Spiritual Anger

I n today’s Gospel reading Jesus rebukes James and John who wish to punish the Samaritan village for its lack of hospitality;

When the disciples James and John saw this they asked,
"Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven
to consume them?"
Jesus turned and rebuked them,
and they journeyed to another village.

In St John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul, he comments on the imperfections of beginners in the spiritual life.  He uses the capital vices pride, avarice, lust anger, gluttony, envy and sloth.  Each of these can be a “spiritual” imperfection in the beginner.   He comments that “because of the strong desire of many beginners for spiritual gratification, they usually have many imperfections of anger.”  He notes “they become peevish in the works that they do and easily angered by the least thing, and occasionally they are so unbearable that nobody can put up with them.” (DNS 1.5.1).

SGM