20251008 RIGHTEOUS AND UNRIGHTEOUS ANGER
08 October 2025, Wednesday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading | Jonah 4:1-11 |
Jonah is angry at God's mercy
Jonah was very indignant; he fell into a rage. He prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Ah, Lord, is not this just as I said would happen when I was still at home? That was why I went and fled to Tarshish: I knew that you were a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, relenting from evil. So now, Lord, please take away my life, for I might as well be dead as go on living.’ The Lord replied, ‘Are you right to be angry?’
Jonah then went out of the city and sat down to the east of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God arranged that a castor-oil plant should grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head and soothe his ill-humour; Jonah was delighted with the castor-oil plant. But at dawn the next day, God arranged that a worm should attack the castor-oil plant – and it withered.
Next, when the sun rose, God arranged that there should be a scorching east wind; the sun beat down so hard on Jonah’s head that he was overcome and begged for death, saying, ‘I might as well be dead as go on living.’ God said to Jonah, ‘Are you right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?’ He replied, ‘I have every right to be angry, to the point of death.’ The Lord replied, ‘You are only upset about a castor-oil plant which cost you no labour, which you did not make grow, which sprouted in a night and has perished in a night. And am I not to feel sorry for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals?’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 85(86):3-6,9-10 |
You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.
You are my God, have mercy on me, Lord,
for I cry to you all the day long.
Give joy to your servant, O Lord,
for to you I lift up my soul.
You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving,
full of love to all who call.
Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my voice.
You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.
All the nations shall come to adore you
and glorify your name, O Lord:
for you are great and do marvellous deeds,
you who alone are God.
You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:34 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Train me, Lord, to observe your law,
to keep it with my heart.
Alleluia!
Or: | Rm8:15 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The spirit you received is the spirit of sons,
and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 11:1-4 |
How to pray
Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’
He said to them, ‘Say this when you pray:
‘“Father, may your name be held holy,
your kingdom come;
give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.
And do not put us to the test.”’
RIGHTEOUS AND UNRIGHTEOUS ANGER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jonah 4:1-11; Ps 86:3-6,9-10; Lk 11:1-4 ]
Anger is an emotional response to a failed justice, but there is a difference between righteous and unrighteous anger. Righteous anger arises when we perceive a sense of injustice or feel that our dignity or the rights of others have been violated. It is not wrong to feel angry when confronted with sin or wrongdoing, especially when innocent people are mistreated, harmed, or killed. Even Jesus expressed anger at the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy and stubborn refusal to seek the truth about themselves and God.
But what we do with our anger is another matter. Uncontrolled anger causes us to curse, shout, act violently, and seek vengeance. When that happens, such anger becomes unrighteous anger. We may take it out on those who have done us no wrong – this is called misplaced anger. When someone of authority corrects us and we feel humiliated or angry, our subordinates or loved ones may become the innocent targets of our frustration. This kind of reaction is known as reactive anger, an anger that we cannot control. Quite often, reactive anger springs from emotional wounds in our past, especially from childhood. We may react out of deep-seated hurts and resentment, particularly if we experienced emotional or physical abuse when we were young. Thus, anger is often directed against those in authority, especially our superiors. This also explains why some people develop an exaggerated fear of authority figures as a result of the abuses they suffered in their youth.
Unrighteous anger becomes especially dangerous when it smoulders and turns into a desire for revenge. When anger is a permanent presence in our hearts, it can consume us. In Catholic theology, such persistent anger is considered a capital sin. When we allow anger to control our lives, we can no longer function correctly – it clouds our judgement, breeds insecurity, jealousy, and envy, and may leads to violence, harming both others and ourselves. This is why St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians cautions: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” (Eph 4:26f)
Indeed, we have much to learn from the story of Jonah. He was angry with the Ninevites because they were Israel’s cruel enemies from Assyria, known for their brutality. His anger was initially justifiable, but it became vindictive, even turning against God. He was sent by God to Nineveh to call the people to repentance, so they could be spared destruction. He was reluctant because he knew that if he were to preach repentance, the nation would repent and be saved from the consequences of destruction. So he fled in a ship, and almost drowned, only to be saved by a whale through divine intervention. Recognizing he could not oppose God’s will, Jonah obeyed and preached to the Ninevites for three days, leading to their repentance–including the king’s command for all to turn to God.
