A DIET OF ANGER 

CAN CAUSE EMOTIONAL 

INDIGESTION

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Eleventh Monday in Ordinary Time  is, “A Diet of Anger Can Cause Emotional Indigestion.”

TODAY'S READINGS

That’s the thought that hit me when I read today’s 2 readings.

The gospel is from the Sermon on the Mount which offers lots of peace giving messages about how to be at peace in this life.

Questions: Have you ever met someone whom you and others describe as, “He’s an angry person!” or “She’s an angry woman!” and you slowly slip slide away whenever your see him or her if possible. Has anyone ever described me or you as an angry person? If I am and if they think that, I’m sure the comments are made behind our backs.

In the Sermon on the Mount, we’ve already heard about killing and cursing and anger. We've heard about making reconciliation before coming here to offer our gifts at the altar. In today’s gospel Jesus addresses the issue of retaliation. You hit me. You yell at me. You curse at me. I come back at you double fold. Listen to children - but especially adults - in a fight - and you'll notice that Jesus knows what he’s talking about. Jesus today and tomorrow tells us to double our reactions the other way: turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, pray for those we hate or don’t like.

Jesus knows life. Jesus knows people. Jesus knows reactions.

EATING AND ANGER

I’m have been convinced many - many - many times - that Jesus figured out somewhere along the line the deep and obvious connection between eating and  anger - eating and relationships - eating and communion. I am convinced we too know this down deep. Our tummies hurt when we’re hurting with another. We can’t eat when we’re very angry - or we over eat. Communion means community.

Jesus is seen in the scriptures often eating. And whom does he eat with? Sinners. He’s in communion with them. 

Now I know people disagree with this: but I don’t get this communion blocking stuff. Jesus says: go out into the highways and byways and bring them in. My banquet must be filled. But some want to block some from eating at the banquet - because of inner anger - theological anger - ideological anger - mysterious anger. 

I catch that they are eating too much anger. I have avoided  MSNBC and FOX News - and I can't wait till November 7th. It's my perception: some of these news programs spread out a table full of spicy words and a diet of diatribe. 


By their fruits - you will know them. By my reactions - I can feel "ugly energies" in my tummy and in my mind. "Quick turn the channel!" "Is there a ball game on or an old Western?"

Saying even this much is a contradiction to my own words - because I'm venting my "spleeny stuff". Enough already!!!!

Jesus is saying today: turn that other cheek. Go that extra mile. So, it's smart to cool the anger. 


Life is supposed to be a banquet. It's a meal. When we get upset with each other - if anger is our steady diet - if we're always chewing on what bugs us about each other - then expect indigestion.

I really got this thought from today’s first reading. Ahab wants what he wants when he wants it - and he can’t get what he wants when he wants it. And today’s reading from 1^st Kings says that Naboth doesn’t want to sell or give up his family land and roots - even if the king wants it.

Notice what 1^st kings next says about King Ahab, “Lying down on his bed, he turned away from food and would not eat.”  Then the text has Jezebel entering the story. It says, “His wife Jezebel came to him and said to him, ‘Why are you so angry that you will not eat?’”

There it is: anger has caused him emotional indigestion.  It also will cause Naboth his life - and it will also eventually destroy his life and Jezebel’s life.

QUESTION:  ONCE MORE

Once more, Jesus is challenging us today to get in touch with our angers - and see what they can do to us. And he offers wonderful solutions: going the extra mile and turning the other cheek.

CONCLUSION

Let me offer one more solution.

It’s this: when angry against another, say to self: “Self! You might be wrong!”

I know I have my list of life’s experiences when I was dead wrong - in what I thought was going on.

Let me close with a good strong story on this from today’s New York Times. I love to read Metropolitan Diary every Monday morning and it rarely disappoints me. People simply write into Metropolitan Diary something that happened to them on the streets of New York City.

This story is entitled, “Grabbing a Quick, and Unpleasant, Bite. It’s by a someone named, Winton J. Tolles. It came in on June 13, 2012, at 8:59 AM.

Dear Diary:

I am walking down Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side. I have missed lunch and am late for a meeting when I pass a store handing out free samples. I grab three pieces, say a quick thank you, thrust the nourishment into my mouth and keeping moving.

The cheese tastes awful, but maybe it is an acquired taste. The more I chew, the worse it tastes, and my mouth is now full of a horrible, dreadfully unpleasant concoction. Since I am walking on Lexington Avenue, it is not appropriate to spit up on the sidewalk or the curb, so I have to keep chewing.

I use all my tenacity and swallow this horrid cheese sample.

At this point I am so angry that a store would foist this dish on a consumer that although I am late for a meeting, I reverse course and return to the scene of the sample.

I accost the young lady who is handing out the samples in a very loud voice: “That cheese was horrible. How can you give that out!”

She looks at me, hesitates, and then says uncertainly, “But these are samples of soap.”

I retreat quickly.