A Virtuous Life
Friends in Christ, in the first reading today we see that God has asked the prophet Jeremiah to buy a linen loincloth, put it on, and then hide it in a crevice in some rocks. And after a long time has passed, he goes to get it and finds that it is rotted away.
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Jeremiah performed many symbolic actions at the Lord’s request, to prophecy to the people the Lord’s displeasure with them, because their lives had become focused on false gods. The linen loincloth recalls the linen cloth worn by the priests in the temple.[i] God had chosen Israel to be his priestly people. Just as that garment fitted Jeremiah exactly, literally, it ‘clung to his loins’ – God had wanted the Israelite people to be united to him, to ‘cling to him.’ This Hebrew word, for clinging to, is found often in the Book of Deuteronomy. It means fidelity to God. This ‘cleaving’ to God comes about through Faith.
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Faith means putting our entire hope in the Lord, not in things, which are the false gods of our life. For many it is not so obvious that putting faith in God will have a ‘payoff’ for them. They think only in the short term. But fidelity to the Lord, living one’s life for Christ leads to good character, to being a virtuous person and to heaven; but this all takes time, and trust.
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In this regard, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which is so tiny – yet it grows in to a very large tree. A virtuous life is like that. Saying ‘no’ to the easy way, and choosing the way of virtue; slowly and imperceptively, this grows into the good character of a fulfilled person.
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Just like yeast that is hidden in dough, a life, faithful to Christ will grow and raise the dough – but slowly and gradually.
The Way of Jesus is not always easy, but it leads to a fulfilled life, and heaven.
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[i] See Navarre Bible under this passage of Jeremiah
Avoiding Hell
Latin Mass: 7th Sunday after Pentecost
Beloved in the Lord, on October 18th 1985, Father Steven Scheier[i], while traveling to his parish in Kansas, was involved in an accident: a head-on collision. He was unconscious at the scene. Behind him in the ambulance on the way to the hospital was a nurse, who tried to help him with the Hail Mary but she couldn’t remember all of it; He had suffered a broken neck, a C2, the hangman’s break. He tells, that on the edge of life and death, he found himself alone in another dimension, standing before the judgment of God. At that moment, Jesus Christ took him through his entire life and showed him how he had failed as a priest. Fr. Scheier said “yes” to everything Jesus said, about his life.
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He admits that he was a lax priest, without a solid spiritual life; “I could not stand peer pressure, he says. I wanted to be one of the guys. The priests at that time wanted to talk about peace and love; not morality, or dogma, or what the Church is about, because this made one unpopular – You had to tell the people what they wanted to hear.’ ‘I just wanted to follow the crowd.
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So there, before God, the ‘Lord went through all my unconfessed and mortal sins, he says. There was much said in regards to my life. The only thing that I could say was: ‘Yes, that’s true,’ to each thing. I had no excuse. At the end of his speaking, the Lord said, ‘The sentence you will have for all eternity is Hell.’ “I thought to myself, ‘This is what I deserve.’ The Lord was merely honoring my choice.
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Friends in Christ, Today in the Gospel our Lord says ‘Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit, will be cut down, and cast into the fire.’ Our life needs to bring forth good fruit for Jesus Christ, or else our long-term future will not be pretty. Jesus uses the example of a tree, upon which he is looking for good fruit; our life is the tree. A tree grows, and it grows into something.
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At the end of our life therefore, each of us will BE something, for good or bad; a person of good character, a disciple of Christ – or not. At birth, we become a part of the Mystical Body of Christ. We have the Divine Life in us, but then – what do we do with it? If our will turns away from the Lord, we cut off that Divine Life, the Holy Spirit leaves us. We remain a member of the Body of Christ, but a dead member. At the end of our life, we will find whether we have the Supernatural life in us, with our will united to God, or, our will set against God.
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Many will say, that even though they have committed mortal sins they do not hate God. Fair enough. But a selfish life, thinking only of one’s self and ignoring God and his commandments – this is perhaps very common- Father Frank Sheed[ii] says, a man might go through life ignoring the Lord, not hating him, yet building up such a love of self that he has only to be confronted with God, in order to hate him. After death, God cannot be ignored; then the love of self will bring to the surface the hatred of God which has always been implicit.
