Good News Reflection This reflection is also available as an audio podcast: Today’s Readings: Choose anger or healing In today's Gospel passage, Jesus speaks to us about anger. He makes us aware of the increasing dangers of anger by referring to increasingly disastrous results in the angry person's soul. At the lowest level, anger in the heart results in "judgment," which in that day meant the Jewish local court where the easiest punishments were meted out. Then, he describes how anger in the heart becomes anger that kills: To use abusive language toward others destroys their self-esteem. It belittles them. It kills their spirit. The abuser must now face a trial before the Sanhedrin, which was the highest judicial body. Finally, Jesus warns that holding someone in contempt is the worst of all forms of anger. To hate someone so much as to see no value in them is to condemn oneself to Gehenna. "Gehenna" was a name given to a nearby valley that was used where children were burned as a sacrifice to the gods. The Jews used the name to illustrate the concept of punishment by fire; today we call it "hell." Abortion is such a sin, because it sees no value in the unborn child. However, even in this, God's forgiveness and healing is very nearby. The Sacrament of Confession re-opens the door to heaven, where we will someday be happily reunited with these children. The rest of this scripture passage is God's remedy for the times we feel angry. In essence, Jesus says: Go and do whatever is necessary to be reconciled with whomever has made you angry. This, he points out, is even more important than worshiping God. How genuine can our worship really be if anger has replaced love in our hearts? Since God is love, worship that's mixed with hateful anger is hollow and hypocritical, a slap on God's face, a crushing stomp on the Eucharist. Anger as an emotion is not evil. Feelings are neither right nor wrong, they're merely a temporary reflection of what's going on inside of us at the moment. Anger becomes a sin when it festers in us long enough to damage others. It’s rooted in the emptiness of not feeling loved. Filling that void with anger deceptively feels good. We receive healing when we choose to fill the void with love. By choosing love instead of anger, we let God’s love penetrate us, and once God's love fills our emptiness, there's no room left for anger. Jesus got angry about sin. It's okay to feel justifiable anger. It's what we do with the feeling that matters. Do we allow God to use it for loving purposes or do we use it as a weapon that hurts others? © 2011 by Terry A. Modica
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Friday, March 18, 2011
Choose anger or healing
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