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Friday of the First Week of Lent

Ezekiel 18:21-28
Psalm 129:1-2, 3-4, 5-7a, 7bc-8
Matthew 5:20-26

Anger

Today Our Lord addresses the sin of anger. "I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment" (Mt 5:22). The law of the Gospel is more exacting by far than the law of old which said, "Whoever kills shall be liable to judgment" (Mt 5:21). Jesus uncovers the root of the killer's sin: anger. Anger goes by any number of names: among them are resentment, rage, exasperation, bile, spleen, belligerence, and wrath.

Unidentified and Unconfessed

The sin of anger often goes unidentified and unconfessed because it lies below the surface like a great fault-line or like the seething entrails of a volcano. We delude ourselves into thinking that we have no sin because the sin has not surfaced. "I haven't thrown a pot, a pan, a book, or a brick. I haven't kicked, or shoved anyone. I haven't let go with any hugely inappropriate words or slammed any doors."

An Invisible Killer

Reasoning thus, we conclude that the sin of anger has no hold over us. Jesus would have us understand, however, that the anger locked up inside us is in every way as poisonous as the anger we let out. One must not think that because one has kept a lid on the boiling cauldron of one's anger, one is without sin. Hidden anger, or the anger we think we succeed in keeping hidden, is as sinful as the anger that comes out in harsh words and hurtful actions. Hidden anger is an invisible killer. That is why, for Our Lord, the angry man falls under the same judgment as the murderer.

Anger Voids Every Virtue

The sin of anger voids every virtue in the sight of God. It is an ugly splotch spoiling even our good deeds. Abba Agathon says that, "a man who is angry, even if he were to raise the dead, is not acceptable to God." The struggle against the sin of anger is long and hard. Abba Ammonas said, "I have spent fourteen years in Scetis asking God night and day to grant me the victory over anger."

Holding On and Letting Go

Our capacity for holding on to anger is astonishing. People in their fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties sometimes go around still angry over things that happened twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years ago. Angry over circumstances: "I missed out on so much. I never really had a chance. I was overlooked." Angry with one's family: "If only Dad had said this or done that. If only Mom hadn't been that way. If only, if only. . . . Angry with one's superiors: "She never really understood me. He never had time for me. She misjudged me. He hurt me when he said that. She ruined my life."

It Makes One Sick

Holding on to anger is bad for one's physical, mental, and spiritual health. Anger can literally make one sick. Pent-up anger mutates into depression. Anger sucks the spiritual energy out of the soul, making it difficult or impossible to pray.

Hidden Anger

Some people think that if they keep their anger stored in boxes in the attic or hidden in the closets or basement of their house, life will go on as usual in the kitchen, bedroom, dining room --or refectory, choir, and community room -- and elsewhere. They are wrong. Anger stored in the attic or hidden away in the basement poisons the whole house. It is like lead paint or asbestos. It is like an invisible odorless toxic gas causing headaches, stomach aches, and heartaches. Living in a house with anger in the attic, anger in the closets, and anger in the basement, changes one's face. A mask of resentment distorts one's features. There is a hardening of the countenance. Anger is hard to hide.

Forgiveness

Our Lord teaches us that one thing alone is victorious over anger and that one thing is forgiveness. Therapy is helpful insofar as it allows one to identify pent-up anger, but only forgiveness can bring healing and lasting change. If anger has become a habit, a pattern of sin, it can be driven out only by another habit, that of forgiveness. If you would be able to forgive in great things, forgive in little things, forgive in every little thing. Forgive, not only after every offense, real or imagined, but forgive in advance, forgive ahead of time. And to be able to forgive, go humbly to the mysteries of Our Lord's Body and Blood.

