Anger…

Adán writes of a moment when anger from a “deep primal place” overtook him. Those of you who know Adán will probably be surprised that such a thoughtful, generous and quiet man would have this experience. I, on the other hand, am surprised that more of us don’t acknowledge such anger. There is, as Audre Lorde and others have written, a crucial role for anger — and we ought to be recognizing it and moving from it these days, given all of the injustice surrounding us. I don’t mean move from it into hatred or violence, but move from it in righteousness and love, to work on dismantling the oppressive systems which spark our feelings in the first place. I am convinced that suppressing such anger is part of what makes our culture so sick in the first place.

When time after time we push our feelings down, and tell ourselves that we must be patient, we must find ways to reach people, aren't we also somehow telling ourselves to ignore the depth of our feelings? Because perhaps in ignoring them we might also get on with our semi-comfortable lives? Until we start to heed the deep voices inside us -- and I am Catholic enough to believe that the deepest voices are fundamentally about love and compassion -- then we risk ignoring the God who calls us to care for the "anawim." Perhaps if more people were able to find ways to channel anger into constructive action in love we might tap more deeply into powerful wellsprings of action!