Why Not Get Angry?
Figuring out how to bring about justice in the world
Why am I not more angry?
I’ve been asking myself this question lately.
Is it blissful denial? Is it a personality quirk? Maybe it’s both.
There is so much injustice in the world right now, and so many are angry.
The right is angry at the left
The poor are angry at the rich
The Muslims are angry at the Christians
America is angry at Iran
Everyone seems to be angry at Israel
Progressive Christians are angry at conservative Christians.
Why am I not joining in with these angry folks
Shouldn’t I give voice to those who are suffering by being angry? Is my silence actually complicity with the oppressor, as many say nowadays?
I am angry. I am angry that the way the whole world seems to be indifferent to Jesus Christ.
Okay, okay… I know this sounds like I am just escaping reality by spiritualizing my lack of righteous indignation and using Christ to validate my denial.
Is that what I’m doing? This is a fair question. I am honestly asking this of myself as I write this article.
I have just completed a novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This novena is a nine day devotion focused on the physical heart of Jesus as a symbol of his divine love and mercy.
This time of prayer has brought something to my mind: no one in this world has suffered more than Jesus. No one has suffered more injustice than Jesus our precious Lord and savior!
Often our anger is a form of replacement for our suffering. We don’t know what to do in the face of suffering; our own or another’s, so we strive to come up with an outlet. Thank God for social media, right? It gives us a false sense of actually helping people who are suffering by expressing our anger online. Sometimes it works as a way to get our own anger off our chest, rarely does it work for actually bringing about justice for others.
The thing is, Jesus didn’t come to remove our suffering in this world. He didn’t even fix the injustices of his day. The world at Jesus time saw grave injustices from the Roman empire and the people thought Jesus would come and fix everything immediately.
He didn’t.
Did Jesus die on the cross and raise from the dead in order to fix everything in the world? Well, in a sense he most certainly did. So why are we not seeing it? Did he go to all that trouble so that we could fix everything? This is a real question I have and am praying about.
I love the Catholic Worker movement and Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Their words inspire me; they emphasized making the world “easier for people to be good.” I have to confess, I don’t know how to do that. What is my role in that?
St Francis, when on his death bed said, “I have done what was mine to do.” I love this! So, what is mine to do? Perhaps I will know on my deathbed.
Last words are important. I can’t help but think of Jesus’ last words. In the Gospels we get two “last words” of Jesus; one just before he went to his Passion and another just before he ascended into heaven.
The first one was this, “A new command I give you; love one another as I have loved you.” The second one, often referred to as the Great Commission; “Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded them…” I kind of think the disciples were thinking of Jesus first set final words when they heard this, “a new commandment… love one another as I have loved you.”
Well, what does this love look like? Does it bring about justice for the oppressed? You bet. But how? Jesus shows us on the cross when he stretched out his arms to embrace the world and had his hands and feet nailed to the wood.
And he invites us to suffer with others, to be present to those who are suffering and thus allow the suffering of Christ to be completed in us.
This may not bring about the immediate change that many today are angrily demanding from the place of their keyboards and smart phones, but it will, ultimately bring about true justice in the end.
In this I place my hope. What reason do I have to be angry?