Inauguration Day - Anger in America

 

                                                             Sr. Dorothy Schuette

                                                Inauguration Day- Anger in America

“Hope has two beautiful daughters – their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.” – St. Augustine

What we are experiencing at this time in our country is a lot of anger, seemingly about everything political, social, environmental; restrictions on our liberties, disquiet within our souls. How shall we listen to God about this? For what do we pray? Anger is not the problem in itself. Misdirected expressions of anger that result in violence are.

As St. Augustine reminds us, anger is a natural response that rises in us when we know that things are not as they should be. The seriousness of the situation calls forth a more or less intense feeling of anger. The Good News is that this is the root of justice making. It energizes us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and of all those persecuted for standing up for the poor and marginalized such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr whom we celebrated earlier this week. They have shown us that actions flowing from Holy Anger are measured by the cost to themselves, not damage to another.

Let us remember that Anger has a sister, Courage. Courage calls out our fears. “What fears?”, we might ask today. If we look deep within us we may find many specific answers. Author of Daring Greatly, Brené Brown suggests that a basic fear shared by many is that of “scarcity”, that is, there is never enough time, never enough money, that we are never pretty enough,  rich enough, good enough, etc. The heart of scarcity is greed, shame, comparison and disengagement. She further poses the question that we can ask of our nation today, “Do we lack the empathy to be compassionate?” Do we fear that America is too small for all of us? Too inadequate for all that God asks of us?

I am hoping that it is not.  My prayer is that all of us who are citizens and those to aspire to be will discover that our connections are truer and stronger than what separates us. May the Holy Spirit give us the wisdom to discern the way forward, to discover what unites us and help us trust rather than fear each other.

The mother of Anger and Courage is Hope. Let us put on the garment of Hope- grow into it, let it comfort us, warm us, and enable us to open our arms to receive each other as the family we truly are.