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St. Alphonsus says, ‘why torture yourself saying, ‘I wonder if I will end up in heaven or hell.’ When the tree is cut down, it falls to the side that it had been leaning. So, to what side do you lean? Toward God, or away?
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All sinners hope that they will be saved, but in the mean time, by the way they live, they condemn themselves to hell. St. Augustine says,[iii] ‘Who is so foolish as to take poison with the hope of escaping death? Yet many Christians who are fools, kill their souls and then believe there will be a cure. When Jesus describes our life to us at the judgment, we will nod and agree, that what he says is exactly true. And we will ourselves know immediately where we are to go.
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Few people explicitly hate God in this life. They ignore him, so that they may live as they please and follow the crowd. But when such a person must face God, all will turn to hate.
If a husband is unfaithful or evil, he avoids the face of his wife; although there are in him seeds of a love which once was, he avoids her and he may even leave. But if it should be that he must face her, those seeds of love can turn to hate. When police find a gruesome murder, where the victim’s face has been gashed, they first suspect a lover, because love turns into the worst hatred.
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God, who is pure love, has been loving us all life-long. The sinner who must face God at judgment will find his heart full of hate, and he will go where he knows he must. As scripture says: ‘Man shall go into the house of his eternity.’ (Ecclesiastes, 12:5) Each person will go to the house that he wishes to go. He won’t be carried there, he will go by his own choice.[iv]
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‘Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father, he shall enter the kingdom of heaven.’
It is not hard to go to heaven; it is a matter of not following the crowd; of setting our life on the path Jesus has for us – of choosing to do God’s will. Thomas Aquinas’ sister asked him, ‘How can I become a saint.’ ‘Just WILL it,’ he said. Decide to do it.
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It is not hard to go to heaven, but we must decide. A lady once wrote to St. Francis de Sales[v] about her fear of death and of hell which troubled her soul. He wrote back: ‘Put aside self-seeking and leave yourself totally in God’s hands. He will either deliver you from this fear, or he will enable you to bear it. God is too good to reject a person who does not wish to be a hypocrite. Say often to God, ‘I am yours, save me.’ And he will do so, dear child.’
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We all must face the judgment of Christ, as to our life. I mentioned Father Steve Scheier, and the horrible judgment he received: ‘Your sentence is hell.’ But that was not the end of that priest’s experience. After Jesus, he heard another voice, a woman’s voice. The voice said, ‘Son, would you please spare his life. ‘Mother, he has been a priest for 12 years, for himself, not for me. Let him reap the punishment he deserves.
But she said, ‘Son, if we give to him special grace and strength, and see if he bears fruit, then if not, your will be done.’ There was a short pause, and then he said, ‘Mother, he is yours.’ With that, the priest returned to life. Today his life is very different from the lukewarm life he had been living.
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It is not hard to go to heaven. We must decide to, and then do God’s will. It means not following the crowd.
Jesus and Mary, help us to make the tree of our life fruitful, that the Lord will find on it abundant fruit, in the world to come.
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[Entrust to the prayers of St. Mary of Egypt]
[i] His experience is recounted in the National Catholic Register, Aug 19, 2011.
[ii] Map of Life, p. 137
[iii] Preparation for Death, p. 149.
[iv] Preparation for Death, p. 148
[v] Paraphrased from the Spiritual Letters of St. Francis de Sales, p. 194.
St. Bridget of Sweden
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Bridget. St. Bridget was born in 1303 in Sweden to a noble family. Mysterious events surrounded her birth. Her mother one time almost drowned, but an angel appeared to her and told her that she was saved because of the child to be born to her.
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As a child, Bridget did not speak until she was three years old. But when she did, it was more perfectly than most other children. At age 7, she saw a heavenly vision: a beautiful lady who offered her a crown. When she was 10, she had another vision, of Christ crucified, with blood flowing from his wounds.
