Vol.5 No.27 DoM E Message
Spiritual Gift of the Week
We ask for the grace of humility that we may see others as God sees them.
We ask this through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Spiritual Instruction of the Week,
God is mercy and peace, not wrath and anger.
Pray to be instruments of peace and mercy—
even and especially when we are full of anger.
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Dear Beautiful Daughters of Mary,
Lenten Logic by Lindsay Nagy
This Lent we are examining the lack of logic in sin. How sin is completely void of all reason, logic and truth. We are examining the deadly nature of sin, how it so deeply offends God, and how we can avoid it. Today we will reflect on the deadly sin of anger, and we see will see what happens when we react to our own logic, instead of pausing and listening to the saving voice that lives in our hearts. Today we will continue reflecting on the first family from the Old Testament, and we will see how when we refuse to obey God’s saving logic and we follow our own, we end up miserable.
Genesis 4: “ The man lay with his wife Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, saying, “I have produced a child with the help of the Lord.” Next she gave birth to his brother Abel, Abel became a herder of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground, while Abel, for his part, brought the fatty portion of the firstlings of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry and dejected. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why are you dejected? If you act rightly, you will be accepted; but if not, sin lies in wait at the door: its urge is for you, yet you can rule over it. Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out into the field.” When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Them the Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Then God said: “What have you done? Your brothers blood cries out to me from the ground! Now you are banned from the ground that opened its mouth to receive your brothers blood from your hand. If you till the ground, it will no longer give you its produce. You shall become a constant wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord: My punishment is too great to bear! Look now you have banished me form the ground. I must avoid you and be a constant wandered on the earth. Anyone may kill me at sight. “Not so the Lord said to him. If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be avenged seven times.”
So the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one would kill him at sight. Cain then left the Lord’s presence and settled in the Land of Nod, east of Eden.
Cain’s offering of his first fruits for atonement of his sins weren’t pleasing to God. Abel’s were. Abel’s soul wasn’t weighed down by sin like Cain’s was. Cain needed to repent, to change his ways, and to be honest with himself about what kind of person he really was. Cain needed to listen to his father who loved him, and told him the truth, and stop listening to the enemy, who was lying to him and telling what he wanted to hear. Notice how God gently tells Cain that he can do better- that he will be given another chance to prove himself. Consider the warning that sin lies in wait at your door- its urge is for you, but you must master it. If only Cain had taken some deep breaths, walked away and prayed about how he was feeling before he reacted. The significance of Cain’s story of anger turned lethal is that we don’t have to murder to be guilty of sinful anger. We have a choice. We have dominion over our thoughts and dominion over the liar that tries to trick us into sin. The serpent has been defeated, but it is up to us- the Body of Christ- to continually stomp on his head. The scriptures are brimming with God’s logic- the truth, his saving wisdom on anger, and we must pray and study and repent if we are to grow pleasing and acceptable to him.
Before we move on and start looking deeper into anger, I think it’s important to take one last look at Cain’s offering for atonement. He like the ancient Jews, always offered their first fruits of their labors, the best of what they had worked for as their sacrifice for their sins in the temple. Cain’s first fruits were not enough. This is significant- He was only offering back to God everything that God had blessed him with. This was an empty and shallow offering to God because his heart was stained with sin. He was tilling the ground and probably breaking his back for his fruits, but he was not allowing the word of God to take root in his heart and bear the kind of fruit that God was looking for. Our first fruits are obeying the truth, and using God’s logic. This is how we store up treasure in heaven. This is what pleases our Lord. Our sacrifice must be fruitful for the heart and be from the heart, or it will unacceptable to God. (The Way of Cain, 133)
James talks about this in chapter 1:18-25
“Of his own he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Be but doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he who observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets, but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed by his doing”
Cain was a hearer and not a doer. God held a mirror in front of Cain’s heart to show him his sin and Cain walked away from the mirror and forgot the warning. Instead of a blessing, he receives a curse.
What is anger and is it always a sin?
Anger is an emotion, but it is not our emotion that causes us to sin. God created our bodies to react in a self-preserving way when we are threatened by perceived dangers. Hence the chemical reaction set off by our brain that heightens our awareness, causes our heart to beat faster and makes us kind of tense up in preparation to defend ourselves. This is not an emotion we can control-it serves a purpose, but it is our job to react appropriately and with proper judgement. Anger doesn’t have to turn deadly or even physical at all to be sinful. Our display of emotions, our demeanor towards others, and most importantly our choice of words all determine whether or not we have sinned.
