Momentary Rage - Mortal sin?

[JohnPaulToo1]

Is Momentary Rage because of injustice done by callous, unjust people,
a Mortal Sin? Especially when you repent of it minutes later and take back
or modify what you said in anger??

 

[JRTJ]

I would think not, especially since rage is a natural feeling (ie no consent is required for it to take place). As long as it doesn’t lead to violence and as long as you don’t actively nurture the feeling and take pleasure in it, it is not.

 

[andyklein]

Lets hope not. It’s part of my nature as a redhead

 

[JohnPaulToo1]

thanks for your comments, guys.
I didn’t think so. I didn’t think it was. We’re not bloodless-wonders, for pete’s sake.
But the Devil, Old Scratch, knows what scares me. He knows I have read theology manuals calling extreme anger a Mortal Sin. I always thought that this was prolonged, nurtured anger, UNjustified by the way, and nurtured out of vengeance or jealousy,
not an anger based on being sick and tired of willful injustice on the part of the powerful aimed at the weak.

I’m normal and sometimes have a temper.
The Devil knows that I am scrupulous about things like this, and will stop praying once I believe I am in mortal sin, because it’s useless to pray because in mortal sin your prayers are not heard, from what I’ve read. so he loves to drum the thoughts in my head,
“That’s it! You’re in mortal sin, now!”
There are times when, because of this, I go to confession 6 or 7 times a week.
Not always, but sometimes.
It’s gotten to the point where I will go to different parishes to confess because I don’t want to drive my own priest crazy.
Thanks guys, for your answers, you just saved my Priest a visit from me today.

 

[Beryllos]

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”
I am not sure if any of these three conditions apply to your momentary rage. How grave was it? Did you yell at someone, or break something, or just keep it to yourself?
1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice.
Did you have full knowledge of what you were doing, and complete consent? If it’s momentary, and you soon get over it, I think not.

 

[blujazz25]

Rage is a natural human emotion. In my opinion, when you think of bad things to people and/or act on that rage…that is when it becomes a sin. Remember, scrupulosity is also a sin…so be wary of both.

 

[JohnPaulToo1]

LOL, well of course you think of doing bad things to the people concerned.
It would be unnatural NOT TO. They are powerful, wicked, and evil and they
take advantage of the weak and steal your wages and want you to work yourself to death for them for nothing, and when you get upset about it, thry then have the brethtakingly unmitigated GALL to send you to a psychologist so that you can adjust better to THEIR wicked behavior!!

I’ll tell you, I may be a Catholic, but I now fully understand why poor people join up with the most ferocious revolutions. I don’t want to feel that way myself, but boy can I EVER understand it now. I couldn’t understand it before actually experiencing the abuse myself.

 

[JohnPaulToo1]

I’d say from the answer provided above that none of the three conditions were met.

Grave Matter.
Unjust anger is grave matter. Just anger is not. End of story on that one.
Wanting to clobber someone. Grave matter?
Then every one of us is guilty all the time of grave matter, for
when we see somebody viciously abuse a helpless animal, we want to brain the jerk.
These people are wealthy corporate thieves who demonstrate that they are
utterly devoid of conscience AND arrogant and demanding on top of that.
A momentary desire to clobber the daylights out of them is a passion brought
on by Just anger and frustration, it cannot be helped.
— No, I did not act upon it.

Consent of the Will – of course there was, but only briefly, as when overwhelmed
by an angry sense of gross injustice. Exactly the consent of the will to
Anger that a woman RIGHTLY feels after she has been raped. These people
are Rapists as well: the work you to death, steal your wages and ruin your health
and put you in an angry frame of mind for 8 hours a day.

The above would apply to deliberation on the matter as well.
Being around abusive people is a horrendous situation that NObody “asks” for.
To be constantly subjected to abuse by the powerful is UNnatural and UNgodly
and God never intended for humans with power to abuse and “keep down” those lower
on the rung than they are.