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Bridget’s mother died when she was young, and so her father thought it would be best if she got married. He selected a husband for her named Ulf. She was 13, he was 18. She resisted marriage, but nevertheless, accepted it as the will of God. She decided to love her husband, and together they had 8 children. Bridget raised her children in the love of God, and taught them to be gracious and charitable. She also made it a special mission to help girls in the town who had fallen into a life of sin.
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When her husband died, she chose a life of simplicity, fasting, and self-denial. She and her daughter did a great deal to help the poor, and in her helping the poor who lived in horrid conditions, in them she saw the face of the suffering Christ so vividly.
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Bridget had many mystical conversations with Jesus and Mary, which have been written down, and there we read of her love for the suffering Christ. Our Blessed Mother spoke to St. Bridget about the passion of her Son; Mary told her that as Jesus was being nailed to the cross, when the first blow of the hammer came, I was full of grief, and I heard the men say to each other, ‘What crime did he commit? Was it theft or rape? Others said, ‘he was a liar.’ And then a crown of thorns was pressed tight on his head, and blood flowed down his face and in his hair and eyes. Some men, as if gloating, said to me: ‘Mary, your Son is dead.’ (p.51)
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St. Bridget’s mystical revelations, especially about the Passion, show us that she had a very close relationship with Jesus and Mary, and she herself endured many afflictions and sorrows. Yet it may surprise us to know, that despite the heavy crosses and hardships of St. Bridget in her life, to those who knew her, she was best-known for her smiling face.
The Greatest Sign: the Resurrection
Friends in Christ, today, Jesus is asked for more proof of who he is. ‘We wish to see a sign from you,’ they said. Our Lord worked thousands of cures, raised at least two people from the dead, walked on water, multiplied loaves and fishes, and turned water into wine – all these signs, yet those who have hardened their heart to the gospel demand more signs. Always more signs. They had no Faith.
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The Lord says, an evil generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except? Except the sign of Jonah. Our Lord is saying, ‘you’ve seen many, many signs already, yet the most glorious miracle you will also reject. What is the most glorious miracle? The resurrection.
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‘As Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth.’ The greatest miracle of Christ is the resurrection, foretold in figure, by Jonah. His resurrection did two things: First, it proved that he is God, for only God can raise himself form the dead. And second, it shows us our own destiny. Follow me in this short life, Jesus says, and you too will rise from the dead, in a beautiful and glorified body. Not as some kind of floating disembodied soul, but in the resurrected body.
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This is the greatest hope of Christians. The Church teaches right in the Catechism, that the earth will be totally renewed in the next world. This is why we call heaven, Paradise.
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Our glorified body will have agility – this means that if we wish to go to another part of that great Paradise, our will, will bring us there.
Our Body will be youthful no doubt – Present defects in our body, or weakness from age will be gone in that world. I know a young man with MS; I said, ‘Well, you won’t have MS in the resurrection!’ No defects will remain.
And best of all, we will be in the Eternal Presence of God and Mary and the saints.
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What will time be, in heaven? If we think of lovers, lost in their gaze at the other; seeing the time they often say something like: ‘Where’d the time go?!
Happiness makes time fly. It will be something like this in heaven.
Keeping the Presence of God
Latin Mass: 6th Sunday after Pentecost
‘I have compassion on the crowd, for they have been with me 3 days and have nothing to eat.’
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Beloved in the Lord, The crowds that we read about in the gospel today had been earnestly following Christ for days, and they were hungry. It was here that Our Lord worked the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves.
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St. Alphonsus says,[i] the mystical sense of this gospel, is that there is no food which can fill the desire of our souls; in fact, there is no one and no thing that can satiate the soul, only the Divine Person: Jesus Christ.
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In the Holy scriptures it is seen that even after Our Lord had fed the multitudes, they were immediately seeking more, and in this, they are a sign of that longing by man to be fulfilled.
