Christ the King

“I’m  mad! I’m mad!  It’s not bad to be mad!”  So sang a goat on Sesame Street as my children watched, quietly attentive. My first reaction was to smile. In my family of origin, anger was discouraged.  Nuns and priests taught me that anger was one of the seven deadly sins. I grew up afraid of my own anger and disdainful of others’ anger. Perhaps my children would learn a healthier attitude from this goat.
 
My attitude toward anger remains somewhat ambivalent. As I envision Jesus turning over the tables in the temple, I understand his anger to be fueled by the profiteers’ greed and their ability to take advantage of the poor. In this guise, anger can serve as a motivator, helping me act when I encounter injustices. Yet I have also seen anger harden into something that seems to take on a life of its own - a form of deep resentment or even hatred. In that form, anger becomes an all too deadly sin.
 
Our Catholic tradition demands a nuanced approach to anger. Jesus councils us to look into our hearts and discern the source of the anger we feel. At times, the goat is right. “It is not bad to be mad.” Anger offers us helpful information about a given situation, particularly if some injustice is involved. However, anger that leads to hardness of heart is a beast of a different color. In that case, we need to turn away from the goat and toward the Lamb of God to help us deal with sinfulness in our own hearts.