*Holy Anger.*Homily for November 23, 2017.

When he had finished speaking these words, a Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice upon the altar in Modein, according to the king's command. When Mattathias saw it, be burned with zeal and his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran and killed him upon the altar. 1 Macc. 2:23-25

One of the lessons from today’s readings is this: Anger can be sinful, it can also be Holy. I think when we properly employ our anger against evil and sin, anger itself can actually become a cure for wrongdoing and a medicine for repentance.

Until we summon enough anger against ourselves, against our bad habits and addictions, we remain held bound under the influence of sin. On the other hand, anger can be sinful when there are no good intentions behind it or when it is simply aimed at destroying others for the sake of it.

Yes, if there was any time Jesus was profusely angry, it was when he entered the temple and saw that people had turned it into a market place. Even though he was God, he did not mind behaving like someone who had gone out of his mind, he overturned tables, threw things around, whipped people and released animals.

This is exactly what we see in the first reading today, Mattathias having watched how the evil king Antiochus was going about turning the Jews from the religion of their fathers was filled with so much fury that rather than bend, he decided to fight for truth and righteousness.

The other side of anger is fear! Fear is a feeling of paralysis that evil is too powerful and that we cannot do anything. Many people were so afraid of the king that they felt they had no choice but to bow to his forced apostasy.

But we need to be able to see evil for itself and muscle up enough anger in our spirit in other to fight against sin. The reason why we are held bound is because we do not have enough hatred for sin or to put it in another way, we are not able to recognise sin for what it is, so we play with it, we joke with it, we fancy it, we laugh over it yet we know it is destroying us.

We have made friends with sin, we love it too much to even be angry when we see it so it sticks to us and when we try to repent, (that is, when we ask it to go), it soon gradually and gently returns back to us and so easily, we welcome it again and again.

If only our society can be angry enough at the many evils that prevail and stop trying to condone or justify them, what a beautiful world we would have. Even in our Gospel passage this morning, we see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. We should weep over our sins and be angry enough to repent rather than rationalize them!

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, fill me with zeal for truth, righteousness and holiness. Amen.

*Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. (Thursday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time. Bible Study:  1 Maccabees 2:15-29 and Luke 19:41-44).*