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Hearts today seek fulfillment in so many dead-end streets. For persons of faith who hunger for Christ, it is perhaps not uncommon in moments of weariness to have the thought: ‘if only I had lived during the lifetime of Jesus.’ ‘if I could just see him for a moment, walk alongside and listen to him – or if he would even appear to me. If Christ’s words reformed a hardened sinner like Mary Magdelene we think, then if I could only hear his voice, perhaps I would be changed as well. If I could only feel the Lord’s eyes on me, it would be different. We might think this sometimes, I have.
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In reality however, we have an advantage to be living at this time, and not then. The people of Christ’s time did not have the full picture, Redemption had not yet occurred, and most importantly, they had not been baptized. So we have an advantage. The Epistle today urges us to gratitude for our own baptism. Because of our baptism, the Lord is now living in us. St. Paul tells us, ‘do you not know that you are a temple of the Holy Spirit.’ And this is because of our Baptism, we are a temple.
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So it is, God’s presence is within us. The foundation of the spiritual life can be summed up in one goal: Keeping the Presence of God all day. Maintaining an awareness that God is in us, with us, which he is.
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Why are we urged to begin the day with a morning offering, to pray at meals, daily Mass if possible; why are we urged to say the Rosary, the Angelus at noon, spiritual reading, prayers before bedtime – what is the purpose of all this? It is for one purpose: to try to keep the Presence of God all day. This is success in the spiritual life, if we are able to have an awareness of the Lord with us every part of the day. The rest will take care of itself.
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‘If only I had lived during the lifetime of Jesus.’
Father Goodier in an essay, puts us in the scene in the time of Christ: Imagine we are walking along a country lane in Galilee. We come to a small group of people from the farms, and in the middle is a young man, tall and thin in appearance, his clothes are white, he is seated on a stone by the roadside, talking quietly to the simple folk around him. In his eyes there is strange glitter of joy and pain, of laughter and tears, of hope which cannot be described. But perhaps more startling is, that Jesus seems to know each person.
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He knows each person. He knows you and I. ‘Oh, if only I had lived during the lifetime of Jesus.’ Balderdash! as my father used to say! We have an advantage today, we don’t need to be living at the time of Jesus to speak to him, he is here, he is in us – with us. ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,’ says St. Paul.
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When we go into Church, we instinctively lower our voice – God is here, he is present. But leaving the Church, do we leave Jesus behind? not at all. ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. In our work, our shopping, our play, we cannot get away from the Lord, we are a living Cathedral, as long as we are in the state of grace.
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In his book, ‘How to Pray Always,'[ii] Fr. Plus says: The presence of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity who are in us due to our Baptism, is no less real than the presence of the Lord in the tabernacle, only the mode of presence is different.
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And so it cannot be emphasized enough: this goal of the Christian life of practicing the Presence of God, of cultivating always, a sense that Christ is within, that he is intimately with us.
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The renowned Fr. Pergmayer says, ‘The practice of the presence of God will lead sooner or later to perfection.'[iii]
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Each month we have Eucharistic Adoration for our school children; and in the prayers we say with them, well, they are simple prayers; but simple prayers are excellent for us, to cultivate the Presence of God.
‘Because you are so good, Jesus I love you’
“Because you understand me, Jesus I love you.’
Making aspirations, often. Making all kinds of aspirations during the course of the day, this is how we should speak to our Savior, who is within us.
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‘If only I had lived during the lifetime of Jesus.’
We ARE living during the time of Jesus, he is not walking alongside us, he is within us. St. Josemaria,[iv] says: Oh ‘apostolic soul, that intimacy between Jesus and you …doesn’t it mean anything?…seek God within, and listen to him.
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‘Because you understand me, Jesus I love you.’ Simple aspirations – it really helps us to keep the Presence of God. A disciple of St. Bernard[v] said: ‘Wherever you are, be recollected. There is no need for a special place, you are this special place. Are you in bed? Then your bed is a temple.’
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And really, if we are temples, if God dwells in us, then he is in our neighbor too – and we know the implications of that.
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So practicing this Presence of God all day, of giving glances to the Lord – if we can have at least an implicit sense that Christ is with us in all our activities, we will soon become saints.
