WHEN DID JESUS EVER ACT IN ANGER?

All my life I've heard the story told again today from lecterns in Catholic churches throughout the world about Jesus and the leper. When I was a child, I heard it from the Douay-Rheims bible which said Jesus had "compassion" for the leper. Today our dumbed-down lectionaries say Jesus "felt sorry" or had "pity" for him. Same thing, really.

Now, the Douay-Rheims bible was used in the Church exclusively from 1610-1941, and most commonly right up to 1960. So the Douay-Rheims was read by perhaps the majority of the great saints celebrated in the Church's liturgy today. They believed that Jesus had “compassion” and followed his example.

But this week a Church JPIC (Justice and Peace in the Integrity of Creation) source says that now there's a better translation. What Jesus really truly felt, apparently, was anger. 

In the past I've also heard priests in homilies and commentaries state unequivocally that when Jesus whipped the money changers out of the temple he was angry. But I've read every version that’s come my way of that episode, searching for the word ‘anger’, but in vain.

We in our natural, fallen human condition just assume, because of Jesus' actions in the temple, that he must have been angry. But in the single episode I know of in the New Testament where Jesus is described as having “anger” (Mk 3:5), we see that his anger does not translate into action, but into “being grieved for the blindness of their hearts”. Moreover, the epistles expressly tell us not to be angry, several times over. 

While obviously there are times when we feel angry, it’s dangerous to persuade ourselves that we're right to express our anger, for the obvious reason that venting anger usually has unfortunate repercussions for others, even if only by enflaming theirs.

The other aspect of this vexed question is that in relieving his feelings, the angry person misses an opportunity for self-denial. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24 – and also in Mark and Luke).

I understand why people in the pews, and especially priests in the pulpits, might feel angry these days. Amoris Laetitia has left the Church in turmoil. We have to decide who's right and who's wrong. We all, as individual members of the Body of Christ, have to discern the truth.

All the more reason then, to keep a clear head, and our eyes on Jesus Christ.