When does anger become a mortal sin

[USMC_Convert]

When does anger become a mortal sin?

Is it when you yell at your wife or kids? When you are driving and someone cuts you off? When someone does something stupid and you curse at them?

What is the line between venial and mortal sin when it comes to anger?

 

[SMHW]

When does anger become a mortal sin?

Is it when you yell at your wife or kids? When you are driving and someone cuts you off? When someone does something stupid and you curse at them?

What is the line between venial and mortal sin when it comes to anger?

I don’t know that the answer to your question is an easy one.

But I would say it it is how you use your anger. Emotions are supposed to be USED under the power of your intellect. Because of the influence of sin, we don’t always have that control. But we usually have some. And with practice we can usually gain even more control.

Anger is a natural response to injustice and it often comes from fear. It can become worse due to lack of exercise. I don’t pretend to know much about biology but I suspect that people can get a kind of “high” from the endocrine system response to anger.

I would think the greatest sin involving anger would be not so much the failure to practice controlling anger but from allowing oneself to seek satisfaction in experiencing anger.

 

[Pulvis]

CCC 2nd Edition, #1866, 2302, 2262, 2302, 2259.

Ephesians Ch. 4
"[26] Be angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger. [27] Give not place to the devil. [28] He that stole, let him now steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need. [29] Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but that which is good, to the edification of faith, that it may administer grace to the hearers. [30] And grieve not the holy Spirit of God: whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.

[31] Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice. [32] And be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ." DRBrg

 

[Polycarp1]

As a passion, anger itself is neither good nor evil (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1767). It can be noble if it is directed toward maintaining justice and correcting vice (Catechism, no. 2302). One can think of anger as a passionate desire to set things right in the face of a perceived evil. In the sense of noble anger, it is not about “getting even” with a person who may have hurt us, but about protecting one’s own good, the good of the community, and even the good of the person who inflicted the injury.

This seems to be the kind of anger Jesus has in His confrontation with the Pharisees in Jerusalem. It is His last showdown with His chief opponents, who have rejected Him as Messiah and are about to bring Him to His death. In order to show very clearly how dire their situation is, Jesus – out of great love for the Pharisees – sternly warns them of the deadly path they are pursuing. If they persist in their rejection of the Son of God, they will be closing themselves out of the very kingdom Jesus wants to offer to them, and they will lead many of their followers with them. If Jesus did not truly love the Pharisees, He would not warn them of the eternal punishment toward which they are heading. Jesus’ anger is thus rooted in love – in desiring what is best for them – as He intends this clear warning to lead them to repentance.

Being angry about the right things and in the right way is virtuous. But avoiding anger at all times may be a sign of weakness. St. Thomas Aquinas notes how it is a vice not get angry over things one should. He calls it “unreasonable patience.” A failure to correct the wicked encourages them to persist in their evil deeds, since there are no reprimands for their wrong actions. It also causes confusion in the community over what is truly right and wrong, and thus may lead even good people to do evil.

Take, for example, the problem of abortion. The killing of innocent babies in the womb is one of the gravest injustices of our times. Thousands of babies are killed each day by abortion in the United States alone. We should be angry about this! Righteous anger should drive us to seek to outlaw abortion in order to protect human life. Yet when Christian leaders fail to condemn abortion and the governmental polices that support it, the abortion industry is encouraged to further its evil practices, and even more women and children will suffer. Christians themselves might become softened and increasingly apathetic about the pro-life cause if they perceive that their leaders take a lukewarm stance toward this issue.
Edward P. Sri. “The Art of Living: Anger and Virtue.” Lay Witness (July/August, 2010).

 

[psalm90]

I ;think you should seek reconciliation in the sacrament, no matter what the actual gravity of the anger or its consequences.

Reconciliation is a sacrament that is intended to bring healing, and that is what you should be seeking.

I don’t want to get personal, but just stimulate some thinking. I have an anger problem, too, don’t get me wrong I’m not pointing a finger at you without pointing a couple fingers at myself.

Around Ephesians 1:4 Paul writes that we have received every spiritual gift, and especially the gift of the Holy Spirit. What helps me is to have faith in that, and to slowly, gradually, sooner is better than later, let that anger TRIGGER just slide off me.

Now, you mention two such triggers. I suggest you look at other ways to react other than anger. the kids don’t make you angry, you let yourself get angry. Those aggressive drivers don’t make you angry, you let them get you angry. So, let the sacrament be the intense emotion experience that will help change your focus.

 

[Bookcat]

(to re-post a post of mine)

Anger can be mortal …and it can be venial. And can sometimes be difficult too due to the passions involved.

(and there is even “Just Anger” like that of Jesus in the Temple!)

Examples of mortal sin:

If one deliberately desires to murder someone or seriously wound someone – such is gravely against charity.

One could note is when it leads to serious injustice or serious scandal…seriously offends charity …or hatred of God etc. Such are also grave.

Also In terms of immoderate outbursts…such can often be venial sin.

Though if a person were to deliberately go into such a rage that it they can be considered to have lost their reason…then it is a different story.

I imagine more could be said …

Your confessor can assist you in judging such if needed.

In general regarding mortal sin:

Compendium issued by Pope Benedict XVI

1. When does one commit a mortal sin?

1855-1861
1874

One commits a mortal sin when there are simultaneously present: grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent. This sin destroys charity in us, deprives us of sanctifying grace, and, if unrepented, leads us to the eternal death of hell. It can be forgiven in the ordinary way by means of the sacraments of Baptism and of Penance or Reconciliation.

1. When does one commit a venial sin?

1862-1864
1875

One commits a venial sin, which is essentially different from a mortal sin, when the matter involved is less serious or, even if it is grave, when full knowledge or complete consent are absent. Venial sin does not break the covenant with God but it weakens charity and manifests a disordered affection for created goods. It impedes the progress of a soul in the exercise of the virtues and in the practice of moral good. It merits temporal punishment which purifies.

vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html

 

[goout]

You should consider more than just the superficial degree or vehemence of your anger. You should consider it’s effect of those it’s directed at. Grave matter can surely arise from expressions of anger that are abusive of others.
Mortal sin kills the divine life within you.

It’s a hard question to answer definitively.

 

[TK421]

When you are driving and someone cuts you off?

It depends.

If you’re driving 25 miles over the speed limit in a multi-lane highway and somebody pulls in front of you as you yourself just got done turning into the same lane 1 second ago, and you honk your horn at them, then you’ve committed a mortal sin that can only be absolved by either the Pope or Senator John Kerry.

If you’re driving along at a normal or mild to moderately fast rate, and somebody cuts you off, and you honk your horn, it is a venial sin.

If you are driving along and you cut somebody off, and they honk their horn at you, and a wide grin spreads across your face as you slam the brakes, you’ve committed a mortal sin.

If you are driving along and somebody cuts you off for no reason, and you say a pray to bless them, you’ve just accomplished an act of heroic virtue.