The sin of Wrath... Did I commit it?

[Clairdelune_89]

Hi,

First of all, I’d like to say that I don’t get mad easily. I’m a quiet, caring girl who has always been tolerant of others even when they have done extreme wrong to me. However, today I lost my control. I’m a college student, barely scraping by, and the leader of the Music Department who controls my Instrumental scholarship did me a serious wrong. After orchestra, I walked past him and he said he needed to talk to me. He then proceeded to talk down to me and try to scare me into participating in one of his music ensembles, which I already told him would be impossible for me this semester.When I signed my award letter, the ensemble was not listed on it. He told me I had to participate, said I was a problem that he had to “fix” and that he was going to “fix the problem” right away. I was really afraid that he was going to cut my instrumental funding and got very upset and scared. I went back to my room. I cried for a while and then became extremely angry and stared to swear. For about twenty minutes, I truly hated this man. I told my room mate that I wanted the professor to go to Hell, and I was so mad I couldn’t even control my breathing. I have never been this mad before in my life!

My question is this— Did I commit the sin of Wrath? What I did was so out of character, so completely unexpected that I shocked myself, and I know that as a Christian, it was totally unacceptable behavior. Should I go to confession?

 

[Trishie]

Go to Confession. In the meantime, sincerely ask God’s forgiveness and pray very fervently for this man.

Don’t be overthrown by your rage, which no doubt was contributed to by stress and the sense of injustice.

Ask God to help you to deal with the issues of stress and anger, and to help you oblige the professor if at all possible or to give him and yourself understanding.

Act of contrition,
Confession,
and be sure to pray sincerely for the professor .

And nurture yourself properly! Trishie

 

[rwoehmke]

I am not sure that what you did amounted to the sin of wrath, but certainly wishing and saying someone should go to hell and mean it is grave matter. It is good advice to talk about it to your confessor. He will discern whether mortal or venial sin was involved and appropriately counsel you.

While what you did was understandable under the circumstances, it was still as my young grandson would say,“Inappropriate behavior.”

 

[kyria]

I used to wish my ex husband would get run over and die. But the closer I became spiritually with Christ, the more the Holy Spirit assisted me to slowly stop wishing such thoughts upon him, and learn to forgive. One thing about anger, which we are all guilty of at times, is if we possess the ability to reflect on our actions and words as you have done, we can with perseverence, continual growth in our relationship with Christ and continual growth in our relationship with the Holy Spirit, learn self control better.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation will assist you in renewing this relationship with Christ, so you can start afresh with his love in aiming for and working towards greater abilities in forgiveness, tolerance, and controlling our tongue and thoughts. Once you’ve renewed your relationship with Christ, do not let guilt hold you back from moving forward.

I found anger and self control very difficult to master, and I still sometimes find my ex can push my buttons and I will look up at the ceiling and mutter under my breath to God that I wish my ex would just drop dead. But the great thing about others who push our buttons, is that via them we can reflect, reconcile more with God and gain greater strength with regard to self control. Also it taught me that I have a problem I have to deal with and sometimes it isn’t the other person who makes us angry, it is us who choose to allow others to get us angry.

Anger isn’t a sin, Christ got angry, but what we do with that anger can become a sin and if you feel your anger has become a sin, then you need to reconcile with God about that. Sometimes when I didn’t know if something was a sin, I used my heart as a guidance tool and if I felt it was something I had to confess then I would. I’ve confessed I’ve gotten angry with my children and I smoke. Both aren’t sins. Smoking is only if I am a slave to it. But in my heart I felt repentent and that God may have been displeased with me, so I felt better confessing it, and because my anger made me wish nasty thoughts on my ex, I confessed that because in my heart I felt I should.

 

[StCsDavid]

IMHO, you’re beating yourself up a little too much. You lost your cool this one time and went into a fit of rage which you contained to your dorm room. The only victim here is probably your roommate who had to endure your little tirade, but I bet she’s over it. While it’s certainly not nice to wish someone eternal damnation, was that wish truly in your will or was it a fantastical thought of the ultimate getting even with this jerk? Sin is in the will not the thought.

Give it some time so you can calm down, and then muster a mature response to your professor who treated you as a child. You’re an adult now. Act like a mature adult and you’ll either get more respect from this guy or he’ll realize he can’t bully you.

 

[Clairdelune_89]

thanks for the responses and advice, everyone. I’m going to talk to my prof. today and get things straightened out. I’m going to take the peaceable way out and add the class if he needs me to.

As for Confession,
I definitely feel like I should go, and everyone’s (name removed by moderator)ut has certainly helped me realize that. I just want to do what is right.

Thanks again for the help