I know a priest who, to put it mildly, has a choleric temperament, which comes out in his fiery homiletic style. He’s the kind of priest who we all really need to hear from occasionally, one who is blunt, to the point, and not afraid to offer holy chastisement. He’s an exceedingly kind and good priest, which I hasten to point out because sometimes people misunderstand his style of preaching as being uncaring. In fact, he speaks the truth as bluntly as he does precisely because he has compassion for his parishioners. He wants them to know the truth.
One time, a parishioner asked why he’d become “so angry” during one of his homilies. He responded, “Well, I’m always angry.” He didn’t say that with a shrug, and he wasn’t glamorizing an out-of-control emotion. Rather, he was acknowledging a particularity of his temperament, saying, “I try to use my anger for the good.”
One of those ways is by channeling it into a reasonable but forthright expression of the truth. His anger, properly controlled, is righteous, and it gives him clear insight and motivation to preach the Gospel.
Some people feel anger more freely and quickly than others. This isn’t a good or a bad thing. It’s how we respond. The fact is, righteous anger is even displayed by Our Lord several times in the Scriptures. It’s no sin.
St. Paul, if you read his letters closely, clearly has a choleric temperament and shows some anger in his dealings with those who attack the Church. He often shows anger and frustration with his own sins.
In a confirmation class in my parish years ago, one of the girls chose St. Jerome as her saint name. She explained that she was constantly frustrated with her parents and friends and school. She knew that St. Jerome had a similar problem, so she felt a kinship with him and desired his prayers. I thought that was a great idea.
I, too, have an anger problem. I’ve written before about the melancholic temperament, which is a temperament I very much identify with, but I also display choleric tendencies. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to angrily rant about how wrong someone else was, how ridiculous the world has become, or how no one knows anything except me. Of course, this is all incorrect. It isn’t righteous anger at all but, rather, self-indulgence. When anger gets the best of me, I become irrational and uncharitable. The result is never good, encouraging a number of other vices in me such as pride, self-deception, and impatience.
St. Jerome, too, became well aware that his anger had gotten out of control. He was a scholar and frequently found himself fulminating against other scholars, including calling them names. He felt his anger getting the upper hand over him and took drastic measures, eventually becoming a hermit to live alone in prayer and penance.
Alone, he was able to work at curbing his response to anger and channeling it in a healthy direction. The key to his progress wasn’t becoming someone he was not. A choleric is always a choleric. Anger is an emotion universal to the human experience. No, the key to St. Jerome being “always angry” in the best sense of that phrase, the manner by which he became a saint, wasn’t becoming someone he was not. It was in becoming more himself. Through constant self-examination, he was able to finally understand his anger and turn it to good purposes.
Making peace with the emotion
First, we need to be clear that emotions are neutral. Trying to eliminate emotions entirely isn’t a good strategy. We cannot become emotionless. That won’t ever happen. But what we can do is understand the emotion, where it comes from, why it’s being felt, and how to turn it towards a good outcome.
This is what Our Lord does, what St. Paul does, and eventually, what St. Jerome learns to do. In order to dig down below his emotions and understand their origin, he had to spend time in self-examination. This is a habit all of us should emulate. At the end of each day, we should examine our actions, the good and bad. When it comes to the actions we regret, once we identify them we can ask ourselves why we acted that way. With this information, we can plan ahead to avoid a similar reaction in the future and, instead, use the emotion in a positive way.
When we feel angry, for instance, it’s usually a clue that we need more information about a situation, need to adjust our humility level, practice empathy, or brainstorm a solution to a problem. Anger can actually be turned towards the good, but we need to take the time to understand it.
Conscious re-framing
Once we make peace with the inevitability of emotional reactions, understanding that there will be times when we’re angry or sad or anxious and those feelings are not a failing but, rather, signals that we need to do some deep thinking, we can begin to re-frame the meaning of the emotions. Through self-examination and reflection we can regain control by thinking carefully and rationally.
When an emotion like anger is allowed to burn out of control, we become irrational. Anger causes us to mistreat others, lash out, say and do things we know will result in negative consequences. Anger, and any emotion, can be transformed through conscious effort. We cannot allow emotions to lead the way. We must slow down and think. Even an emotion such as anger can be turned into a strength when it’s placed in an ordered relationship with rationality.
Turning toward the good
The transformation of an emotion like anger is all about redirecting its energy. People who react strongly to injustice, flaws, and disagreements are the exact sort of people who have strong leadership qualities. They aren’t afraid to express themselves or get involved. People like this have energy and aren’t afraid to use it. They’re willing to push for change and tackle big challenges.
Whenever I’m angry, I try to examine my conscience and figure out how I can channel my energy towards a positive solution. My anger mellows into determination and persistence in fighting for what I know is right.
Humility
The final reason that a good self-examination is vital when we’re trying to deal with a habitual, powerful emotion like anger is because, even though I always initially think I’m right, after reflection, it turns out I’m often not. I would hate to be self-righteously fighting for the wrong cause. It seems to me that angering easily is related to pride. I don’t take the time to consider other viewpoints, automatically assume myself correct, and feel anger when others don’t agree.
St. Jerome was aware of this connection, which is precisely why he became a hermit. He wanted to practice asceticism and spiritual poverty in order to destroy his pride. Examinations of conscience can reveal when our motives are prideful and assist with developing humility. Sometimes, humility is all that’s needed to dissipate anger or other disordered emotions. The anger, it turns out, is completely baseless. It was an indulgence, an ego-centered, unconsidered reaction.
It takes a good examination of conscience to sort out all our emotions. Where are they from? Am I feeling it too strongly, maybe out of a sense of pride? How can I channel the emotion into a good, healthy behavior?
No matter how difficult it can be to untangle our emotions, or how mightily we struggle to break bad habits when it comes to emotions like anger, the example of St. Jerome is encouraging because, not only was he able to make personal progress on these issue through regular examinations of his conscience, but he was able to turn around his life so dramatically that, today, he’s a saint.