Within this context, we can understand why Jonah was angry and indignant with God – because God did not do what Jonah had hoped for, which was to destroy Israel’s enemies. Instead, He pardoned them when they repented, and the disaster that had been prophesied was averted. Jonah fell into a rage and said, “Ah! Lord, is not this just as I said would happen when I was still at home? That was why I went and fled to Tarshish.” Jonah knew that the God of Israel was “a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness, relenting from evil.” God does not desire evil and destruction in us. If we suffer today, it is the consequence of our own sins – we reap what we sow. Evil is never the work of God, nor is suffering His will, but rather the result of human imperfection and the sins and evil deeds of men. We bring evil upon ourselves through the wrongs we commit.
The good news is that God always forgives without exception. God does not wish for us to hurt ourselves by hurting others. As the psalmist declares: “O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of love to all who call. Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer and attend to the sound of my voice. You, O Lord, have mercy and compassion.” This is reiterated by the Lord when He taught His disciples how to pray, “Say this when you pray: ‘Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.'” The exhortation of our Lord is always to forgive our enemies.
God values human life and dignity more than anything else in this world. The irony, however, is that we value money, power, luxury, and fame more than the life of a person. We love things more than we love people. This was the case with Jonah’s inconsistency, as pointed out by our Lord. He was angry with God for forgiving his enemies, to the extent that he even despised himself. He said to the Lord, “Please take away my life, for I might as well be dead as go on living.” Jonah was only concerned with the destruction of others and failed to recognize the preciousness of human life. Ironically, he became angry when the caster-oil pant that gave him shade was attacked by a worm and withered. Then the Lord said to him, “Are you right to be angry about the caster-oil plant? You are only upset about a caster-oil plant which cost you no labour, which you did not make grow, which sprouted in a night and has perished in a night. And am I not to feel sorry for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals?”
This is the message of today’s scripture readings: God loves each and every one of us. We are all His children, whether we are good or wayward. He is our heavenly Father, as the Lord tells us in the Gospel, and He invites us to address God as our Father. As a loving Father, God desires to give us all that is good, not what is evil. He does not satisfy our greed, but our needs. That is why He teaches us to pray for our daily bread – for what we need for each day – so that we can learn to trust Him and not rely only on ourselves, and avoid greed or hoarding at the expense of others. We are all brothers and sisters, called to care and love one another, for we are all God’s children. Every father is saddened when his children fight among themselves.
So today, we are called to let go of our anger so that we can be at peace with God and ourselves. We are all sinners and imperfect, but God is ever ready to forgive and give us a new lease of life – if only we surrender our anger, hatred, resentment, and refusal to forgive those who have hurt us. Yet we cannot do this unless we first learn to forgive ourselves through the forgiveness that God has granted us. To forgive ourselves is to acknowledge our mistakes and foolishness, and to make amends by becoming fully aware of how our sins and wrongdoings have affected our loved ones and innocent people around us. This is the prayer we must offer – for the strength to forgive others through the forgiveness that God has given us. If we refuse to forgive others, we cannot find true peace, even if we know that God forgives us, because the circle is incomplete. Peace comes when we receive God’s forgiveness, which enables us to forgive ourselves and, in turn, to forgive those who have harmed us. When we bless others instead of cursing them or seeking revenge, we also bless ourselves, becoming happier, more content, and able to accept the consequences of our actions positively, using them for growth and salvation. Indeed, to keep the name of God holy is to reflect His love and mercy in our own lives.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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