May 8, 2022

Dear St. Martin of Tours Family and Friends,

A Note on Anger, Justice, and Meekness.

Why is it that some spiritual writers regard strong "negative" emotion—fear, anger, sadness, pity—as obstacles to spiritual growth? Didn’t Jesus feel the full range of human emotions, including anger?

Anger, like any emotion, is good. An emotion is the body’s way of communicating the soul. Anger communicates to the soul that there is something unjust afoot, which means that anger can be a strong sign of an injustice that needs correcting. The prophets of Israel communicated in their writings this kind of anger. God, too, when he is “angry” what is meant is that he is offended by the suffering of his children because of the lack of justice imposed upon them.

This means that anger can actually be the first step for bringing forth justice.

Of course, if you are choleric or “hot-headed,” selfish or self-centered, and get angry whenever you are insulted or your will or desires are thwarted, then your anger is disordered, because it’s become all about “me, me, me.” A virtuous anger always takes into account others, since the virtue of justice (which anger is meant to promote) is defined as what one party owes to another. Justice is about balance: between two individuals, between the individual and the collective, between two collectives, between the individual and God, and between the collective and God.

The virtue that moderates anger so that its object is properly ordered is justice, is meekness. Hence, what the line in the Beatitudes, “the meek shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5) really means is that, in the end, justice will win out, because the Lord will be victorious.

Meekness is therefore not passive. It’s actually that voice in your head that calms your anger down so your anger doesn’t get the better of you. But oddly enough meekness is also the voice in your head that impels you when there is insufficient anger, the voice that says, “wait a minute, why is this situa- tion considered to be ok? Don’t you see what’s happening here?”

Notice Christ did not offer the other cheek, nor Paul either. Thus to interpret the injunction of the Sermon on the Mount literally is to misunderstand it. This injunction signifies rather the readiness of the soul to bear, if it be necessary, such things and worse, without bitterness against the attacker. This readiness our Lord showed, when He gave up His body to be crucified.

Meekness might rhyme weakness, but it’s not. It’s a strength. Reconsider the true meaning of meekness to be the strength to endure difficulty for the sake of what is right.

I hope this reflection will assist you in your spiritual lives so that when you get angry, you’ll now know that you are not committing a sin, but rather you need to ask the question, Is there some injustice in this situation? Is there something I can do to fix the matter? Or, ought I exercise patient endurance?

Sincerely,