There are two types of anger. The first type we won’t spend much time discussing because it isn’t the sinful kind. It is most commonly referred to as righteous indignation. This is the type of anger that God shows in the Old Testament and that Jesus displays in Mark when he turns the tables over in the temple. This type of anger is actually commendable in scripture. When we witness cruelty, when someone is victimized or insulted, of course we should be outraged!!! In other words, we should take a cue from Jesus and Yahweh… be disgusted and outraged by sin. They are only reacting to sin after they have warned their people time and time again to repent!! It is only sin that angers our dear Father and Son because they can’t bear to watch their family succumb to it.
It is the second type that causes God to banish Cain and it is this sinful type of anger that we have to watch out for.
Listen to James describe Gods abhorrence of wicked words from human mouths in CH3
“And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind but no human being can tame the tongue- a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not be so. (James 3:6-10) Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. Bitter jealousy and self- ambition are not the wisdoms of up above, but it is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. Where jealousy and self- ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insecurity. And the harvest of the righteous is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:13-18)
We are all capable of distorting reality, but most of the time we are so caught up in ourselves that we don’t even realize we are doing it.” (Way of Cain, 133) We all have this tendency to believe despite all logic that everything should go our way: our children should always behave; our opinions should always be considered; our spouses and friends should always be reasonable, cheerful, helpful, and kind; We expect to be loved all the time under all conditions of life.” (The Way of Cain, 133) Kind of sounds like Cain, right? This is how humans think. There is a part of our psyche that believes quite erroneously at times that the world and all the people in it should mold itself to please comfort us. When the world doesn’t spin on our axis, we get angry. It is our reaction to this type of anger that can be our downfall:
I picture Satan licking his lips when we fly off the handle when our pride is wounded, or we snap at our loved ones over a misunderstanding, or when we treat a telemarketer with impatience who calls at 9 pm, or when our horns start to sprout at the poor Comcast representative who has the misfortune of taking your phone call after 20 minutes of waiting on hold and being transferred 3 times. I picture Satan’s delight when we throw our hands up in disgust at the person who is texting in front of us who fails to see the green light, or the annoyed look you give your husband when he has the audacity to have a mind of his own. This is not God’s way- This is the way of Cain.
God is asking us to live his way, react his way, respond his way, and it takes acquiring his grace to do it. Cain shows us that we can’t do this on our own. We have to teach ourselves how to allow his truth to permeate our thoughts and allow his logic to keep us from sin. We are dignified creatures made in his image, and we are to be his instruments of peace always.
We must pray for the perseverance to make peace with our lips, and peace with our bodies.
[If we listen to God’s logic and challenge our own self- pity, discouragement, and jealousy and replace them with truth, we will learn to think this way:
-I live in a broken world with broken people who will frequently break my heart. Nevertheless, I am deeply loved by God.
-It’s up to God to give me what I need, when he thinks I need it. In the meantime, I am steadfastly in his care.] (The Way of Cain, 134) We must resist speech when we are angry until we have allowed to the voice of God to tell us what to say. We will know it is Gods voice if it is peace seeking, merciful and loving. – (Basically the opposite of our first reaction!!)
In Chapter 4, James sums up the root cause of arguments and fighting: “What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire because you do not have, and you kill, and you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and you wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask.”
You do not have, because you do not ask. How often do we forget to ask?? When we forget to ask (forget to pray) we separate ourselves from his saving grace. We put our own needs and self- centered desires first, forgetting that we must take care of others first. James is telling us that Gods wants us to give up the endless pursuit of our own pleasure, comfort, and needs- and resign ourselves to his will. Not my will father, but your will be done. Asking God to meet our need is the way, for as James tells us when God meets our needs, he gives a “greater GRACE”. What God graces us with is far better than anything we could dream up ourselves.
Let’s face it, things are not going to go our way and that is a GOOD thing! God didn’t ask our opinion when he designed the universe and all of the people in it. Our children aren’t going to obey us all of the time!! nobody is ever going to remember to clean up after themselves!!! your husband is still going to have an opinion!! you are still going to get stuck behind someone driving 15 miles per hour in a 35/mph zone- and People are still going to shock us with rudeness!! We have to pray for the grace to remember God’s logic that James has given us. Acknowledge our anger, hold it back before we open our mouths, take our time before speaking, and take the time to listen-ask God to help us respond. “God will correct the lies that form our thoughts and replace them with the truth.” (The Way of Cain, 134)
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The following statement by Pope Francis is tremendously consoling as we approach our Parish Penance Service and the Sacrament of Reconciliation:
Nothing can stop God’s mercy…not even sin!
Veni, Spirito Santo, la misericordia di Dio ci salva—
Come Holy Spirit, it is by God’s mercy that we are saved,
Deb
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