THE SIN OF ANGER
“Whosoever
is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment.”
Anger resembles fire; hence, as fire is vehement in its action,
and, by the smoke which it produces, obstructs the view, so anger makes men
rush into a thousand excesses, and prevents them from seeing the sinfulness of
their conduct, and thus exposes them to the danger of the judgment of eternal
death. “Whosoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the
judgment.” Anger is so pernicious to man that it even disfigures his
countenance. No matter how comely and gentle he may be, he shall, as often as
he yields to the passion of anger, appear to be a monster and a wild beast full
of terror. ”Iracundus,” says St. Basil, ”humanam quasi liguram amittit, ferae
specimen indutus.” (Hom, xxi.) But, if anger disfigures us before men, how much
more deformed will it render us in the eyes of God! In this discourse I will
show, in the first point, the destruction which anger unrestrained brings on
the soul; and, in the second, how we ought to restrain anger in all occasions
of provocation which may occur to us.
First Point
The ruin which anger
unrestrained brings on the soul.
1. St. Jerome
says that anger is the door by which all vices enter the soul. ”Omnium vitiorum
jantia est iracundia.” Anger precipitates men into
resentments, blasphemies, acts of injustice, detractions, scandals, and other
iniquities; for the passion of anger darkens the understanding, and makes a man
act like a beast and a madman. ”Caligavit ab indignatione oculus meus.” My eye has lost its sight through indignation. David said: ”My eye is
troubled with wrath.” Hence, according to St. Bonaventure, an
angry man is incapable of distinguishing between what is just and unjust.
”Iratus non potest videre quod justum est vel injustum.” In a word, St. Jerome
says that anger deprives a man of prudence, reason, and understanding. ”Ab omni
concilio deturpat, ut donee irascitur, insanire credatur.” Hence St. James
says: ”The anger of man worketh not the justice of God.” The
acts of a man under the influence of anger cannot be conformable to the divine
justice, and consequently cannot be faultless.
2. A
man who does not restrain the impulse of anger, easily falls into hatred
towards the person who has been the occasion of his passion. According
to St. Augustine, hatred is nothing else than persevering anger. “Odium est ira
diuturno tempore perseverans.” Hence St. Thomas says that”anger is sudden, but
hatred is lasting. ”It appears, then, that in him in whom anger
perseveres hatred also reigns. But some will say: I am the head of the house; I
must correct my children and servants, and, when necessary, I must raise my
voice against the disorders which I witness. I say in answer: It is one thing
to be angry against a brother, and another to be displeased at the sin of a
brother. To be angry against sin is not anger, but zeal; and therefore it is
not only lawful, but is sometimes a duty. But our anger must be accompanied
with prudence, and must appear to be directed against sin, but not against the
sinner; for, if the person whom we correct perceive that we speak through
passion and hatred towards him, the correction will be unprofitable and even
mischievous. To be angry, then, against a brother’s sin is certainly lawful.
”He,” says St. Augustine, ”is not angry with a brother who is angry against a
brother‟s sin.” It is thus, as David
said, we may be angry without sin. ”Be ye angry, and
sin not.” But, to be
angry against a brother on account of the sin which he has committed is not
lawful; because, according to St. Augustine, we are not allowed to hate others
for their vices. ”Nee propter vitia (licet) homines odisse” (in Ps. xcviii).
