What is righteous anger?

[Mavzylor]

I’ve always struggled with the passage of the bible where Jesus flips the money tables outside of the temple and yells at the people for using God’s house that way. This isn’t how Jesus handled anything else in the bible. For example, when Mary was about to get stoned he didn’t go around slapping the stones out everyone’s hands and yelling in their faces about how they have all sinned too. The former passage always comes across to me as a tantrum. Why is such anger justified, and why did Jesus decide to handle the situation in that way?

 

[DetectiveNiko]

This is how I see it.
Righteous anger is anger directed towards a gravely sinful thing, especially when its done on purpose, but it can also be anger in the fact of injustice. We are called to endure injustice, but if we can do something about it we should. Anger can be a good emotion, especially when it focuses on helping the person. I can’t imagine how bad of a person I would be if I wasn’t scared of making dad angry when I was a kid.

For example, when Mary was about to get stoned he didn’t go around slapping the stones out everyone’s hands and yelling in their faces about how they have all sinned too

This is just a hypothesis, but I would imagine that at that time there was a peacful way of resolving things, while in the temple situation there wasn’t .

I think Jesus’s anger also shows his human nature at display, a son who loves his father oh so much.
I don’t think flipping the tables was in any way sinful, as it wasn’t destroying property, and it was directed towards the act of blasphemy done.

I think this part of Jesus’s life more than anything could serve as a warning to how bad blasphemy is, be it the truth or hyperbole.

 

[daverod]

Jesus flipped the money tables and yelled because they were turning His Father’s House of Prayer into a den for thieves and commerce.

Although the Entire Earth and the Entire World belongs to His Father, Jesus did not go around slapping the stones out of the people’s hands. Yes, true.

However, maybe, if He was to have witnessed a physical brawl, He might have intervened to promote Peace. They were about to cast their stones but they had not already cast their stones.

Blessed are the Peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God.

Blessed are they that promote peace between factions and rivalries and fightings and contentions… etc…

 

[Mavzylor]

But why did Jesus choose to flip out in that case rather than use the same tact to make them feel the error of their ways like He did in Mary’s case?

 

[Genesis315]

Righteous anger arouses one to take righteous actions. SImply getting angered at evil in itself can be sinful if we just stew in it. If it makes us double our efforts at prayer and penance it can be a good thing. For those in authority, if it causes them to execute justice, it is a good thing.

St. Thomas explains:

Chrysostom [Hom. xi in Matth. in the Opus Imperfectum, falsely ascribed to St. John Chrysostom] says: “He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices, it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but even the good to do wrong.”

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.

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3158.htm

To reiterate, though, it is not for everyone to execute judgment, but only those in authority. Again, from St. Thomas:

Judgment is lawful in so far as it is an act of justice. Now it follows from what has been stated above (1, ad 1,3) that three conditions are requisite for a judgment to be an act of justice: first, that it proceed from the inclination of justice; secondly, that it come from one who is in authority; thirdly, that it be pronounced according to the right ruling of prudence. If any one of these be lacking, the judgment will be faulty and unlawful.

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3060.htm

Otherwise, anger is sinful:

St. Robert Bellarmine:

Now, the reason why the sight of an enemy makes the blood boil in the very veins of some people is this, that they are animals who have not yet learnt to bring the motions of the inferior part of the soul, which are common both to mankind and to the brute creation, under the domain of reason; whereas spiritual men are not subject to these motions of the flesh, but know how to keep them in check; are not angry with those who have injured them, but, on the contrary, pity them, and by showing them acts of kindness strive to bring them to peace and unity.

http://www.cfpeople.org/Books/7Words/7Wordsp2.htm#T4

continued…

 

[Genesis315]

St. Ephrem:

You have a spiritual nature; the soul is the image of the Creator; honour the image of God, by being in agreement with all men. Remember death, and be not angry, that your peace be not of constraint. As long as your life remains to you, cleanse your soul from wrath; for if it should go to Sheol with you, your road will be straight to Gehenna. Keep not anger in your heart; hold not fury in your soul; you have not power over your soul, save to do that which is good. You are bought with the blood of God; you are redeemed by the passion of Christ; for your sake He suffered death, that you might die to your sins. His face endured spitting, that you might not shrink from scorn. Vinegar and gall did He drink, that you might be set apart from wrath. He received stripes on His body, that you might not fear suffering. If you are in truth His servant, fear your holy Lord; if you are His true disciple, walk in your Master’s footsteps. Endure scorn from your brother, that you may be the companion of Christ. Display not anger against man, that you be not set apart from your Redeemer.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3707.htm

St. Catherine of Siena’s Dialogue (this is God speaking to her):

And not only in the case of good, but even when he sees something evidently sinful, he does not fall into judgment, but rather into true and holy compassion, interceding with Me for sinners and saying, with perfect humility: ‘To-day it is your turn, and tomorrow it will be mine unless the Divine Grace preserve me.’…Another thing is necessary for you to arrive at this union and purity, namely, that you should never judge the will of man in anything that you may see done or said by any creature whatsoever, either to yourself or to others. My will alone should you consider, both in them and in yourself. And, if you should see evident sins or defects, draw out of those thorns the rose, that is to say, offer them to Me, with holy compassion. In the case of injuries done to yourself, judge that My will permits this in order to prove virtue in yourself, and in My other servants, esteeming that he who acts thus does so as the instrument of My will; perceiving, moreover, that such apparent sinners may frequently have a good intention, for no one can judge the secrets of the heart of man. That which you do not see you should not judge in your mind, even though it may externally be open mortal sin, seeing nothing in others, but My will, not in order to judge, but, as has been said, with holy compassion. In this way you will arrive at perfect purity, because acting thus, your mind will not be scandalized, either in Me or in your neighbor. Otherwise you fall into contempt of your neighbor, if you judge his evil will towards you, instead of My will acting in him. Such contempt and scandal separates the soul from Me, and prevents perfection, and, in some cases, deprives a man of grace, more or less according to the gravity of his contempt, and the hatred which his judgment has conceived against his neighbor.

http://www.ewtn.com/library/SOURCES/CATHDIAL.HTM

 

[Genesis315]

One more!

St. Ephrem:

If you are angry against your neighbour, you are angry against God; and if you bear anger in your heart, against your Lord is your boldness uplifted. If in envy you rebuke, wicked is all your reproof. But if charity dwell in you, you have on earth no enemy. And if you are a true son of peace, you will stir up wrath in no man. If you are just and upright, you will not do wrong to your fellow. And if you love to be angry, be angry along with the wicked and it will become you; if to wage war you seek, lo! Satan is your adversary; if you desire to revile, against the demons display your curses. If you should insult the King’s image, you shall pay the penalty of murder; and if you revile a man, you revile the image of God. Do honour to your neighbour, and lo! You have honoured God. But if you would dishonour Him, in wrath assail your neighbour!

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3707.htm

 

[thistle]

Modern Catholic Dictionary:

RIGHTEOUS ANGER. Justifiable indignation. It is permissible and even laudable when accompanied by a reasonable desire to inflict justifiable punishment. Christ himself was filled with righteous anger against the vendors who had desecrated the house of God. Such anger is allowable only if it tends to punish those who deserve punishment, according to the measure of their guilt, and with the sincere intention to redress what harm may have been done or to correct the wrongdoer. Otherwise the anger is sinfully excessive. The necessary provision is always that there is no tinge of hatred and no desire for revenge.