Deacon Jerry Franzen - Cathedral 3/8/2014
Exodus
20:1-17 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 John 2: 13-25
I
That reading certainly reminds us about the human side
of Jesus.
By his own admission,
Jesus
said that He didn’t need anyone to testify
about His human nature; He understood
it well.
He was angry, or was He?
I had been taught that anger is a sin,
one of
the “deadly” sins, one that can lead to many other sins.
Anger can lead to abuse, both verbal and physical of
self or others.
It can lead to blasphemy, a lashing out at God.
Angry outbursts can result in the destruction of
property.
Anger can be the source of despair, murder and even
suicide.
All of those items resulting from anger are sinful
acts.
Anger is certainly something that we must seek to
control.
But is anger always a sin?
Our present understanding of anger
goes
beyond our labeling it as a deadly sin.
Anger begins as a purely human emotion, a passion,
a
response to real or imagined evil or difficulty
having been perpetrated on us or someone else.
A person’s reputation has been ruined by the release
of information
that
should have been held in confidence. He’s angry.
A friend was fired from a job for no apparent reason. She’s angry.
A father of five is struggling to make ends meet,
and his
wife must have surgery.
Life is unfair. He’s angry.
Your house is severely damaged in a flood. God is
unfair.
You’re angry.
When we feel helpless in the face of adversity,
our natural human tendency is to want to
react in desperation
and
that tendency is good.
The immediate emotional response of a tendency to react
is the
emotion we call anger.
As a purely human emotion or passion, anger is good.
We certainly do want to be able to recognize the evil or
the difficulty
that
faces us and be able to react to it.
St. Thomas Aquinas said that a passion of the
sensitive appetite
is good
in so far as it is regulated by reason,
whereas it is evil if IT sets or
controls the order of reason.
Anger is a human emotion that God has given each of
us.
We must remember that Jesus was fully human;
so, he
experienced this emotion.
It was a part of his human nature which he understood
very well. Yes, Jesus was angry about the
way the money changers
were
treating the people who were coming to the temple.
BUT, don’t think for a minute
that
this is another one of these
“Nothing is a sin anymore” talks.
Sin is a frequent result of anger.
If the conscious mode of action resulting from our
anger
is to
do wrong, that is the sin.
Remember St. Thomas said that a passion could be evil,
if it
was allowed to control our reason.
Seeking vengeance is the main sinful result of anger.
A married person whose spouse has been unfaithful
often
seeks vengeance in hatred,
in physical abuse or by being unfaithful
themselves.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not kill (or injure another.) Retaliation is a sin.
Your parents have grounded you;
You
decide to steal money from them in return.
You shall not steal. Retaliation
is a sin.
Your girlfriend dumps you;
so you
start spreading nasty rumors about her.
You shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor.
Retaliation is a sin.
II
But, the way we act as a result of this emotion need
not be evil.
Anger can be channeled to lead to something good.
I have a short story from the realm of fiction to
illustrate that point.
It’s about a story about a swami and a snake,
a snake
that routinely bit people who infringed on its territory.
The swami charmed the snake
and
commanded it to not bite any more people.
Without this defense, the snake found itself almost
helpless.
People stepped on it, kicked it, swung it around by
the tail.
Bruised and bleeding, the snake complained to the
swami.
The swami said, “I told you to stop biting people’
I didn’t say that you had to stop hissing at them.”
God sent his Son to earth so that we might have a
perfect
example
to follow.
In this Gospel reading we have an example of how anger
can be
channeled to good uses.
Jesus was angry about what was going on in God’s
house;
evidently, money and worldly things were
more highly worshiped than God.
This was wrong, and Jesus set about to correct the
situation.
We know that he made a whip;
there
is no report that he struck anyone with it.
Maybe he just cracked it to get people’s attention.
We know that he overturned the tables;
there
is no report of damage to them.
The coins were scattered about; but there is not
report of theft.
He made it difficult for them to continue their
transactions.
It seems that Jesus was just hissing at the
moneychangers.
By scattering the people, the animals, the business
locations
and the
money;
Jesus’ actions were directed at a
solution to the problem that angered him.
The result of anger should work to correct the wrong,
not
escalate it by retaliation.
AND just doing nothing is not an option.
We must work to identify the sources of our angers,
and then ACT in a moral way to resolve
the problems.
The longer we let the sources continue,
the
longer we face the temptation of lashing out in vengeance.
III
Anger is an important emotion.
We should examine what makes us angry and how we
handle it.
Abortion makes us angry; it should.
Innocent
lives are being taken.
Anger should prompt us to respond,
but not
by bombing abortion clinics
or harming those who participate in abortions.
We must channel our efforts toward positive measures--
prayer,
supporting mothers with untimely pregnancies,
working toward changing laws.
The assault on marriage and the family makes us angry.
How can we respond in a positive manner,
without
bashing homosexuals and deadbeat parents?
One last point about anger:
Jack Lemmon played the part of a priest
in a movie entitled “Mass
Appeal”.
In that movie, he stepped to the pulpit
and
announced that his homily would be thirty seconds.
He had three points to make:
1. “Millions of people in the world are
hungry and homeless.
2. Most people in the world don’t give a
damn about that.
3. Many of you may be more angry due
to the fact that I said “damn” from this pulpit than the fact that I said that there
millions
of hungry and
homeless people in the world.”
Then he sat down.
As disciples of Jesus Christ,
we
should also examine our consciences on another matter:
What are the items that should make us angry
as
sensitive Christians and do not?
Are there areas that should make us angry,
but do not make us angry enough to move
beyond
thoughts and words into some positive action?
Based on a homily by Fr. Bill Bausch in “World of
Stories for Preachers and Teachers”
Twenty Third Publications, 1998 p 470.
