that comes
of evil blinds the eye of the mind, but anger that comes of zeal
disturbs it." Now the mind's eye in Christ was neither blinded nor
disturbed. Therefore in Christ there was neither sinful anger nor
zealous anger.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (John 2:17) that the words of Ps.
58:10, "the zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up," were fulfilled in
Him.

_I answer that,_ As was said in the Second Part (I-II, Q. 46, A. 3,
ad 3, and II-II, Q. 158, A. 2, ad 3), anger is an effect of sorrow.
For when sorrow is inflicted upon someone, there arises within him a
desire of the sensitive appetite to repel this injury brought upon
himself or others. Hence anger is a passion composed of sorrow and
the desire of revenge. Now it was said (A. 6) that sorrow could be in
Christ. As to the desire of revenge it is sometimes with sin, i.e.
when anyone seeks revenge beyond the order of reason: and in this way
anger could not be in Christ, for this kind of anger is sinful.
Sometimes, however, this desire is without sin--nay, is praiseworthy,
e.g. when anyone seeks revenge according to justice, and this is
zealous anger. For Augustine says (on John 2:17) that "he is eaten up
by zeal for the house of God, who seeks to better whatever He sees to
be evil in it, and if he cannot right it, bears with it and sighs."
Such was the anger that was in Christ.

Reply Obj. 1: As Gregory says (Moral. v), anger is in man in two
ways--sometimes it forestalls reason, and causes it to operate, and
in this way it is properly said to work, for operations are
attributed to the principal agent. It is in this way that we must
understand that "the anger of man worketh not the justice of God."
Sometimes anger follows reason, and is, as it were, its instrument,
and then the operation, which pertains to justice, is not attributed
to anger but to reason.

Reply Obj. 2: It is the anger which outsteps the bounds of reason
that is opposed to meekness, and not the anger which is controlled
and brought within its proper bounds by reason, for meekness holds
the mean in anger.

Reply Obj. 3: In us the natural order is that the soul's powers
mutually impede each other, i.e. if the operation of one power is
intense, the operation of the other is weakened. This is the reason
why any movement whatsoever of anger, even if it be tempered by
reason, dims the mind's eye of him who contemplates. But in Christ,
by control of the Divine power, "every faculty was allowed