When after this, by chance, or rather by divine design, I came across St. John's Institutes on a site on the Web, I knew what God was calling me to confront during the Great Fast. While anger affects all of us, it seems men especially are afflicted by anger, often mastered by it, and all too frequently over-mastered by it. We get out of bed in a bad temper, we come home in a bad temper. In our families, we become hyper-sensitive to what we regard as our spouse's and children's faults and become angry when our comments are not appreciated. We may comment on our spouse's anger and generate angry exchanges as a consequence.
Anger easily goes out of control.
Barnabas is freed rather than Christ. We may gain our thirty pieces of psychological victory but then never can rise beyond the death we have dealt to our soul. Unless our anger is itself crucified, unless this passion is sacrificed in the painful arena of our most intimate relationships, we cannot bury it and rise again without it. The pain of this process is every bit as real as nails hammered into our flesh and we shudder at the thought and do not want to face it. It is so much easier to pretend that all is fine while carrying around a subconscious grudge which then finds its expression the moment our guard lapses.