In the opening scenes of the motion picture Changing
Lanes (2002), two men, strangers
to one another, are literally on a collision course. Gavin
Banek, is a self-assured and charismatic Wall Street lawyer,
a partner in a less than honest legal firm; Banek is on a motorway speeding
to a probate hearing. Doyle Gipson,
is newly separated from his wife and children, and he is rushing on the
same motorway, in the same direction, toward a custody hearing. Their
cars collide. Banek, the smooth talker attempts to pay Gipson off at the
scene with a blank cheque. Gipson for his part seeks to exchange addresses
but Banek quickly drives away, not knowing that he has dropped
a critical legal document, integral to a multi-million dollar probate
case. Gipson finds the papers, and, himself delayed by the accident, arrives
late at the custody hearing only to be told that he has lost the case
in absentia.
What follows is a bitter series of angry recrimnations in which Gipson
refuses to return the file, and Banek, in revenge, has a corporate computer
hacker suspend Gipson's credit, thus preventing the latter from purchasing
a home, and stifling an opportunity to keep his estranged wife and children
within New York. The pattern of deceit and revenge, fuelled by anger,
becomes increasingly destructive. The viewer is left reflecting on how
one reckless action became the catalyst for a pyrrhic series of counter-attacks.
Spurred on by uncontrollable anger, both Banek and Gipson have metamorphosised
into mere fragments of their previous selves a metamorphosis which
eventually horrifies and disgusts them both.
In his "Homily Against Anger",
St. Basil the Great provided an examination
that in part discussed how 'anger' "makes
the human being entirely like a wild beast", quoting Scripture
in both Proverbs (15.1) and Ephesians (4:31),
as well as expanding on an alternate perspective of 'anger': "And
the Lord threatens judgement for those who are angered without purpose
[Mt. 5: 22], but he
does not reject the use of anger for things that are necessary, as a medicine."
(Basil the Great, 2005, pp. 81 & 90)
Oftentimes we are led to believe that 'anger' is inherently and uniformly,
sinful and evil. Yet St. Basil clearly
separates 'anger' into dichotomies, and speaks of that anger which is
used righteously as well as that anger which has no cause other than a
person's ill demeanour or blackened spirit.
In the first type of anger, St. Basil qualifies that one must always
temper one's righteous anger with compassion: "Redirect
your temper onto the murderer of human beings, the father of lies, the
worker of sin; but sympathize also with your brother, because if he continues
in sin, with the devil he will be delivered up to eternal fire".
(Basil the Great, 2005, p. 90) A mother who
chastises a child for not heeding her warning to keep away from a hot
stove, is not sinning when she becomes angry when the child disobeys her.
But her actions can be sinful, if her anger is uncontrollable, un-remitting,
uncompromising, or violent. As St. Basil writes, the inherent problem
therefore of human beings implementing righteous anger is that we need
to ensure as best as we can, the goodness of our motives, and not act
out of some selfish desire to exact revenge on another, nor wish a form
of perverse pleasure by seeing the object of our anger in pain or inconsolable
by our angry comments and actions.
According to St. Basil, all of us are obliged
to become angry on occasion. The man who does not become angry at the
sight of an evil or an injustice, is not a spiritual man but a
man who is either dead or ambivalent to virtue, and/or dead to the welfare
of his neighbour. In such a light, Christ's cleansing of the Temple,
was a good act even though it was an act completed in anger, for Christ
was rightfully repulsed at the scandal that lay before him, and He sought
to cauterise the sickness at its very root. (cf: Mark
11: 15-19). Yet all anger, righteous or not, has its consequences.
For this reason, St. Basil cautions us to
be careful that our anger only be roused when we are fully prepared to
accept all that flows from it.
This being said, St. Basil's teaching on
anger requires of each individual a search to the very depths of our spirits,
honestly reflecting on our particular motivations for becoming angry.
For example, do we become angry because the perceived protagonist has
indeed done something seriously wrong, or more because we harbour a pre-existing
hate awaiting the 'right' moment to be unleashed? Christ exemplified the
former case of anger and not the latter. In the latter case, hatred and
any other vice held in one's heart for another person, threaten the judiciousness
of our actions. Each of us must step back for a moment before venting
our anger and seriously investigate inward. This investigation can be
quite painful for perhaps after searching deeply for the cause of our
anger, we may in fact be left with a reflected image of ourselves
hating others for the inadequacies we perceive in ourselves, and not for
anything they may have done to us. Banek and Gipson were in fact not angry
with one another when their cars collided yet they were angry at
the course their lives were taking, and decided to turn the full vent
of their frustrations, unjustly, fully on the other.
Above all, St. Basil's homily, with its
theme of introspection, provides the reader with the notion that we all
must seek greater self-discipline in controlling our anger so as to avoid
the risk of doing evil. If we do not seek such self-control, human nature
being as it is, we will pass like runners in a baton relay anger from
one person to the next through our families, across members of
a society, and from societies to nations. We must realize what in life
is worthy of our anger, and what can be easily deflected by a mature and
healthy spirit.
Wherein it is nigh impossible for us never to become angry, we could
do much worse than paying heed to some parting advice from St.
Basil. Writing in words comforting to a soul that is being provoked
to anger, St. Basil coached his audience:
"When you are stirred by the temptation
to abuse, consider that you are being tested as to whether through longsuffering
you will come near to God, or through anger run away toward the adversary.
Give your thoughts the opportunity to choose the good portion. For you
will either help that person somehow through your example of meekness,
or exact a more severe vengeance through disdain. For what could become
more painful to your enemy, than to see his enemy as above insults? Do
not overturn your own purpose, and do not appear to be easily accessible
to those who insult you. Let him bark at you ineffectually; let it burst
upon himself. For the one who strikes one who feels no pain takes vengeance
on himself, for neither is his enemy repaid, nor is his temper assuaged.
Likewise, the person reproaching one unaffected by abuse is unable to
find relief for his passion. On the contrary, as I have said, he is indeed
cut to the heart. Moreover, in these circumstances, what sort of things
will each of you be called? He is abusive, but you are magnanimous; he
is prone to anger and hard to bear, but you are longsuffering and meek.
He will change his mind about the things he said, but you will never repent
of your virtue." (Basil the Great,
2005, p. 85)

IMAGE
SOURCES: Click on the images for the original source.
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Andrew
Thomas Kania is Director of Spirituality of Aquinas College,
Manning. Prior to this appointment Dr. Kania was a lecturer for
the School of Religious Education at the University of Notre Dame
Australia as well as for the Catholic Institute of Western Australia
at Edith Cowan and Curtin Universities. Dr. Kania belongs to the
Ukrainian Church and is interested in ecumenical issues as well
as contemporary problems facing religious educators.
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©2007
Dr Andrew Thomas Kania
[Andrew Kania's Archive]
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