The anger or wrath of God is a concept — an idea — that confuses many people. And that’s understandable. After all, St. John explicitly tells us in his first letter that “God is love.” Psalm 103 tells us that “the Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness.” Romans 8:38 reminds us that “neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In our second reading for next Sunday St. Paul tells us that “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ.” And finally in next weekend’s gospel Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
These are just a few of the many Scripture verses that speak to us of God’s incredible, eternal love.
But there are also other passages of the Bible — like the text we will hear in next Sunday’s first reading — that speak to us of God’s “anger” and his “wrath.” In reflecting on the frequent rejection of the Lord by his chosen people, the author of 2 Chronicles states that “the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.” The result of that infidelity and rebellion was the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and 70 years of exile in Babylon.
So how are these two ideas to be reconciled? How can God be loving and wrathful at the same time, given the fact that love and wrath appear to be mutually exclusive realities? We can discern the answer to those questions by reflecting on an experience that most of us had in our youth. If we were blessed with good parents, they disciplined us when we did things that were wrong, and especially when we refused to express sorrow for those actions. Perhaps we were sent to our room; perhaps we had certain privileges taken away; perhaps we were deprived of seeing and interacting with our friends. In those moments we were actually experiencing the love of our parents, although we probably didn’t realize it. However, because of our actions (and our lack of repentance) we were experiencing that parental love as wrath.
The wrath of God is similar. The wrath of God, believe it or not, is a manifestation of his love for us. St. John was right: God is love. God’s wrath is simply the way that certain people experience the Lord’s love — specifically people who defiantly and obstinately cling to their sins.
The purpose of our earthly parents’ “wrath” was to change us for the better. Hopefully it had that effect. The purpose of God’s wrath toward his people at the time of the Babylonian Captivity was to purify them of their idolatry. And so, it is with us and with our world today. Every experience of God’s wrath in this life is meant to transform us and to bring us to a deeper conversion. Thus, if it leads us to repentance and change, the experience will only be temporary. It’s only in hell that the love of God is experienced as wrath forever.
This is yet another reason why the sacrament of Reconciliation is such a blessing for us Catholics, and why we should make every effort to receive that sacrament sometime during this season of Lent.
