Anger Management

I love the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  I examine my conscience prayerfully, then I confess my sins to the priest, who is in personae Christi; “in the Person of Christ”.  This means I’m not confessing to another man, but to Christ Himself.  Of all of the seven Sacraments, Confession is the hardest to partake of, in my opinion.  Even though Christ knows my sins and will forgive me “not seven times but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22), I still have trouble asking for that forgiveness.  Sincerely asking for forgiveness requires that you honestly acknowledge your sin, which is hard to do.  It’s hard to take responsibility for what we have done wrong.

As an aside, although Matthew’s gospel reading says, “not seven times, but seventy times”, some translations of the same passage read “not seven times, but seventy times seven times”.  Number games is not the point of the passage.  Both 70 and 70x7 convey rather the idea of as many times as needed. 

In the parable told in Matthew (18:21-35), the man asking patience with his debt appears to be sincere.  He “fell down” before his master asking for mercy and patience.  And the master responded with mercy by forgiving him the entire debt which was more than the servant had even requested.

But was the servant truly sincere or was he just a good actor?  It seems that he was a good actor because as soon as he was forgiven this huge debt, he ran into someone else who actually owed him money and instead of showing the same forgiveness he was shown, “He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’” 

Forgiveness, if it is real, must affect everything about us.  It’s something that we must ask for, give, receive, and give again. 

Can you honestly see your sin, experience sorrow for that sin, and say, “I’m sorry” to another?  When you are forgiven, what does that do to you?  Does it have the effect of making you more merciful toward others?  Can you in turn offer the same level of forgiveness and mercy that you hope to receive from God and others?

These are hard questions to face but they are essential questions to face if we want to be freed of the burdens of anger and resentment.  Anger and resentment weigh heavily on us, and God wants us to be freed of them.

If you find any resistance to the questions I posed above, then focus on what strikes you, take it to prayer, and let God’s grace enter in to bring about a deeper conversion in that area of your life.