3. Hatred brings
with it a desire of revenge; for, according to St. Thomas, anger, when fully
voluntary, is accompanied with a desire of revenge. ”Ira est appetitus
vindicteo.” But you will perhaps say: If I resent such an injury, God will have
pity on me, because I have just grounds of resentment Who, I ask, has told you
that you have just grounds for seeking revenge? It is you, whose understanding
is clouded by passions, that say so. I have already said that anger obscures
the mind, and takes away our reason and understanding. As long as the passion
of auger lasts, you will consider your neighbour’s conduct very unjust and
intolerable; but, when your anger shall have passed away, you shall see that
his act was not so bad as it appeared to you. But, though the injury be
grievous, or even more grievous, God will not have compassion, on you if you
seek revenge. No, he says: vengeance for sins belongs not to you, but to me;
and when the time shall come I will chastise them as they deserve. ”Revenge is
mine, and I will repay them in due time.” (Deut. xxxii. 35.) If you resent an
injury done to you by a neighbour, God will justly inflict vengeance on you for
all the injuries you have offered to him, and particularly for taking revenge
on a brother whom he commands you to pardon. ”He that seeketh to revenge
himself, shall find vengeance from the Lord …. Man to man reserveth anger, and
doth he seek remedy of God? …. He that is but flesh nourisheth anger; and doth
he ask forgiveness of God? Who shall obtain pardon for his sins ?” Man, a worm of flesh, reserves anger, and takes revenge on a
brother: does he afterwards dare to ask mercy of God? And who, adds the sacred
writer, can obtain pardon for the iniquities of so daring a sinner? “Qua
ironte,” says St. Augustine, ”indulgentiam peccatorem obtinere poterit, qui
præcipienti dare veniam non acquiescit.” How can he who will not obey the
command of God to pardon his neighbor, expect to obtain from God the
forgiveness of his own sins?
4. Let
us implore the Lord to preserve us from yielding to any strong passion, and
particularly to anger. “Give me not over to a shameful and foolish mind.” (Eccl. xxiii. 6.) For, he that submits
to such a passion is exposed to great danger of falling into a grievous sin
against God or his neighbor. How many, in consequence of not restraining anger,
break out into horrible blasphemies against God or his saints! But, at the very
time we are in a flame of indignation, God is armed with scourges. The Lord
said one day to the Prophet Jeremias: “What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: I
see a rod watching. ” (Jer. i. 11.) Lord, I behold a rod watching to inflict
punishment. ”The Lord asked him again: “What seest thou? And I said: I see a
boiling caldron.” (Ibid., v. 13.). The boiling chaldron is the figure of a man
inflamed with wrath, and threatened with a rod, that is, with the vengeance of
God. Behold, then, the ruin which anger unrestrained brings on man. It deprives
him, first, of the grace of God, and afterwards of corporal life. ”Envy and
anger shortens a man‟s days.” (Eccl. xxx. 26.) Job
says: ”Anger indeed killeth the
foolish.” (Job v. 2.) All the
days of their life, persons addicted to anger are unhappy, because they are
always in a tempest. But let us pass to the second point, in which I have to
say many things which will assist you to overcome this vice.
Second Point
How we ought to restrain anger
in the occasions of provocation which occur to us.
5. In the first place it is
necessary to know that it is not possible for human weakness, in the midst of
so many occasions, to be altogether free from every motion of anger. “No one, ”
as Seneca says, “can be entirely exempt from this passion. ” “Iracundia nullum genus hominum
excipit". All our efforts must be directed to the moderation of
the feelings of anger which spring up in the soul. How are they to be
moderated? By meekness. This is called the virtue of the lamb that is, the
beloved virtue of Jesus Christ. Because, like a lamb, without anger or even
complaint, he bore the sorrows of his passion and crucifixion. ”He shall be led
as a sheep to the slaughter, and dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall
not open his mouth.” Hence he has taught us to learn of him
meekness and humility of heart. ”Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of
heart.”
6. Oh! how
pleasing in the sight of God are the meek, who submit in peace to all crosses,
misfortunes, persecutions, and injuries! To the meek is promised the kingdom of
heaven. ”Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.” (Matt. v.
4.) They are called the children of God. ”Blessed are the peacemakers; for they
shall be called the children of God.” Some boast of their
meekness, but without any grounds; for they are meek only towards those who
praise and confer favors upon them: but to those who injure or censure them
they are all fury and vengeance. The virtue of meekness consists in being meek
and peaceful towards those who hate and maltreat us. “With them, that hated
peace I was peaceful.”
7. We must, as
St. Paul says, put on the bowels of mercy towards all men, and bear one with
another. “Put on ye the bowels of mercy, humility, modesty, patience,
bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint
against another.” You wish others to bear with your defects,
and to pardon your faults; you should act in the same manner towards them.
