Daily Gospel Reflection

Let Your Anger Teach You

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. I'm Matthew Kelly. We're exploring the genius of the gospel and just how radical it is 2,000 years later. What does that mean? It's still really hard to live and just how relevant it is 2000 years later. What does that mean? Jesus rooted the Gospel in a profound understanding of the human person, which makes it timeless. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 5:20-26.

"For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You've heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill, and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the counsel, and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be liable to the hellfire. So, if you're offering your gift at the altar, and there, you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Make friends quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court lest your accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny." What jumps out at you today?

We talk each day about picking a word or a phrase or an idea. Today, for me, it's just a word. Jesus says, "But I say to you that everyone who is angry," and that's the word, angry, because it seems we live in an angry culture at the moment. It seems almost everyone is angry about something and very often disproportionately angry. It's like, "Okay, yeah, I can see that that's a problem," or, "I can see that that's an injustice, but your anger seems outsized for what we're actually talking about here." And so I think today is an opportunity to explore our anger and what are we angry at? Who are we angry at? Is it proportionate? Are we finding healthy ways to express that anger? Are we expressing that anger in unhealthy ways? Or are we suppressing that anger? And that isn't good for us or anyone else because it will stay there, it will fester, that anger turned in on itself will ultimately become a form of profound sadness or depression. And so we experience anger. Jesus was angry in the temple, natural human emotion. Question is, how do we express it? How do we process it? Have a great day. Remember, be bold, be Catholic.