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And if Our Lord is with us, so is Mary;
if it is a pious practice to glance at a picture of Mary upon entering our house, then how much better to often speak to this Mother, to make a glance to her, who never leaves us. Mary, pray for us, that our days will be filled with the sweet presence of you, and your Son.
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Entrust to the prayers of St. Thomas Aquinas
[i] Sermons of St. Alphonsus Liguori, p. 262.
[ii] How to Pray Always, p. 103
[iii] Cited in ‘How to Pray Always,’ p. 40
[iv] The Way, #319, 321
[v] How to Pray always, p. 104
St. Camillus
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Camillus de Lellis
St. Camillus was born in 1550 to a mother who was nearly 60 years old. He was a problem child from the start, not helped by the fact that his irresponsible father went all around fighting in various armies; his father had practically every vice there is, especially gambling.
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Camillus had a violent temper and was stubborn and lazy; his mother died when he was only 12 years old. He rarely went to school, and like his father, soon became addicted to gambling. But one thing could be said for him: he never forgot his mother’s love of God. When he was 17, he joined his father as a hired soldier. By the age of 19 he knew every sin there was; like his father, he became an expert gambler. Wherever they went, father and son were the center of gambling. They hired themselves out, fighting for whoever paid them, and living as they pleased. But one day his father died, and Camillus was on his own.
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Now he had a festering wound on his leg that just would not heal, and so he went to a hospital in Rome. Lacking funds, he made a deal with them: he would work there if they would tend to his wound. For a time this worked out well, but soon he obtained a deck of cards, and involved the other workers in gambling. As duties were neglected, amid frequent quarrels, Camillus was once again sent on his way, his leg unhealed. For two more years he fought in various armies. He joined a group of soldiers under a man named Fabio, the chief attraction being, that every man there was addicted to gambling.
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But after fighting in North Africa, their company broke up and he became nothing but a homeless tramp. He went straight to the gambling dens, and there he staked everything he had: his sword, his gun, his coat, and he lost them all. It might well have been, that there was no case more hopeless in all of Europe, than that of Camillus de Lellis.
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But it so happened that someone saw him begging for food, and offered him work in building a monastery. He felt the goodwill of the man who had offered him work, and the monastery brought back memories of his mother, and of God. He worked hard, and turned away again and again from temptations to gamble; for almost a year he had kept from gambling, and he learned to work as he never had in his life. He returned to the hospital in Rome and was reinstated as a servant. For 4 years he worked there, and his leg finally healed. In time, he saw that the more he gave himself to helping others, the happier he was. He loved the patients, and organized groups to help the sick; seeing the need for priests in the hospital, he himself became a priest. Ordained at age 34, the rest of his life would be devoted to the sick and the dying.
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Camillus became the greatest apostle of charity. No one knew the slums and ghettos of Rome better than him. One time, he bandaged a dog’s wounded leg and said to the dog: ‘I too, once had a bad leg.’
Camillus always remembered that he was a great sinner, but at his death he never tired of thanking God for everything, through the Blood of Jesus Christ.
St. Camillus is the patron saint of hospital workers, sick people, and nurses.
My Yoke is easy
Friends in Christ, today Our Lord gives us these words of reassurance: Take my yoke upon you…for my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” I once asked some school kids, what does Jesus mean by a ‘yoke.’ They thought it had to do with an egg yoke! Well, I think many people aren’t familiar with a yoke, which is that wooden beam across the backs of oxen to pull a plow in the old days. It’s heavy, and the ox has to pull with great force all that is attached to that yoke. It’s a burden.
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But Jesus says, that we should not be afraid of taking HIS yoke upon ourselves, because it is light and easy to bear. We sometimes hear people say, ‘You Catholics have so many rules and laws!’ Well, this is a little silly: the rules are not many: Pray, go to Sunday Mass, go to Confession, and ‘Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Those are not many rules!
