves a break from the passion. That means a distraction can help us take a step back and return to the matter at hand, and examine it critically. Practically that may mean going for a walk, talking to a friend (about something else) or seeking advice once we've cooled down.
Thank you, father. This is very helpful.