Why are You Angry?

Jesus is commonly known to be a compassionate, loving and merciful God.  We often refer to him as the Good Shepherd who never leaves His flock unattended.  He is a gentle God.  But in the Gospel of St John 2:13-22, we can see a rather surprising action of Jesus.  For some it may even be scandalous.  Why?  It is because Jesus became “ANGRY”:  An angry God who made a whip out of chords, drove out the money-changers from the temple and overturned their tables.

What could be the possible reason for this anger?  It is stated in the gospel that he would like to put a stop in making the temple, His Father’s house, a market place and a den of thieves.  It is the “ZEAL FOR MY FATHER’S HOUSE” that consumes Him.  Therefore he was angry because of his immense love for His Father and His desire to rectify the wrong things done.

We might then ask the question.  Is anger a sin?  YES or NO?  If we say YES, it would mean Jesus committed a sin, and His sinlessness is tainted by this anger.  If we say NO, then how can we explain anger as one of the Capital Sin together with, pride, envy, gluttony, sloth, lust and wrath?  Is anger a sin?  The answer can be Yes and No.

YES, Anger is a sin when it is a product of revenge, a burst of unreasonable emotion, and a show of feeling of resentment and frustrations.  NO, Anger is not a sin when one just want to straighten our wrongdoings and rectify the erroneous action committed.  Thus one is therefore angry, not because of hatred but because of love.

Aristotle says; “Anger is justified when it is done in the right time, by the right people, at the right place, and for the right reason”  And so, Jesus remains blameless and sinless because His anger is a product of correcting us in the name of love.

For those people in authority, especially parents, when you are angry, make sure it is not a sinful anger.  Let your anger be like the anger of Jesus, whose only motivation is love.  Now, it is good to ask yourself “What kind of anger do I feel?  Am I hasty person who flies into overwhelming temper once I see something is wrong?”  I believe that it is always good to ask Jesus to give us the grace to be patient.  When we ask God to be patient, let us plead from Him the grace to correct, not simply to express our anger, but to bring people to conversion, to eventually become a better person.  Only through this will our anger become life-giving.  And when it is life-giving, our anger becomes God’s instrument of grace.