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I looked up today what Thomas Aquinas has to say about this Gospel passage in the Summa Theologica. He says that Christ’s burden is light in the New Law; it is much lighter and easier than the Old Law. The Old Testament Law had many rules and ceremonies, almost all of which were outward practices, the New Law of Christ has a few outward ceremonies, but is primarily an interior law. The Old Law was about external practices, but the New Law calls us to difficult things on the inside. Not only are we not to kill, we are not to have angry thoughts at our neighbor. Not only are we not to commit adultery, we are not to lust in our heart.
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As St. Thomas says, this interior law is very difficult for a person who is not virtuous. If a person has not developed the virtue, the habit, of chastity – good habits of purity, well, then being chaste is very difficult, the law is burdensome.
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If a person has not trained himself to be patient with others, if he has not acquired this virtue of patience, he will find it very difficult to keep from anger when provoked. But for the virtuous person, who has practiced and developed a habit of patience – for him the Law of Christ is easy.
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So Our Lord is telling us, that if we follow his path and cooperate with grace, developing our virtues, we will find that his yoke is easy and his burden light.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Friends in Christ, in 1647, the missionaries Isaac Jogues and John Brebeuf were tortured to death by Huron and Iroquois Indians. Just a few years later in upstate New York, a little Indian girl named Kateri was born.
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Her mother was an Algonquin Indian who was a Christian; but she was taken captive by the Iroquois, and then given as a wife to the chief of the Mohawks. When she was 4 years old, little Kateri lost her parents and little brother to smallpox, and that also left her disfigured and half blind. She was adopted by an uncle, who succeeded her father as chief of the Mohawks.
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Hearing the Christian Faith preached by a Jesuit missionary, Kateri thought of converting, but she hesitated out of fear of her uncle. Nevertheless, at age 20, she announced that she would become a Catholic. She was baptized with the name Kateri, meaning Catherine, on Easter Sunday.
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Pressured to marry a Mohawk, she refused. She was therefore shunned by her relatives. Her life was filled with hardship. disowned by her family, she was treated as a slave. Yet, it was at this time that her spiritual life grew quickly; She told a missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being baptized. For 3 years she grew in holiness under the direction of a priest, giving herself to God in long hours of prayer and spending herself in helping the needy.
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At age 23 she took a vow of virginity. She found a place in the woods where she could pray an hour each day. Finally, one night she slipped away and began a 200 mile walking journey to a Christian village near Montreal.
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Kateri practiced extreme fasting as penance for the conversion of her nation, and today many Native Americans are Catholic. She was devoted to the Holy Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified, and is called the ‘Lily of the Mohawks.’ At her death, witnesses said that her emaciated face changed color and became like that of a healthy child. Even the pockmarks on her face from sickness disappeared, and the touch of a smile came upon her lips.
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Pray for us, Lily of the Mohawks, that God’s grace will bring a new flowering of the gospel in our land.
Conquering our Anger
Latin Mass: 5th Sunday after Pentecost
Beloved in Jesus Christ, St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, there are two different kinds of passions: the concupiscible passions, and the irascible passions. Within the irascible passions is that of anger. This is why we might say that someone is ‘irascible,’ meaning that he is easily angered.
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Anger is a passion with which many people wrestle in their lives, especially if they have a hot, choleric temperament. Our Lord warns us in the gospel today: ‘I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.’ St. John Vianney says,[i] that person who is full of anger, what terrible company he is. ‘Look at the poor wife who has a husband like this. If she wishes to prevent her husband from offending God or treating her badly, she can’t say even a single word. She must content herself with weeping in secret.
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Anger can poison families and take us from God. In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul warns that anger is one of the sins that can keep us out of heaven: ‘I warn you as I have warned you before, they who do such things will not attain the kingdom of heaven.’ Gal 5;19
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Now as a mere emotion, anger is not a sin; when we see something that is wrong, or unjust – if someone is harmed, or we are insulted – anytime there is some injustice, we feel the impulse of anger: the desire to fight against what is wrong. So as an emotion, anger rouses us to oppose injustice. But now comes the moral choice: will this passion be used in an appropriate way or will it unleash hatred in our heart or inordinate words or actions?
