Sixth Sunday of the Year

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

When I first read today’s Gospel it came across as being quite an angry statement from Jesus. The opening line seems to be telling the listeners off: “I tell you, if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, 

you will never get into the kingdom of Heaven”

Anger is something that we all have to cope with. I don’t believe a person who says that they never get angry. We even see Jesus himself get angry in the episode of the overturning of the money changers. And in this Gospel as I have said Jesus seems to be angry with the Pharasises and the scribes at the way that they gave lip service to the law and we will see this as an occurring 

theme throughout Matthews’s Sermon on the Mount.

There are many ways that people deal with Anger.  The first group are those who swear blind that they never get angry. In itself this is bent up frustrations and itself quite an angry statement because they are hiding real emotions.

The second group are those who are passive aggressive. These are those who make a sarcastic remark or a sideways look.  This I think is very common in English culture.

There are those who just go silent and hold on to the anger. They never express it to anyone. They are though like kettles waiting to explode and every now and then they explode usually over the smallest thing.

And there are those who will explode and anything and everything. These many people will say they are constantly angry people.

None of these characteristics are life giving and are actually harmful to us. We need to find ways of healthy dealing with our anger. There is a clue in the Gospel today. Jesus says “All you need say “Yes” if you mean yes “No” if you mean no.”

Often what happens is that we don’t have the word no in our vocabulary and so we over stretch ourselves. It is often easier to say yes rather than say no. To say no means that we are in control to lose our temper means that we are out of control so we need to learn to say no. But I can hear some people shuffle ling in their seats. These are those who have that well know Catholic guilt. So they say yes to absolutely everything and so they get very tired which leads to Anger.

A few years ago I did a course in what it means to get angry. At the beginning of the lecture we are asked to shout at the top of our voices I am angry. This I have to say was very therapeutic but I am not advising you do this but what we can do is really express our feelings by using the I word and not blaming with the you.

As Christians we need to explore ways to use the energy that anger brings into positive action. Something that changes from a destructive force into a something that is life giving

Jesus got angry and so we should also be able to get angry about what is a necessary like social injustice. Using that energy that is used when we get angry  for social change. An perfect example of this is the recent happenings in Egypt where is has been largely a peaceful revolution.