Dear Christ the King Family,
Our readings this weekend really speak for themselves quite clearly, so I have to admit that this is a tough column because I’m not really sure what to add or describe! Anger and wrath are things that are so spiritually destructive and we contend with those feelings so often within our hearts and around our society and world. So many voices in our world today are charged with wrath and anger…and mercy and peace can often seem in short supply. In light of our readings, a few thoughts of mine connect to a passage from Pope Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas that stands out:
“Communication networks, fragmented information environments and algorithms that
reward conflict can magnify polarization and resentment, increase propaganda and make
shared discernment more difficult. Thus, war is not only fought, but also culturally
conditioned through simplistic narratives, a friend-or-foe mentatlity, disinformation and
fear.” (Magnifica Humanitas, 192)
So much of the wrath, resentment, and polarization are stoked in our world because it is very easy for us to be manipulated when we’re in those spaces, even though we might not think so. Certainly, feelings of anger can come from just places that motivate us to do the good. Nevertheless, when it seems that the “tracks” we’re set on are not a train moving in a definite destination and more of a closed-loop rollercoaster, then we need to pause and consider what we really stand to gain. Maybe we need to get off the screen more often and prayerfully consider what our personal algorithms are feeding us.
For so many of us, anger, resentment, and wrath can be a perverse sort of security blanket that, as Sirach puts it, we cling to tightly. Even though we feel ashamed of our wrath, we grip ever tighter because it preserves a worldview where “I” am at the center, where we catalogue every grievance and wrong we have suffered at the hands of others. It’s certainly not easy to let go of that really deep, self-centered tendency that all of us reckon with on account of sin. And yet, when we put God at the center instead of ourselves, as Our Lord’s parable highlights today, we realize just how foolish and downright wicked our anger, nursing of grudges, and acts of revenge look in light of how much God has forgiven us in His mercy. We can be so deeply afraid of letting our secure sense of the world slip away if we humble ourselves and let God be the center instead. If we do, however, we come to discover that nothing is truly lost and we become even more fully ourselves than we could have given on our own. As St. Paul reminds us: “Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” That’s true not just for our mortal death, but also in our dying to a false sense of self along the way of discipleship.
In Christ, Our King and Prince of Peace,
Fr. David
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