Whenever, then, you receive an insult from a person enraged against you ,
remember that a “mild answer breaketh wrath,” A certain monk
once passed through a cornfield: the owner of the field ran out, and spoke to
him in very offensive and injurious language. The monk humbly replied: Brother,
you are right; I have done wrong; pardon me. By this answer the husbandman was
so much appeased that he instantly became calm, and even wished to follow the
monk, and to enter into religion. The proud make use of the humiliations they
receive to increase their pride; but the humble and the meek turn the contempt
and insults offered to them into an occasion of advancing in humility. “He,”
says St. Bernard, ”is humble who converts humiliation into humility.”
8. “A man of
meekness,” says St. Chrysostom, “is useful to himself and to others.” The
meek are useful to themselves, because, according to F. Alvares, the time of
humiliation and contempt is for them the time of merit. Hence, Jesus Christ
calls his disciples happy when they shall be reviled and persecuted. “Blessed
are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you.” Hence, the
saints have always desired to be despised as Jesus Christ has been despised.
The meek are useful to others; because, as the same St. Chrysostom says, there
is nothing better calculated to draw others to God, than to see a Christian
meek and cheerful when he receives an injury or an, insult. ”Nihil ita conciliat
Domino familiares ut quod ilium vident mansuetudine jucundum.” The reason is,
because virtue is known by being tried; and, as gold is tried by fire, so the
meekness of men is proved by humiliation. “Gold and silver are tried in the
fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.” ”My
spikenard, ”says the spouse in the Canticles, “sent forth the odour thereof” The spikenard is an odoriferous plant, but diffuses its odours only
when, it is torn and bruised. In this passage the inspired writer gives us to
understand, that a man cannot be said to be meek unless he is known to send
forth the odour of his meekness by bearing injuries and insults in peace and
without anger. God wishes us to be meek even towards ourselves. When a person
commits a fault, God certainly wishes him to humble himself, to be sorry for
his sin, and to purpose never to fall into it again but he does not wish him to
be indignant with himself, and give way to trouble and agitation of mind; for,
while the soul is agitated, a man is incapable of doing good. ”My heart is
troubled; my strength hath left me.” (Ps. xxx vii. 11.)
9. Thus, when we
receive an insult, we must do violence to ourselves in order to restrain anger. Let
us either answer with meekness, as recommended above, or let us remain silent;
and thus, as St. Isidore says, we shall conquer. “Quamvis quis irritet, tu
dissimula, quia tacendo vinces.” But, if you answer through passion, you shall
do harm to yourselves and others. It would be still worse to give an angry
answer to a person who corrects you. ”Medicanti irascitur,” says St. Bernard,
”qui non irascitur sagittanti.” Some are not angry, though
they ought to be indignant with those who wound their souls by flattery; and
are filled with indignation against the person who censures them in order to
heal their irregularities. Against the man who abhors correction, the sentence
of perdition has, according to the Wise Man, been pronounced. “Because they
have despised all my reproofs,. . . the prosperity of fools shall destroy
them.” Fools regard as prosperity to be free from
correction, or to despise the admonitions which they receive; but such
prosperity is the cause of their ruin. When you meet with an occasion of anger,
you must, in the first place, be on your guard not to allow anger to enter your
heart. “Be not quickly angry” (Eccles. vii. 10.) Some persons change colour,
and get into a passion, at every contradiction: and when anger has got
admission, God knows to what it shall lead them. Hence, it is necessary to
foresee these occasions in our meditations and prayers; for, unless we are
prepared for them, it will be as difficult to restrain anger as to put a bridle
on a horse while running away.
10. Whenever we have the misfortune
to permit anger to enter the soul, let us be careful not to allow it to remain. Jesus Christ tells all who remember
that a brother is offended with them, not to offer the gift which they bring to
the altar without being first reconciled to their neighbor. ”Go first to be
reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift.”
