Feeling angry when we’ve been hurt is no sin. God gave us the capacity for anger. What we do with that anger, however, can make or break our journey of forgiveness.

If our anger hardens into bitterness and resentment, or leads us to seek retaliation or revenge, we’ll be stuck in our anger. On the other hand, our anger can move us forward. It can lead us to confront an injustice, defend ourselves, or challenge the one who hurt us. Anger and love can go hand-in-hand.

Tell God if you feel angry with him. Our anger may reveal a lack of faith and trust. But God always meets us where we are; he doesn’t rush ahead and wait for us to catch up. God is always at our side on this journey—even if we have a long way to go.

"When we’ve been hurt, it’s typical for us to want to retaliate, to get even. We want those who’ve hurt us to know how we feel and get a taste of their own medicine. We think: they’ve hurt us, we should be able to hurt them back! After all, it’s only fair.

Strict justice is fair, but forgiveness is not fair. God himself isn’t fair. That sounds strange, I realize. So often, life doesn’t seem fair. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. We assume that in contrast to all this unfairness, surely God must be fair! Yet God isn’t fair. That’s because there’s a difference between what we might call human fairness, or human justice, and the justice of God.

Human justice is about people getting what they deserve. Thankfully, God’s justice is different. God’s justice is about love, and love is about giving of oneself for the good of others. It is this love, this divine justice, that we as Christians are called to offer those who hurt us." (Fr. Scott)

Check out Fr Scott Hurd's book, Forgiveness: A Catholic Approach for more insights on forgiveness.