Readings:
Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 17
Romans 5:12-19 or 5:12, 17-19
Matthew 4:1-11

Holy anger.

In 2009, I was introduced to this phrase in a lecture on James Cone given by Fr. Bryan Massingale and it named something I often felt deeply. So, it has stuck with me. In 2020, philosopher Myisha Cherry published a book with the title The Case for Rage that gestured in a similar direction. In this vein, “Holy Anger” refers to the natural human expression of a righteous anger that is the consequence of experiencing oppression, affliction, and suffering. It is a healthy emotion that is part and parcel of being human, is dynamic, and has energy that must flow somewhere. The goal is to recognize and channel it for healing and constructive social change. In the communion of saints, Catholic luminaries like Thomas Aquinas, Cesar Chavez, and Dorothy Day all affirmed this very part of being human.

It’s a stretch to find this kind of “holy anger” in this week’s readings. The authors of the second creation account in Genesis are not interested in this. They are interested in the ruach (רוּחַ) of God that was breathed into the earth creature and how that binds us to God even now despite The Fall. The Psalmist has other things on their mind. They are positioning the people as sinners who are confessing their sinfulness to God, asking for forgiveness, and committing to repentance and conversion. Paul’s Letter to the Romans also is tuned into a similar frequency. He is interested in “telling the story” of how Jesus fits into God’s plan of salvation that heals the wound created by the decisions of our first parents. Even Matthew’s Gospel, which relates the story of Jesus’ temptations in the desert before he began his ministry, is not immediately concerned with human dignity in the face of violence and oppression.

In fact, “holy anger” was probably better suited to last Sunday’s readings. So, why am I writing about this? Am I doing a “bait and switch” where I massage the texts until their sacred tissue dissolves in my profane hands and I then replace God’s Word with my own personal message? I may be guilty of that, although I hope not. Time will tell.

But I contend something different. I contend that there is an urgency in our context demands a different kind of reflection this week. I contend that the extraordinariness of this moment demands attention to context and places the “burden of proof”, so to speak, on the lectionary.

After all, this is the first Sunday of Lent! Yes, as the Psalmist reminds us, we need to be called to repent. Yes, as Paul reminds us, we need to re-encounter our “Christian story” of God’s offer of salvation from sinning and being sinned-against. Yes, as Genesis reminds us, we need to be cognizant of our origins as God’s creatures and that we carry the goodness of creatureliness with us despite The Fall.

Yet I think the words of Jesus here should be the focus. I call your attention to his three references from the Hebrew Scriptures with which he rebuts the tempter:

• “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
• “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.”
• “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.”

These words invite us to pay attention to the “holy anger” in our own bodies and souls. It’s there for a reason. Here, in the U.S., we live in a moment where our fellow Christians and many others with power are blaspheming each and every one of these sayings with their words and deeds. So many are entrusting our common future to obscenely rich men who control resources as if they can be trusted as the sole arbiters of goodness, beauty, and truth so long as they feed us with scraps from the table (living by bread alone); and are oppressing their sisters and brothers through the abusive and racially discriminatory use of certain ICE operations — practices that too often tear apart families and communities — even though all carry God’s own image and likeness (putting God to the test) and are remaining blindly faithful to the cult of personality in a political party that is wreaking havoc on core tenets of the Way of Jesus in the contemporary world (serving an idol rather than the God of Jesus Christ).

So many are in need of a “mystical-political” conversion away from serving an idolatrous political order of deceit, oppression, and death into serving the in-breaking Reign of the God of Truth, Liberation, and Life. This is a space into which our holy anger can constructively flow. Here, it can meet God’s Spirit and be channeled for solidarity, human dignity, and the common good. It is never too late. Even when the hour seems late, when violence and authoritarianism become normalized and our best efforts appear to end in abject failure, God will not be deterred. God’s justice, healing, liberation, and forgiveness will have the final word.

Let us ponder what Scripture prompts in us today. Let us not be afraid of “holy anger” and channel this natural aspect of being human into communal, constructive action for human dignity, solidarity, and the common good. Let us ponder this deeper meaning of repentance as a community as we enter Lent together. Amen.

Kevin P. Considine, PhD