My anger was 100% justified. I just need to get hold of it when it “wells up” like that.
Unfortunately, memories of people who have ruined your life, do not fade easily.
Especially when you know that they are NOT repentant, they FIT the descriptions
of Sociopaths (in Christian theology, a sociopath is a full blown Reprobate), and you know
that they are continuing on their merry wicked way abusing OTHER people, and getting bonuses for it, now that you have escaped their vile clutches.

 

[Blue_Horizon]

I’d say from the answer provided above that none of the three conditions were met.

Grave Matter.
Unjust anger is grave matter. Just anger is not. End of story on that one.
Wanting to clobber someone. Grave matter?
Then every one of us is guilty all the time of grave matter, for
when we see somebody viciously abuse a helpless animal, we want to brain the jerk.
These people are wealthy corporate thieves who demonstrate that they are
utterly devoid of conscience AND arrogant and demanding on top of that.
A momentary desire to clobber the daylights out of them is a passion brought
on by Just anger and frustration, it cannot be helped.
— No, I did not act upon it…

I would not be so sure on this point.

It may well not be a mortal sin due to strong emotion affecting voluntary consent and therefore only venial sin. However I believe rage, whatever the cause, is still grave matter (“grave sin” if you like).
It is still a serious matter wrt predictable temporal consequences (mostly counter-productive) even if not eternal consequences.

Occassions where a display of rage (as opposed to other wiser and less emotional displays) is appropriately required are very rare indeed.

"Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Mt. 5:22).

 

[sirach2v4]

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”
I am not sure if any of these three conditions apply to your momentary rage. How grave was it? Did you yell at someone, or break something, or just keep it to yourself?
1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice.
Did you have full knowledge of what you were doing, and complete consent? If it’s momentary, and you soon get over it, I think not.

And one should NOT overlook the significance of

**1735 Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors. **

If one got angry out of duress or fear or “other” psychological [anger IS psychological] or social factors, then one WOULD NOT be responsible for the sin of anger, as a mortal sin.

What one does with the anger also has to be considered.

One should not approach the deposit of faith (the catechism) and simply select the verses that are convenient for one’s predisposition and viewpoint in arguing, telling others what their mortal sins are.

 

[vincent10395]

Is Momentary Rage because of injustice done by callous, unjust people,
a Mortal Sin? Especially when you repent of it minutes later and take back
or modify what you said in anger??

“In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.” Ephesians 4:26

It is okay to be angry because of injustice, I’m angry all the time about abortion, but when you wish harm or death to the person whom your angry then it is problematic.

Hope this helped!

God Bless!

 

[pnewton]

Emotions are not sinful. Thoughts can be sinful, as can actions. Emotions just are.

 

[DMC12]

well like they told you rage is just an emotion, you have to control it, Sin is when we willingly offend God, and its not posible to Sin if we can’t control ourselves. like one Priest told me, we even have bad toughts in front of the Blessed Sacrament, but when they come we just dismiss them, just like that. and i suggest you trying the same, you might get get angry, like everybody else does, but when you realize your actions, you just try to calm down, maybe think about happy stuff or something else.

also about the anger issues, i think you should look for help to keep it at normal levels, i dont know if you have anger issues, i think you should look for that but if you do, to look for help is your best option. another thing is that maybe you should avoid some kind of news on the tv and stuff, not to be uninformed, but just watch what you need at least for a while.

and something that has helped me, is that when im not angry i think that they are people too, and God does not wants us to take revenge on them, of course if they are evil and it’s in our hands to stop them, it is our duty to do so, but just to there, to stop them (even if this would mean their death, it would not be the desired thing but the only choice available). also sometimes i put in their places, i think what if i were the one doing that, what would i like to be treated, i think that is how i got to the earlier idea, i of course must be stopped, but on the other hand i would like some mercy. i like to think sometimes this when im not angry, because that way, i got more self control and i think i get to accept the idea and when angry i have more chances of acting acording to that.

hope this is helpful.

 

[bmonk]

Rage may not be a mortal sin, and even what you do under its influence may not be so. However, it is still helpful to work on your anger, to find ways to reduce the rage and to control better what you are moved to do when angry.

This is part of “avoiding the near occasions of sin.”