When is anger not a sin?

[BonnieBj]

The Bible says to be angry and sin not, and Jesus Himself got angry at times. If I see people inappropriately dressed at mass I get angry. When objectionable commercials come on TV I get angry, esp. because I do noyt have sufficient time to react and mute or turn it off and am unwillingly sujected to bojectionable material, same with people swearing, I get angry. I also get angry at injustice. How do you know when your anger is a sin and when it is not?

 

[dustrunner]

It depends on what you do with your anger. It would be a sin to hurt someone, in some way, as the result of one’s anger. It’s okay to be angry over injustice, bad language, immorality, etc. Our Lord was obviously angry at the inappropriate behavior in the Temple, when He kicked over the money-changers tables, but He didn’t physically attack them. Well, that’s a layman’s read on anger; maybe your confessor can give you better advice.

 

[stbruno]

From the Catholic Catechism ewtn.com/expert/answers/just_war.htm
Paragraphs:

Righteous versus Unrighteous Anger (2302-3)
Anger is a desire for revenge. Anger is the passion (emotion) by which a man reacts to evil, real or apparent, and seeks vindication of his rights, that is, justice. By itself the passion is neither moral or immoral, but becomes so by reason or its being ordered or disordered - that is, reasonable according to the circumstances. An ordered anger is directed to a legitimate object, and, with an appropriate degree of vehemence. An inordinate anger is directed either to an illegitimate object, or, with an unreasonable vehemence. As St. Thomas Aquinas notes, vice may be by defect, as well as excess. So, the presence of evil should provoke a righteous anger, which if absent constitutes a sinful insensibility.
Consider the just anger of the Lord to the presence in the Temple of the money-changers and the action He took (John 2:13-17). Provoked by this offense against His Father, Jesus formed whips and drove them from the Temple. Righteous anger, and the acts which flow from it, intend the correction of vice (both for the good of the individual sinner and the common good), the restoring of the order of justice disturbed by sin, and the restraint of further evil.
On the other hand, unjust anger seeks to do evil to another for its own sake, the harm to body or soul that it entails. While one may desire, and employ, physical force for the sake of correction, restraint of evil and restoring justice, even if it entails injury and death, one may never desire it for its own sake. To desire some slight injury for an evil motive would be venially sinful. To desire grave injury or death would be gravely sinful. A Christian may never, of course, desire the damnation of the evil doer. Charity requires that we will the good, especially the ultimate good, salvation, for every human being. Unfortunately, the entertainment media often promotes an image of anger and vengeance which is closer to blood lust than to justice.

 

[okieflyer]

When I think of sin I view there is only one sin and that is selfishness. Before everyone throws me under the bus breaking any of the 10 comandment is sin, abortion is a sin, divorce is a sin, etc…
The underlying motivation for all sin or the heart of each sinful act is** me!**

I feel my way is better than God’s way.

I don’t care if it is wrong** I** like it!

We may not counsciously think these thing but it is there in our thought process at the smallest level to get the sin wagon rolling.

Anger is a God given emotion. He placed it in our very being. StBruno picked the perfect Bible story. Jesus did not carry aroud whips to beat people at moments notice. The Bible says He formed it . Anger under control. He choose the best course of action to take and proceeded despite the possible temptation of calling down lightning and blasting them into eternity! Lets say your child damaged your new exspensive sports car. Do you paddle him immediatley while your still at the peak of anger no that’s revenge on the sinner in this case child. You would exercise self control wait a moment or two to gain your composer and calmly decide to paddle with instruction as to why punishment came. Are you still angry? Yes! but you focus the anger on the sin and not the sinner (in this case the child) while giving loving correction to them (though** they **may not think so at the time!). Anger without selfish motive!

 

[chevalier]

There’s one situation I think one can’t find in Aquinas: when you’re angry, as in, your reaction is anger and not sorrow, over some imaginary injustice (e.g. when someone was being mean but still in his right, or when the circumstances were very “unfair” but the other person wasn’t really at fault) and you don’t want to hurt that person, you don’t wish him ill, but you call him a couple of nasty names or say something mean about his character or his intellect. I suppose it can’t be sinless, on the grounds of the ill judgement involved, but I can’t say at what point it would become mortal.

 

[tptram]

my take on the angry emotion, if I feel angry because I think there is transgression on ME, then the anger is wrong.

If I feel angry because the transgression is on OTHERS and I can feel their hurts, and that anger motivates me to right what’s wrong, then it is ok.

Tak