The joy of this Easter Season is tempered by the events that took place at Virginia Tech. We commend to the love and mercy of God all of those whose lives were ended or scarred as a result of what happened.

Commentaries abound as to the underlying causes of this tragedy, with speculation about the mind and character of the perpetrator as well as questions about society at large. What happened clearly has to do with violence, but perhaps it has even more to do with the root cause of such violence, namely, anger.

Just before Easter, on the occasion of the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral, I mentioned in my homily the plague of anger in contemporary society. While what happened at Virginia Tech is an extreme example of anger gone berserk, today’s level of anger touches all of us.

Peter Wood, provost and professor of anthropology at the King’s College in New York, has written a book titled, “A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now.” Professor Wood tells us that as recently as a generation ago, anger was an emotion people were expected to keep under control. Displays of anger in public were considered unseemly, a cause for others to turn away in disgust. Today, however, outbursts of anger in our country are apt to be applauded as a way of showing one’s “authenticity.” Displays of anger can win a person fame and fortune. As another writer summarizes it: “From political commentary to popular music, restraint is out and wrath is in.”

Modern society has supposedly made life more “free and easy.” Yet who ever heard of “road rage” a generation ago, except perhaps in a movie plot? So-called liberal laws about marriage and family, especially easy access to divorce, were supposed to make people freer and happier, but all too often we see the bitter spectacle of angry recriminations between divorced spouses, as well as child custody battles that scar so many young lives. If the statistics are to be believed, we also have an epidemic of abusive situations throughout our society.

Feeling angry at life’s frustrations is a temptation of the human condition, and there is such a thing as righteous anger over one’s own sins and the sins of others. However, when this emotional sense of displeasure snowballs into antagonism, brooding resentment, the desire to sow discord, and especially the desire for vengeance, then anger is rightly called one of the seven deadly or capital sins along with pride, avarice, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1866)

As followers of Christ it is important that we discern anger as a sign of the times — to use the words of the Second Vatican Council — in order to bring His healing to the world. Jesus faced a tidal wave of human anger leading up to His crucifixion. However, He overcame this tragic state of affairs, not by returning anger for anger, but as the First Letter of Peter says: “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but He trusted to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:23f)

If the triumphant Risen Christ has shown us anything, it is that patient endurance and merciful forgiveness — not anger — are the only paths to victory over evil and to the peace that this world cannot give, both for ourselves and for others.

Whatever frustrations we may feel, whatever wrongs we may endure, whatever the issue may be in our nation and the world, how important it is to realize that with Christ we are called to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, in the face of dissension, discord, vengeance and hatred. The transformation of our own hearts into the ways of patience, forgiveness and peace is a powerful spiritual remedy against the anger that so wounds all of us.

When it comes to remedies, I cannot fail to mention the Sacrament of Penance. I once had a conversation with a psychologist about how much anger there is in people today. “Bishop,” she said, “what do you expect when so few people go to confession any more.”

Please join me in working and praying for peace and healing in our nation and world, in marriage and family life, in our parishes and schools, our local communities and diocese, so that we can be a believable sign of the Risen Christ’s victory over the anger that alienates and divides human beings from God and from one another.

+THE MOST REVEREND LEONARD P. BLAIR
   BISHOP OF TOLEDO