You’ve heard it said many times: when we pray, we should tell God how we really feel. But that’s not easy to do. Brian Busse, SJ, points to our aversion to the psalms that express anger and violence, and makes a wise observation:
there’s a danger to the temptation we feel to distance ourselves from these psalms of lament (which make up fully one-third of the psalter!), and the danger is that we’ll ignore a simple truth: we actually feel this way. Enacting violence is unjustified, but without allowing anger and pain to burst forth around God we can communicate, especially to the young, that such feelings are abnormal, that we shouldn’t feel anger or pain. This is not good.
Since we most times look at God as our Father it feels wrong to yell back or express anger. (Never permitted with my Dad)
I like to think that God is a more modern parent, if a parent at all, who allows us to speak our peace and express ourselves. I don’t think He minds. He knows what is in our hearts anyway.
m.
Yikes. I like this guy Busse. He sounds like me. I doubt we’ll convince anyone of the efficacy of those, um, little anger prayers though.
Thanks for the smile.