20191009
DEALING
WITH THE SOURCE OF OUR ANGER
09 OCTOBER,
2019, Wednesday, 27th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Jonah 4:1-11 ©
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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?’
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 85(86):3-6,9-10 ©
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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.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Ps118:24
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Train me, Lord, to observe your law,
to keep it with my heart.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Rm8:15
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Alleluia, alleluia!
The spirit you received is the spirit of
sons,
and it makes us cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 11:1-4 ©
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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.”’
DEALING WITH THE
SOURCE OF OUR ANGER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jonah 4:1-11; Ps 86:3-6,9-10; Lk 11:1-4]
Many of us are angry,
like Jonah, over the circumstances of our lives and with others around us. Most of all, we are not happy when
our enemies prosper or go about unpunished for their evil deeds. This was
the case of Jonah. He was angry with God for sparing the inhabitants of
Nineveh after they repented on account of the call to repentance. He
refused to go to Nineveh to preach, knowing precisely the heart of God.
“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.”
But his anger did not
stop at God’s mercy for the Ninevites.
He was also unhappy that God allowed the worm to attack and destroy the castor
oil plant. As a result, he was feeling the scorching east wind and the
heat of the Sun. He was overcome with anger to the point of death that
God would take away the plant that gave him shelter. God exposed
his selfishness and self-centeredness, reprimanding him, “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?”
In truth, his anger with
God was not because God showed kindness and compassion for the Ninevites who
fell into numbness to sin and relativism. Jonah was selfish and
self-centered. He
only wanted to see his enemies destroyed and punished. He relished
revenge in the name of justice. He was not concerned about putting things
right, or helping sinners to be enlightened in the truth and repent. It
was all about himself and his pride. Instead of examining himself and coming to
awareness of his motives, his pains and anger, he blamed God for the
situation. As a result, he fell into depression and became
suicidal. Twice, he threatened death. First time, when he
discovered that the Ninevites repented and the disaster imposed on them was
averted. He said, “So now Lord, please take away my life, for I might as well
be dead as go on living.” The second time was when the shelter from the
Castor Oil Plant was taken away. “He was overcome and begged for death,
saying ‘I might as well be dead as go on living.'”
Aren’t we spoiled brats
like Jonah? We are judgmental and vindictive. We just want to win and prove our
point. We seek justice not to right the situation but to punish and shame
those who did wrong. We are often angry with the people around us, our
superiors, our family members and our community. We are ultimately angry
with God because we feel that He did not intervene to stand on our side.
When we are full of anger in our hearts, we cannot be life-giving.
Indeed, those with anger in their hearts cannot be effective in ministry
because their wounds will hinder them from being positive and
life-giving. Instead of trying to find the best solution we are always
blaming people. That is why many of us are also in deep depression because
things have not gone the way we desire.
Thus, it is important
that if we want to avoid falling into depression, we must be courageous and
confront the demon of anger in us. God always acts for our interests and our
greater good. God does not enjoy punishing us just as no parent enjoys
punishing his/her children. If God punishes us or threatens to
punish us, it is for our awakening and our good. The moment we repent,
God would withdraw His hand of wrath and save us. The Lord is “good and
forgiving, full of love to all who call” as the psalmist says.
We need to ask why are
we angry? What is the real cause of our anger? Are we reacting to something that
we have not got over from our past? Often, we could be reacting
to something that happened in the day, which reminded us unconsciously of our
unhealed hurts and wounds which we suffered in our childhood. Hence, when
the same thing happens, unconsciously we tend to react strongly as a form of
self-defense and also articulation of our past pains. So Jonah was
reacting out of his anger with the cruelty his people suffered from the
Assyrians. He was not thinking of enlightening them and bring them to
realization of their evil deeds so that they could repent.
Perhaps, we could be
reacting out of self-righteousness and pride. Many of us think that if we are good, we will
be loved and appreciated. And so, we think of ourselves as superior to
others. We despise those who sin or break the laws. We pride
ourselves as people who are decent, impeccable and sinless. In truth,
none of us are able to claim that we are without sin. This is why
in the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord teaches us to pray thus, “forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us.” Hence, we all
too need forgiveness, not just from God but from our brothers and sisters in
Christ.
We could also be angry
because we cannot accept our weaknesses and sinfulness. Often those who speak out angrily
against a certain moral issue themselves could have an underlying problem with
it themselves. It is an unconscious denial that this is a problem they
are facing. So, it is not surprising that those who speak so harshly
against a crime or a moral disorder are later discovered to be the offenders
themselves. We see this happening in the case of pedophilia, breach of
trust, sexual abuse and irregular relationships. Often, the sins of
others remind us of the sins in us that we are not able to come to terms with.
Secondly, instead of
finding scapegoats for our problems, we should be seeking solutions. It is easy to find reasons to be
angry with God and with people around us just like Jonah. What we fail to
do, as Jonah did, was to try to understand the situation or to seek solutions
to relieve our sufferings and that of others. Rather than just allowing
anger to consume us and make us bitter and resentful, we must seek to improve
the situation, find ways to deal with the challenges. It is not
enough to feel our pain and even the pain of our fellowmen, but we need to
consider what we can do to alleviate the pain and suffering of our
fellowmen. Complaining and lamenting will not change the situation but only
make us even more resentful and depressed.
Thirdly, we need to see
from God’s point of view. God is a forgiving God because He knows who we
are. He knows
that we are often ignorant when we sin, acting out of fear and
self-defence. God wants to enlighten us and give us opportunities to grow
and learn from our mistakes. He is a merciful God because His love
is not confined to merely those who love Him or are good but to all because we
are all His beloved children. God is our Father, as the Lord’s Prayer
reminds us. His intention is not to punish but to save us
all. God never acts out of anger. He does not retaliate when we do
Him wrong. As our Father, He seeks to feel with us and to heal us.
In the final analysis,
let us be aware that our anger will never serve us any good. If we are angry and resentful, then
the Devil will have a foothold in our lives. That anger will grow
from strength to strength. That is why St Paul urged the Ephesians, “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 4:26) When we are
angry, it will colour the way we look at others. This is where all the
prejudices come from, our past negative experiences of some people. So we
begin to label and prejudge people that we have yet to meet and interact
with. Those who are wounded in ministry and carry the hurts within them
also transfer their hurts and anger to those whom they serve. They are
more a problem than a solution! That is why the Lord urges us always to
pray for forgiveness from God and others so that we can render the same as
well. The ultimate test of whether we are delivered from sin is the
ability to ask and give forgiveness.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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