And he who has received any offense, should endeavor to root out of
his heart not only all anger, but also every feeling of bitterness towards the
persons who have offended him. “Let all bitterness,” says St. Paul, “and anger
and indignation be put away from you.” As long as anger
continues, follow the advice of Seneca”When you shall be angry do nothing, say
nothing, which may be dictated by anger.” Like David, be silent, and do not
speak, when you feel that you are disturbed. ”I was troubled, and I spoke not.”How many when inflamed with anger, say and do what they
afterwards, in their cooler moments, regret, and excuse themselves by saying
that they were in a passion? As long, then, as anger lasts we must be silent,
and abstain from doing or resolving to do anything; for, what is done in the
heat of passion will, according to the maxim of St. James, be unjust. ”The
anger of man worketh not the justice of God.” It is also necessary to
abstain altogether from consulting those who might foment our indignation.
“Blessed,” says David, “is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the
ungodly.” To him who is asked for advice, Ecclesiasticus says. “If
thou blow the spark, it shall burn as a fire; and if thou spit upon it, it
shall be quenched.” When a person is indignant at some
injury which he has received, you may, by exhorting him to patience, extinguish
the fire; but, if you encourage revenge, you may kindle a great flame. Let him,
then, who feels himself in any way inflamed with anger, be on his guard against
false friends, who, by an imprudent word, may be the cause of his perdition.
11. Let us
follow the advice of the apostle: ”Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil
by good.” “Be not overcome by evil:” do not allow
yourself to be conquered by sin. If, through anger, you seek revenge or utter
blasphemies, you are overcome by sin. But you will say: “I am naturally of a
warm temper.” By the grace of God, and by doing violence to yourself, you will
be able to conquer your natural disposition. Do not consent to anger, and you
shall subdue the warmth of your temper. But you say: ”I cannot bear with unjust
treatment.” In answer I tell you, first, to remember that anger obscures
reason, and prevents us from seeing things as they are. “Fire hath fallen on
them, and they shall not see the sun.” Secondly, if you return
evil for evil, your enemy shall gain a victory over you. ”If,” said David, ”I
have rendered to them that repaid me evils, let me deservedly fall empty before
my enemies.” If I render evil for evil, I shall be defeated by my
enemies. ”Overcome evil by good. ”Render every foe good for evil. ”Do good,”
says Jesus Christ, “to them that hate you.” This is the revenge
of the saints, and is called by St. Paulinus, Heavenly revenge. It is by such
revenge that you shall gain the victory. And should any of those, of whom the
Prophet says, ”The venom, of asps is under their lips”, ask how
you can submit to such an injury, let your answer be: “The chalice which my
Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” And then turning
to God you shall say: ”I opened not my mouth, because thou hast done it” (Ps.
xxxviii. 10), for it is certain that every cross which befalls you comes from
the Lord. “Good things and evil are from God.” Should any one
take away your property, recover it if you can; but if you cannot, say with
Job: ”The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away” A certain
philosopher, who lost some of his goods in a storm, said: ”If 1 have lost my
goods I will not lose my peace.” And, do you say: If I have lost my property, I
will not lose my soul.
12. In fine,
when we meet with crosses, persecutions, and injuries, let us turn to God, who
commands us to bear them with patience; and thus we shall always avoid anger. “Remember
the fear of God, and be not angry with thy neighbor.” (Eccl. xxviii. 8.) Let us
give a look at the will of God, which disposes things in this manner for our
merit, and anger shall cease. Let us give a look at Jesus crucified, and we
shall not have courage to complain. St. Eleazar being asked by his spouse how
he bore so many injuries without yielding to anger, answered: I turn to Jesus
Christ, and thus I preserve my peace. Finally, let us give a glance at our
sins, for which we have deserved far greater contempt and chastisement, and we
shall calmly submit to all evils. St. Augustine says, that though we are
sometimes innocent of the crime for which we are persecuted, we are,
nevertheless, guilty of other sins which merit greater punishment than that
which we endure. “Esto non habemus peccatum, quod objicitur: habemus tamen,
quod digne in nobis flagelletur.”
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St. Alphonsus Liguori - Sin of Anger
