Righteous anger

  • Thread starter Thread starter divinefaith
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Greetings (name removed by moderator),

Your premise is correct.

God Bless.
Anathama Sit
 
TimothyH said:
Again, for me, I would rather not have any anger. Being esily angered is not sign of good spiritual health and progress IMO.

-Tim-
Click to expand...
Tim,

First of all, the thought itself is actio at least when we choose to bring the thought about. The very fact that we spend time thinking on something (as opposed to a though popping into our heads) IS an action.

Read my post above. It came in 2 min before yours, so you probably did not have an opportunity to read it.

As Deacon (name removed by moderator) correctly noted, Christ was angry. And that was a good thing. He correctly percieved the injustice of the test, and more importantly, the treatment of the injured man.

He took action at this injustice. The injustice was a real one, the response measured, appropriate to the cirumstances and true. In being angry, Christ demontrated virtue (as He always does 😉 )

Anger can be a virtue, and it can be a vice. Since we are called to virtue, we are called to righteous anger, at the times and places that the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence (hence my signature graphics 🙂 ) dictates.
 
Greetings (name removed by moderator),

and yet he grived at the hardness of their hearts. How often can we feel angry and yet grieve for the person who is doing the wrongdoing. How often can we feel angry towards someone who has done an injustice and weep inside that they are alienated from God, without letting other human emotions rule us?

If the anger can move us to compassion for the other person, and move us to do things for others, I have no problem with this. It is the fact tha human weaknesses get in the way and cloud good intentions. This is why righteous anger is never advocated by the Desert Fathers or the Fathers of the Church.

All anger, excepting righteous anger - and that needs to be on the level that Jesus felt, - keep in mind everything that Jesus did or said was out of perfect Love - is a self affliction.

For a sad and wretched fallen human being, I dare not indulge in any anger, because in my own blinded pride I may think I am engaging in righteous anger when it is not. It is not recommended for us to do this, for we do not even know all that motivates us or even know our deepest hearts.

It is far better again to turn to God in everything.

God Bless.
Anathama Sit
 
FYI,

Here is Aquinas more fully on the subject.

newadvent.org/summa/3158.htm

Specifically ST II-II, Question 158 Article 2 - Is Anger Sinful
Anger, as stated above (Article 1), is properly the name of a passion. A passion of the sensitive appetite is good in so far as it is regulated by reason, whereas it is evil if it set the order of reason aside. Now the order of reason, in regard to anger, may be considered in relation to two things. First, in relation to the appetible object to which anger tends, and that is revenge.
Click to expand...
Wherefore if one desire revenge to be taken in accordance with the order of reason, the desire of anger is praiseworthy, and is called “zealous anger” [Cf. Gregory, Moral. v, 45. On the other hand, if one desire the taking of vengeance in any way whatever contrary to the order of reason, for instance if he desire the punishment of one who has not deserved it, or beyond his deserts, or again contrary to the order prescribed by law, or not for the due end, namely the maintaining of justice and the correction of defaults, then the desire of anger will be sinful, and this is called sinful anger.
Click to expand...
Note that Aquinas places it at a virtue under Temperance, in that it is a sensative appetite\passion , but it’s governing factor is Reason ( a cognitive faculty which is goverened by Prudence)
[/quote]
 
Anathama_Sit said:
. How often can we feel angry and yet grieve for the person who is doing the wrongdoing.
Click to expand...
Why would you think that the two are incompatible?

The end goal of righteous anger is the accomplishment of justice and the correction of the faults.

That hardly rules out grief at the mistake made (as you will note in Mark 2, Christ’s grief was over the mistake itself, the hardness of their heart, the person themselves were not metioned in the statement of grief.
 
For a sad and wretched fallen human being, I dare not indulge in any anger
Click to expand...
I would disagree with that, as Aquinas noted that Anger, in the correct circumstance, is a virtue. As such we are obligated to be virtuous.

The key is to excercise in conjunction with Reason, which is one of the reasons that God gave you that gift.

Your statement really seems to be a denial of the ability of Grace to affect your life. God grants us the ability to overcome sins of Pride in order to excercise virtue.

Reason under Prudence is the core value in righteous anger, the enlightement of the Intellent is a good place to start. Read more Aquinas on the subject, the Church’s understanding of Moral Theology is very Thomistic. The more one knows about what the Church teaches, and St. Thomas articulated, the more one can grow in the Prudential virtues.
 
Brendan said:
Why would you think that the two are incompatible?

The end goal of righteous anger is the accomplishment of justice and the correction of the faults.

