Seven Deadly Sins: Anger

I will begin with a story about the horror man is capable of.

Warning: some of the material may be gruesome or hard to read so take heed.

“It is very emotional, psychologically speaking, to go to details. Please understand. I could never have any children. As I recall they – the Nazi doctors – experimented in my vagina with different instruments and cuts. That was agonizing pain. They gave me all sorts of medicine that made me nauseous. The pain was excruciating and it made me so sick. My female parts are not working. Unfortunately it left me childless. I had a husband, but I couldn’t bear any children [and] as a result he divorced me. Also, there was put something in our food that made us sick to our stomachs, and sterile. I was a slave laborer in AE’ factory where they produced munition, [and] a factory employee gave me a slice of bread that I wanted to bring to my sister, who was dying from malnutrition. So I hid the slice of bread in my sleeve. Well the Nazi guard found it, resulting in heavy beating across my face, my ears, until blood poured out of both ears. There was no medical attention in [the camp], so my ears became infected. … I was liberated … in Kiel Germany Ostpreusen [on] May 4, 1945. I was completely deaf when they took us to the hospital. Then the doctors took care of me and told me that I had no eardrums left in my ears. As of today, I am very hard of hearing. [I] had lots of surgery, [but it] didn’t do any good. In other words, I am now deaf. I am 100% deaf in my right ear, 80% in my left. Not only did I lose my hearing, [which] I so desperately needed in order to continue where I left off at the age of 14 with my voice and singing education: my parents and my own dream was to become an opera singer. I had voice lessons as a child with promises and hope of an operatic career one day. My dreams never materialized.” - Mrs.B 1943

What are we to make of this emotion? I think the categories fall mainly into three types of vices as it relates to anger: revenge, rage, and malice. All of these may exist at one instance in themselves together but each can also be separated into distinctive categories. I hope at least one of these was illicit to you in the reading of the aforementioned passage. To have the body mutilated by inhumane scum, the beloved betrayed and dreams shattered, all of which came from the bloodied hands of individuals with a thirst for purity. Not the moral type (though they did believe that as well) but the purity of the race. Let's imagine for a moment that this was your story. In reflection upon this, wouldn't everything within you seek justice? Let's begin here.

Anger is a response, not typically a specific aggressor of sorts, though that seems contradictory. It may cause someone to become aggressive but as mentioned before it is a response to some type of stimulus. Now, what type of response is it? It is one that seeks to right some type of wrong, but at times it seems to some people, anything can trigger that response. I have come to believe unresolved anger causes someone to be classified as an angry person. Any small step over the stone path will erect walls to protect against any foreign invader. As if a small rose petal landing on the shoulder of the person will make them violent. A fire is sparked and continues to burn bright, brighter, and brighter until the person is consumed in the flames. This is what I will call rage.

If anger can be the spark, rage is the application of kerosene. A fire that burns greatly with flickers of black. What is the tender match which creates the spark? I think the best answer is pain. Pain drives. It motivates. It endures. Anger needs an object and the object is what gave the person pain. Where does this pain typically come from as it relates to anger? It comes from those closest to us. Words enchanted by the lover's tender blandishment quickly become infused with venomous saliva. The cause of this is the elevation of the lover to places only the heavenly and eternal can procure. When small stones are dropped from that considerable distance, the accumulation of a large amount of force ensues. One by one, little by little, the small pebbles injure because the earthly was placed in the heavenly realm. What else is to be expected? Anger is the fist that shakes upwards and asks the god on high to strike with all your might. Thus pain amplifies and the result is the division in relationships.

"Anger is fluid that love bleeds when you cut it. " Letters To Malcolm - C.S Lewis

Time to have a bloody good time.

In the aforementioned story, the first feeling you felt was initially some type of sadness. The knife was brought out and the incision was made. The separation began in the vein and slowly pooled out as this blood. The pain felt is that deep emotional scar and in response, anger comes. Sorrow is represented by tears but shouldn't anger be represented by blood?

What is the source of this blood? Why it is love itself.

Love is connected to the beloved. The beloved is in its entirety the object of affection and love. Now, what keeps the love going to the beloved but the lover? Like the cardiovascular system, the heart pumps blood through a system of arteries to capillaries that deliver nutrients to the target cell or organ and is returned to the heart via the venous system (and lymphatic). Similarly, the lover is the heart, the blood is love, and the beloved is the target organ or cell. The lover drives the force, love, to the beloved and once any part of that connection or the beloved is injured, the crimson flow begins. Anger bubbles and comes to the surface. It is thick and teeming with life. Similarly, how we can know the depth of the cut by the amount of blood and how fast it is coming out, we can know the damage done to a person by the amount of anger and how fast this anger comes and also what the beloved of the person is. Now the amount of anger can be measured by how long the anger persists. How fast the anger comes about, like for example rage, over time can be measured by the level of aggression. The amount of anger and aggression will tell how deeply cut a person's love is.

Other than the amount of love, anger shows the object of what is loved. If one is angry when the beloved is insulted, hurt, or destroyed, then it is known that the object was fueled by love. A very simple but common form of this is the love of self. Pride to be exact. It seems to be the archetype of a man to stand up when his pride has been injured, to recover honor when it is lost. A reaction of anger shows that the love of self was cut. But does not our lord himself say turn the other cheek when someone disrespects you? The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, all can show their face when anger comes around.

If simple anger is a reaction then revenge is premeditated with with intent to carry out some type of harm. Does not a majority of conflict, even on the national level arise from the desire for revenge? Each wants to come back harder and stronger than the previous such as in the case of war one kills another and then the retaliation kills 2 more in its place, amplifying endlessly until none remains. Is revenge then not a twisted hydra that continues to grow once you cut off its head?

The only way that is seen to overcome the desire for revenge is to put down the sword of the vigilante and recognize that justice will be done by he who knows all. To do so is to forgive, so we must learn to forgive so we will be forgiven. The solution to overcoming anger in general is to love that which cannot be destroyed. To place your mind upon that which is above where rust and robbers cannot lay hands. To cultivate a character of virtue that seeks not towards anger as a result of being in pain but to utilize it. Allow yourself to feel anger but not express it to the affect that it causes you to sin. Use it as fuel to do that which is right. Defend the widow, take care of the broken hearted, mend the sick, become stronger as to take care of all those who are weaker.

"21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." - Matt. 5:21-24