Page 14 - Michael 2024 March

The only anger that is righteous

is anger against injustice

During his Wednesday general audiences this throws everything into the cauldron. It is the other
year, Pope Francis has addressed the themes of vices person, the other as he or she is, the other as such,
and virtues, reminding us that life is a spiritual battle who provokes anger and resentment. One begins to
and that we must continually flee vice, or capital sins, detest the tone of their voice, their trivial everyday
by encouraging the virtue that is their opposite. After gestures, their ways of reasoning and feeling.
addressing gluttony and lust in previous audiences, When the relationship arrives at this level of de-
on January 31st the Holy Father focused on wrath, generation, lucidity is lost. Wrath makes us lose lu-
stating it is always bad except in the case of the in- cidity, doesn’t it? Because one of the characteristics
dignation we experience when of wrath, at times, is that some-
faced with injustice. Jesus, gentle times it fails to mitigate with time.
and humble of heart, displayed In these cases, even distance and
holy anger when he drove the silence, instead of easing the bu-
money-changers from the Temple, rden of mistakes, magnifies them.
saying to them: “You have made For this reason, the Apostle Paul –
my Father’s house a den of thieves” as we have heard – recommended
(Mt 21:12-13). to Christians to face up to the prob-
Pope Francis added that this lem straight away, and attempt rec-
kind of anger, this indignation, is onciliation: “Do not let the sun go
even desirable and necessary, be- down on your anger” (Eph 4:26).
cause if a person never gets angry, It is important that everything dis-
if he is not indignant at an injus- sipates before sundown. If some
tice... “it would mean that this per- misunderstanding arises during the
son is not human, much less a Christian.” We can day, and two people can no longer understand each
say, for example, that Louis Even was filled with this other, perceiving themselves as far apart, the night
holy indignation at injustice, this zeal for God’s inter- cannot be handed over to the devil. The vice would
ests, and that in this he is a model for us all. Here is keep us awake at night, brooding over our reasons
the Holy Father’s presentation on the topic on Janu- and the unaccountable mistakes that are never ours
ary 31, 2024. and always the other’s. It is like that: when a person is
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning! Today enraged, they always, always say that the other per-
we will pause to reflect on the vice of wrath. Now son is the problem. They are never capable of rec-
we are talking about vices and virtues. Today, it is ognizing their own defects, their own shortcomings.
time to reflect on the vice of wrath. It is a particularly In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus makes us pray for our
dark vice, and it is perhaps the easiest to detect from human relations, which are a minefield: a plane that
a physical point of view. The person dominated by is never in perfect equilibrium. In life, we have to deal
wrath finds it difficult to hide this impulse. You can with trespassers who are in fault with us, just as we
recognize it from the movements of his body, his ag- have never loved everyone to the right measure. To
gressiveness, his laboured breathing, his grim and some, we have not returned the love that was due to
frowning expression. them. We are all sinners, all of us, and we all have ac-
In its most acute manifestation, wrath is a vice counts to settle. Do not forget this. We are indebted,
that concedes no respite. If it is born of an injustice we all have accounts to settle, and therefore we all
suffered (or believed to be suffered), often it is un- need to learn how to forgive so as to be forgiven.
leashed not against the offender, but against the first Men do not stay together if they do not also practice
unfortunate victim. There are men who withhold the art of forgiveness, as far as this is humanly pos-
their rage in the workplace, showing themselves to
be calm and composed, but at home they become
unbearable to their wives and children. Wrath is a Make sure MICHAEL moves when you move.
pervasive vice capable of depriving us of sleep and If you are a subscriber and have moved,
barring the way to reason and thought. Wrath is a or plan to move, please send us your new ad-
vice that destroys human relationships. It expresses dress as mail that is undeliverable is returned
the incapacity to accept the diversity of others, espe- to us and we incur extra costs. Thank you.
cially when their life choices diverge from our own. It
does not stop at the misconduct of one person, but

14 MICHAEL March/April 2024 www.michaeljournal.org