Releasing Righteous Anger

I am holding a fair amount of anger toward someone in my church. I have had run-ins with this person in the past. I doubt he remembers them, but I do. He is one of the leading voices in a movement, to the best of my ability to see, makes people feel inadequate coming before God.

Without going into detail--which might not be fair--I went through a period earlier this year where I felt like church was a performance appraisal and I wasn't measuring up. As one of the leading advocates of the primacy of the liturgy in all things related to the church, I got angry with him, and with a number of other people.

He was a part of Mass this past weekend and I was so angry at him that I could barely concentrate on the Mass. But the reasons we get angry at people tell us at least as much about us as the people at whom we are angry. And part of the reason I was angry at him was because it was relatively easy to make me feel like I wasn't measuring up and was maybe an embarrassment to my parish.

But as much as I am responsible, I don't operate in a vacuum. And I am not the only one who is put off by this. Getting put off by religion does not give you the right to go on a rampage against it. However, I believe that some of the things going on in my church are building walls between God and His people and are helping to keep hurting people from the relief they might find.

By being angry, though, I lose the ability to view this situation with the detachment required to do something about it.

And until I can view it that way, I am hampered by my anger.