The Eucharistic Antidote

He who taught forgiveness from the cross at the hour of His bitter sufferings and death, infuses us with the spirit of forgiveness in every Holy Mass provided, of course, that we approach the altar, having shaken off the anger that clings to us and holding no anger in reserve. He who approaches the Body and Blood of Christ in state of anger makes a mockery of the mystery of the Cross. We may not be able to free ourselves from every trace of the secret anger hidden deep inside; we can, at least, approach the altar, hating anger as we should hate all sin, and begging God to take it from us. "A pure heart create for me, O God" (Ps 50:12).

In the traditional Franciscan calendar, the First Friday of March is kept as the feast of the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross. The texts of the Proper Office for the feast are magnificent; most of them are taken from Isaiah 52:13 --53:12. I was especially pleased to note that in the Franciscan Breviary's Third Lesson at Matins of the feast, the sons of Saint Francis recognize the role played by Saint Bernard, the Abbot of Clairvaux, in the development of devotion to the Passion.

Saint Bernard, the "most contagious" abbot of the 12th century, had inflamed the hearts of his monks with love for the Suffering Christ. By means of his widely circulated sermons and other writings, Cistercian devotion to the Passion ran across Europe like a fire in stubble.

"My beloved is to me a little bundle of myrrh." From the early days of my conversion, conscious of my grave lack of merits, I made sure to gather for myself this little bundle of myrrh. It was culled from all the anxious hours and bitter experiences of my Lord. . . . there were the insults, the spitting, the blows, the mockery, the scorn, the nails, and similar torments, and all for the salvation of our race. Among the little branches of this perfumed myrrh I feel we must not forget the myrrh which He drank upon the cross and was used for His anointing at burial. In the first of these he took upon Himself the bitterness of my sins, in the second He affirmed the future incorruption of my body. As long as I live I shall proclaim the abounding goodness in these events; for all eternity I shall not forget these mercies, for in them I have found life. (Saint Bernard, On the Song of Songs, 43).

Following Saint Bernard and the other 12th century Cistercian authors, Saint Francis and his followers immersed themselves in the mystery of the Passion. Devotion to the suffering Christ is characteristic of the Franciscan spirit. Saint Bonaventure intensified this heritage and fostered its development by the Seraphic Order's best preachers. Meditation on the Lord's Passion found an effective and fruitful expression in the Way of the Cross, an exercise that allowed the faithful to follow in spirit the sorrowful way taken by Our Lord in Jerusalem. Saint Leonard of Port Maurice promoted the Way of the Cross. Stations of the Cross became a characteristic feature of the Catholic Churches. Through the ages the Popes have enriched the Way of the Cross with precious indulgences.

The antiphons at Vespers are full of compunction:

1. Christ suffered for our sakes, and left us his own example; we were to follow in his footsteps.

2. He did no wrong, no treachery was found on his lips.

3. He was ill spoken of, and spoke no evil in return, suffered, and did not threaten vengeance, gave himself up into the hands of injustice.

4. So, on the cross, his own body took the weight of our sins; we were to become dead to our sins, and live for holiness; it was his wounds that healed us.

5. Till then, we have been like sheep going astray; now, we have been brought back to him, our shepherd, who keeps watch over our souls.

The Little Chapter is drawn from Isaiah 53:6:

Strayed sheep all of us, each following his own path; and God lid on his shoulders our guilt, the guilt of us all.

Here is a strophe from the hymn:

Fill thou the weak with power from on high --
So may they tread the way of life undaunted,
So if they fall and sin again o'ertake them, --
Ever grant that they may promptly rise.

At the Magnificat:

Christ our King alone has taken pity on our sinfulness: obeying the Father he was led away as a lamb meek to be slaughtered.

And the Collect:

O God, who, by the glorious passion of thy Son,
has taught us to follow the way of the cross to attain to eternal glory,
grant in thy mercy that we may lovingly company with him to Calvary
and ever follow in his triumphant glory,
he who is God, living and reigning with thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
forever and ever.

All texts taken from The Little Breviary, J.H. Gottmer, Haarlem --Antwerp, 1957

The Sin That Voids Every Virtue

Feast of the Via Crucis