“‘Take these things away; you shall not make My Father's house a house of trade.’” (John 2:22).
Anger is not a sin.
Righteous anger is not a sin. Righteous anger is the anger of justice – the rightful reaction to injustice of some kind…
God the Father was righteously angry. Each time God expressed anger it was related to a disrespect of the Divine. For example, God the Father was angry at the Israelites for losing faith – after He had freed them from Egypt – and deciding to worship a golden calf…
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ I have seen these people,’ the Lord said to Moses, ‘and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.’ But Moses sought the favour of the Lord his God… Then the Lord relented and did not bring on His people the disaster he had threatened.”
Christ Himself was sometimes righteously angry. When He saw money-traders in the Temple he was angry…
“Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, He drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; you shall not make My Father's house a house of trade.’” (John 2:13-22).
In later revelations to the Saints, like Saint Faustina, Christ speaks of his pain at the disrespect and disregard of souls…
“How painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion, I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a pale image and likeness of My love.” (Diary of Saint Faustina 1401-1450).
And I have been thinking about that today, because it seems to me that this anger of God is directed at me so many times. After all, I too walk into His Holy Temple and Receive Him in the Holy Eucharist, while worshipping other gods – thinking about work, or the woman sitting in front of me, or what I am going to eat for breakfast.
And it seems to me today that this is truly terrible thing. For what could be more terrible than seeing the Holy Righteous Wrath of God… Shame on me for disrespecting Him so…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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