By Fr. Roy Cimagala
From time to time, we see Christ showing anger over certain issues. This only validates the fact that anger is not necessarily bad, since it is part of our human nature and definitely also of the supernatural character of our life. We just have to be very careful about it, seeing to it that our anger is righteous anger, and not just the anger of a brute animal.
When Christ got mad over some leading Jews of his time, (cfr. Lk 10,13-16) that was because despite the many good things Christ showed them, they persisted in their own self-righteous ways and even went to the extent not only of not believing in Christ but also of finally condemning him to death.
We too should feel the anger of Christ, since we cannot deny that despite everything that Christ has done for us, we continue to be erratic in our ways, falling into all kinds of anomalies and sins. By feeling Christ’s anger, we should also feel the need for us to have another round of repentance and conversion.
Let’s just be frank about ourselves. We are all sinners! No matter how much we try to be good and holy—and to a certain extent, we can actually manage to achieve that ideal—we can still find ourselves falling into sin, if not big ones, then small ones, which can actually be more dangerous since we can tend to take them for granted, until we get used to them and would not feel anymore the need for repentance and conversion.
We have to understand that conversion is a continuing affair for all of us in this life. We can never say, if we have to follow by what our Christian faith tells us, that we are so good as to need conversion no more. We are all sinners, St. John said. And even the just man, as the Bible said, falls seven times in a day.
Besides, it is this sense of continuing conversion that would really ensure us that whatever we do, whatever would happen to us, including our failures and defeats, would redound to what is truly good for the parties concerned and for everybody else in general.
That’s because conversion brings us and everything that we have done in life to a reconciliation with God, from whom we come and to whom we go.
Also, Christ’s anger is actually a call for us to practice sincerity and consistency in our life, avoiding even the slightest trace of hypocrisy and double life. In fact, we should develop what is called as unity of life, rooted on our earnest effort to identify ourselves with Christ who is the pattern of our humanity, the savior of our damaged humanity.
We have to understand that only with Christ can we aspire to have unity and consistency in our life, one that is not rigid. Rather it is a consistency and unity that knows how to adapt itself properly given the different and changing conditions and circumstances of our life.
So, we really have to earnestly pursue the effort of living and defending our Christian identity all the time. We should not be afraid to show our Christian identity at all times and in all situations. We should not be Christian by name only, but also by our thoughts, desires and deeds, and in all aspects of our life. We should not be Christian in good times only, but also, and most especially, in bad times. We should not be Christian only in our sacred moments, but also in our mundane activities.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
