20231011 DEALING WITH THE SOURCE OF OUR ANGER
11 October 2023, 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 | Ps118:24 |
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.”’
DEALING WITH THE SOURCE OF OUR ANGER
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Jon 4:1-11; Ps 86:3-6,9-10; Lk 11:1-4]
Many of us are angry, like Jonah, with 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-centred. 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. The 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 we are 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 today 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-defence 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 bringing 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 paedophilia, 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, is 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.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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