Not All Rage Burns
I’m very prone to anger while driving on the roads. I’ve known this about myself for a long time. Until now, I’ve said there’s just something about the anonymity of driving that makes me take out the sword against evil, but there’s no excuse for the way I respond sometimes to the injustice I suffer on the roads. Nor does evil have any real power over me. The only time I am burned by the fires of hell are the times when I provoke, or respond uncharitably, to my neighbor.
When I am being cut off on the roads, it is not then that I am in hell. But when I cut someone off myself, then I am in hell.
Driving in the right lane while people pass me with angry aggression is not to be in hell. But if I drive with selfish presumption myself, frightening or upsetting another person on the road, then - and only then - do I enter into the company of the damned.
Likewise, being cursed is not to be in hell, but to curse is. Or, if I am cheated or lied to it would be inaccurate to say, “I am in hell.” But when I cheat or lie to another person, that is precisely where I go.
Our Lord said on one occasion, “It is not what enters into the body that defiles, but what comes from man’s heart.” Nor is it reasonable for me to say any longer that the evil of this world is the reason for my occasional unhappiness. I have only myself to blame for that. My unhappiness does not come from the fact that some people take out the sword against me. It comes only when I take out the sword against them.
But when I stay with Christ under the cross as I drive on the roads, enduring the insults with Him, even praying for those treating me unjustly (however imperfectly), then I can say that hell truly has no power over me.
Hell is not the rage I feel when I am offended. Rather, hell is the guilt I feel in my conscience when I fight evil with evil. Suffering the anger of others is unpleasant, but not all rage burns. The rage that comes from within me, that is the fire of hell, with its wailing and grinding of teeth - but not against my neighbor, rather against myself. +
