This anger that manages to wear a cloak of virtue is peculiarly dangerous to the soul.  When we are just ordinarily mad over some offence committed against us it is no doubt a sin; but it is not a sin of the same malignity as when we feel that we can go any lengths because we are not angry on our own behalf, then our anger almost becomes an act of religion in our eyes.  We have become the defenders of a cause.  No doubt there is such a thing as “righteous indignation,” but it is not a virtue that we are compelled to practice, and we would do well to leave it alone as much as possible lest our indignation exceed our righteousness, and we indentify our personal interests with the cause of God.

The worst feature of tempermental flare-ups is the testimony they bear to our lack of discipline.  When we excuse ourselves or others on the ground that action is “temperamental” we are in fact no more than restating the fact that there is sore need of discipline; and there is no more ground for excusing one variety of temperament for its lack of discipline than an other.  In fact, the more inclined a temperament is to certain sins, the more necessity there is for the appropriate sort of training.  People without self-control, who are constantly losing their temper, are public nuisances and ought to be suppressed.  There is the worst kind of arrogance in the assumption that I do not have to control myself and can speak and act as I like.  No one, whatever his position, has the right to ignore the feelings of others; and the more the position is one of authority, exempting him from a certain kind of criticism, the more is he bound to criticise himself and examine himself as to this particular sin.

There are sins under this caption which do not contain much malice but are disturbing to life, and they are especially disturbing to one’s spiritual life.  There are peevish, complaining people, who do not seem to mean much harm, but keep themselves in a state of dissatisfaction which renders their spiritual growth impossible.  They grow old without any of the grace and beauty of character which should mark a Christian old age.  One knows old people who have been in intimate contact with the Church and the sacraments for many years but do not show any signs of having reached our Lord through them.  They are dissatisfied and complaining and critical and generally disagreeable so that the task of those who take care of them is rendered very disheartening.  What is the trouble?  Has there never been any true spiritual discipline, but only a certain superficial conformity to a spiritual rule?  When old age comes the will is weakened and the sense of self-respect undermined, with the result that what the person has all along been in reality, now comes to the surface and is, perhaps for the first time, visible to every one.