Expressing anger is always a sin?

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While self-control is a virtue, not addressing an issue early on can lead to resentment.
It can lead to the buildup of emotions until they can no longer be held in. The person implodes, or unexpectedly explodes like a volcano at a miniscule procation.
As an individual aware of my own need to sort through emotional issues will often become very quiet when angry. This is different than the silent treatment. It is my way of coping, of sorting through issues so that “I sin not” as I determine where the problem actually lies, and possible solutions to an issue to be confronted.
 
Funny enough, lack of anger is a sin as well. Not getting angry at appropriate times to get angry is a sin. St. Thomas Aquinas has this to say about it:
I answer that, Anger may be understood in two ways. On one way, as a simple movement of the will, whereby one inflicts punishment, not through passion, but in virtue of a judgment of the reason: and thus without doubt lack of anger is a sin. This is the sense in which anger is taken in the saying of Chrysostom, for he says (Hom. xi in Matth., in the Opus Imperfectum, falsely ascribed to St. John Chrysostom): “Anger, when it has a cause, is not anger but judgment. For anger, properly speaking, denotes a movement of passion”: and when a man is angry with reason, his anger is no longer from passion: wherefore he is said to judge, not to be angry. On another way anger is taken for a movement of the sensitive appetite, which is with passion resulting from a bodily transmutation. This movement is a necessary sequel, in man, to the movement of his will, since the lower appetite necessarily follows the movement of the higher appetite, unless there be an obstacle. Hence the movement of anger in the sensitive appetite cannot be lacking altogether, unless the movement of the will be altogether lacking or weak. Consequently lack of the passion of anger is also a vice, even as the lack of movement in the will directed to punishment by the judgment of reason.
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http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3158.htm#article6

Besides, Our LORD expressed anger in the NT. He cast out the money changers and flipped over tables in a fit of anger. Did Jesus Christ sin in that moment? I think not.
 
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Whoever gets angry with his brother commits murder in his heart. We’re all wrong. Jesus had zeal not anger.
 
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Didn’t Jesus express anger toward some of the Pharisees? Can’t anger sometimes be in the form of righteous indignation?
 
No I don’t think Jesus expressed anger.

How great is my anguish.
 
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But uncontrolled, excessive, or continuous anger may be sinful, no? We should learn to control our animal emotions to a certain extent without, however, entirely repressing them.
 
Jesus did. For Jesus Himself even said
I and the Father are one
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Boy, let me tell ya God in the OT was pretty darn angry at us humans. Multiple times.

It’s okay to get angry. It’s through our anger we are able to judge justly. Without it a murderer that states he has come to murder your family will take innocent lives freely. Without it, Christians will end up being content with evil in the world instead of trying to end it.
 
Rozellelily said:
Some Catholic articles or people seem to suggest that expressing anger is always sinful but I’m not sure I agree this is always the case?
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Once when I was in nursing school, I had to sit through a drug rehab group for my mental health class. One thing that I learned in that group that still resonates with me to this day, was the saying that “anger is a secondary emotion”

Which means that people do not feel anger by itself. You feel it with another emotion.

People may feel angry because they feel:
Embarrassment
Sadness
Jealousy
Frustrated
Pain
Scared
Annoyance
Disgust
These are just a few examples.

So my answer is anger may sometimes be sinful and sometimes not.

If someone is angry because they may be jealous that someone else got a promotion at work that they also wanted, then yes that may be sinful. Thats jealousy.

Sometimes, when I was younger I used to get angry due to annoyance with how some people in my family ate. Honestly, people slurping cereal, soup, or coffee drives me crazy with annoyance. Also smacking the tongue on the roof of your mouth while chewing, this drives me batty with annoyance. But, my expressing my annoyance with anger could have been sinful. I still get annoyed, but have matured at expressing annoyance with anger.

However, there are instances in which anger is not sinful.
Anger due to sadness for example. Lets say you are an 18 year old whose father just died unexpectedly. Anger is a natural part of the grieving process. I remember when my husband lost his father. He also had moments where his grief came out as anger. I would say that it would not have been fair to him as his wife if I didn’t understandably let him go through the stage of expressing his grief as anger.

Also pain, I’m a nurse. I’ve seen people angry because of pain. They have reason to be angry. Sometimes we can control the pain. Sometimes I can only bring their pain down from a 9/10 on the pain scale to a 8/10 and of course they will still be angry. Its understandable, they are people in pian.
 
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The passages say whomever “hates” his brother. Anger is an emotion.
 
Personally I think the anger from pain or annoyance at people’s chewing etc shouldn’t be sin but is simply how the body works.
Most people feel angry when in pain like if they hit their toe on the door and then someone talks to them straight after or some people can have Misophonia disorder like you mentioned where chewing etc noises are emotionally amplified due to issues with their amygdala.
 
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I would say anger is a natural reaction when someone harms us in some way. However, we should not allow anger to settle in, or even worse act on it.
 
No. Some forms of anger are justified. Some are not and Mortal or venial sin can arise.

Anger, the desire of vengeance. Its ethical rating depends upon the quality of the vengeance and the quantity of the passion. When these are in conformity with the prescriptions of balanced reason, anger is not a sin. It is rather a praiseworthy thing and justifiable with a proper zeal. It becomes sinful when it is sought to wreak vengeance upon one who has not deserved it, or to a greater extent than it has been deserved, or in conflict with the dispositions of law, or from an improper motive. The sin is then in a general sense mortal as being opposed to justice and charity. It may, however, be venial because the punishment aimed at is but a trifling one or because of lack of full deliberation. Likewise, anger is sinful when there is an undue vehemence in the passion itself, whether inwardly or outwardly. Ordinarily it is then accounted a venial sin unless the excess be so great as to go counter seriously to the love of God or of one’s neighbor.
 
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“Hope has two beautiful daughters, Anger and Courage. Anger that things are the way they are, and Courage to make them the way they should be.”–St. Augustine
 
Bishop Barron expressed it best in his book on Catholicism. Anger in and of itself isn’t a sin, but it can be at the root of sin. Your sister justifiably felt angry. That’s understandable and not at all a sin. The way she expressed her anger wasn’t sinful, either. On the contrary, she asserted herself in a reasonable way and was hopefully taken seriously.

If she had instead formed a fist and punched out a window, or if she had cussed at and personally insulted the bureaucrat, then she’d have a sin or two to confess.
 
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Anger is my biggest issue. Anger leads to bad language. Sometimes I use the Lord’s name in vain. That always make me sad.
I hate having the confess that sin, but I always feel so much better when I do.
If I could just think first, before getting angry.
 
Thanks.That makes sense in the practical world.
Talking about saints etc writings is good but imo has some limits because things need to be applied to “real world situations”.

So it’s more being ‘abusive’ that is sinful and not expressing anger itself?
 
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Is there any topic or event in particular that makes you angry (if you want to say)?
 
blackforest said:
If she had instead formed a fist and punched out a window . . .
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What if there’s no property damage? I’m thinking of those forms of therapy that encourage carthasis through some free expression of radical anger, like breaking plates or shouting in a structured session etc
 
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I’m not sure if expressing anger is always a sin. After all, I’m angry about abortion in our country and sometimes I express that anger. It becomes sinful (and gravely so) when I can’t control my anger and take it out on others. IE-I get angry about abortion so I punch someone in the nose over it. That’s when it becomes mortally sinful. But just getting angry? No.
 
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