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A strong and powerful horse is a great asset to a rider, but if it is not controlled with a bit and a harness, it can be destructive, and how often does this wild horse of anger get the best of us. The worst thing about anger is that it can cause us to, in a way, ‘lose our mind.’ If you’ve ever dealt with someone who is boiling with rage, you have surely noticed that they are not reasonable at all. The person makes wild accusations, demands excessive retaliation, and will not listen to anything you say. It is as if he has lost his use of reason.
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St. Paul says to the Philipians: ‘Watch out for the dogs.’ (Phil 3:2) Commenting on this passage, St. Thomas says, ‘it is the nature of a dog to bark from anger, not from reason.’ So unleashed anger makes us lose our good sense. As we have said, it is normal for a feeling of anger to arise in the face of injustice. If an employee sees the boss ridicule and degrade a co-worker, he should feel anger. But his reason tells him to act with prudence; glancing to God, he speaks up, in the defense of his co-worker: ‘Now Ed, John has done some very good work on this project, isn’t this a little unfair what you say?’ He uses reason to address the situation calmly. But another person, losing control, might pull out a pistol and shoot the boss! Holy Scripture says: ‘A fool gives vent to his anger, but a wise man quietly holds it back.’ (Prov 29:11)
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It is easy to see anger in the choleric person. He even looks as if he is boiling over. But other people’s anger comes out in other ways. For some, it is in the silent treatment, which can go on for days. I knew a young man who hadn’t spoken to his sister in 10 years – he was ‘teaching her a lesson.’ some lesson. There are others whose anger emerges in a passive-aggressive way. A woman is angry at her husband, and so she just happens to run the vacuum cleaner at kick off time for the game.
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St. John Vianney says, anger never travels alone.[ii] ‘It is always accompanied by plenty of other sins. He goes on: You have heard an angry father using bad language, cursing and yelling hateful things. Very well. Listen to his children; the same vile words come out of their mouths.
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‘I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be liable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be liable to the fire of hell.’
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Our Lord gives the stages of anger here. First, the passion stirs in our heart; it is not a sin yet, it is a feeling, but we must exercise good judgment, or our passion will control us.
If we give in to anger by cruel words or actions, then we certainly sin.
But the worst is when out-of-control-anger leads to contempt: ‘You fool,’ we might say. Contempt for another is to write that person off as useless. As Our Lord says, this is how anger can lead us to hell.
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Explosions in angry passion can make us regret many things. The answer really, is to calm our passions before they explode. In today’s Epistle, St. Peter says: ‘Let him refrain his tongue from evil. Let him seek after peace.’
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It is widely known that when you face a person who is angry, the worst thing you can do is respond back with anger. The Book of Proverbs says, ‘A soft answer calms wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.’ Prov 15:1 St. Monica had a husband always full of wrath, but her response was to be patient and calm, and pray for him.
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So if calm words by another person helps simmer down an angry person, this is what needs to happen inside of us as well. If passion begins boiling in us, we should speak to ourselves calmly, patiently: Make an aspiration to God: ‘Lord, grant me peace. Then think it through: ‘this thing that is provoking me, what is the response I wish to make, what does God want of me?’ As with all the passions, we must nip anger in the bud before it takes root. This wild horse must be kept under control from the start, and then our passions will be used effectively, for God’s glory.
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In this way we will not respond too quickly when provoked, we will know how to wait for the right moment to speak in a calm and reasoned way. This gets results that an angry response could never achieve.
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But if we wish to please Jesus in how we handle our passions, let’s see that Mary can help us. St. Alphonsus[iii] says ‘it is well, at the beginning and end of every action to say a Hail Mary; Happy are those actions that are enclosed between two Hail Marys; Then he says: ‘and in every burst of anger, always say, ‘Hail Mary. May the Blessed Virgin help us to use our passions, always for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ.
Entrust to the prayers of Mother Maria Kaupas
[i] Sermons of the Cure of Ars, p. 49
[ii] Sermons of the Cure of Ars, p. 49
[iii] The saint gives this suggestion at the end of one version of Glories of Mary under ‘Various practices of devotion to the divine Mother.