That hardly rules out grief at the mistake made (as you will note in Mark 2, Christ’s grief was over the mistake itself, the hardness of their heart, the person themselves were not metioned in the statement of grief.
Click to expand...
Greetings Brendan,

I am not saying the two are incompatible. What I am saying that in weakened human nature they are selcomd achieved. Probably in the saints yes, but not in my life. Not in many of the people that I deal with on a day to day basis.

There are perhaps better ways of accomplishment of justice and the correction of faults other than righteous anger.

For us humans, it is hard to have anger truly motivated out of love as Christ did. Again he was not subject to his passions, in the fact he did not let them rule him and he was in perfect control of his emotions and passions at all times.

I am stating that I do not believe that righteous anger is the way to go. Again the silence and the fact that none of the Church Fathers or the Desert Fathers advocated righteous anger is speaking volumes to me.

One can deduce the fact that he was saddened at the people as well. Sins grieve him. When we sin we do grieve him. Even though that was not explicitly mentioned, it can be implicitly implied by using sound theology and common sense.

God Bless.
Anathama Sit
 
Brendan said:
I would disagree with that, as Aquinas noted that Anger, in the correct circumstance, is a virtue. As such we are obligated to be virtuous.

The key is to excercise in conjunction with Reason, which is one of the reasons that God gave you that gift.

Your statement really seems to be a denial of the ability of Grace to affect your life. God grants us the ability to overcome sins of Pride in order to excercise virtue.

Reason under Prudence is the core value in righteous anger, the enlightement of the Intellent is a good place to start. Read more Aquinas on the subject, the Church’s understanding of Moral Theology is very Thomistic. The more one knows about what the Church teaches, and St. Thomas articulated, the more one can grow in the Prudential virtues.
Click to expand...
Greetings Brendan,

In my life I should think I would know my limitatations and weaknesses. And anger is one of them. I am not strong enough to exercise the virtue of anger, if it be called that.

None of what I have written denies the ability of the grace of God. I know with God all things are possible. However for now, righteous anger is not one of those options for me.

I believe there are other ways to grown in the virtues of prudence than exercising righteous anger. I believe that for me, it is better to turn towards God and not exercise anger, rightous anger or not. God is big enough to handle this.

I would rather deepen my Union with Him, and righteous anger does not seem to be the way to accomlish. that.

Prudence is also knowing one’s limits and weaknesses and not acting out on those.

God Bless.
Anathama Sit
 
I do agree that righteous anger is licit. Now what I dont understand is how our anger could be righteously acted upon. Take for instance, acting against someone who is using verbal abuse against you.
 
divinefaith said:
I do agree that righteous anger is licit. Now what I dont understand is how our anger could be righteously acted upon. Take for instance, acting against someone who is using verbal abuse against you.
Click to expand...
Verbal abuse?
Better shut up. The dogs bark but the caravan moves on. You do not bark back at the dogs…
 
God made our funny bone and the opposite bone as well. Both are good because he makes nothing but good.

Man make guns which are good.

Bears and rabbits get angry.

I wonder if St. Michael got angry.

Moms get angry. Oh boy do they!

I get angry at myself sometimes.

Just some thoughts of reality.
 
I’m an even tempered woman who doesn’t show anger on the outside. I’ve learned to give my angry feelings to the Lord and he brings me peace. However… This week I discovered my husband of 43 years has been seeing escorts. I’m so hurt and angry and shocked by his behavior I feel like a walking zombie. I think this is pretty righteous anger I’m feeling, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to express it to him. He doesn’t know that I know what he’s done. I’m afraid to bring it up for fear that I’ll commit a sin in the way I express my anger at him. Can someone describe to me what my righteous anger should look like when it comes out of my mouth? I need some guidance. Thanks.
 
Tenofovir said:
Strictly speaking you should first investigate whether it was for a valid reason or not before becoming visibly angry. In practice that can be hard, I agree. And suppose the daughter was slapped for no reason, will getting angry help the situation, or will it escalate the problem and lead you or others in sin? Perhaps punches will fly and someone will end up killing someone else, perhaps even an innocent? What do you think?
Click to expand...
In my experience, anger let loose via raised voices, nasty attitudes, disrespect, creates an out of control situation & causes more issues than just the ‘topic’ of the anger. Its like, if u get a gun & shoot some people, they might just get really pissed off & drop a bomb on u. So, what has actually been solved & what instead has been created? U just have to remember what is really important & dont waste ur energy otherwise.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top