Reflection of Father Moreno's Homily: September 11, 2011

Father Moreno related a scene from a movie that he said has stayed with him. It is a scene where a mother is spoon feeding soup to her daughter who is in bed. Each time she is feeds her daughter, she puts a little bit of poison into the soup. And that is the way the poison of anger works in us, slowly poisoning us and killing us.

There are many sins that anger can cause us to commit.

There are two (2) kinds of anger:

- Righteous anger which produces saints

- Evil anger which produces sinners

Anger leads us to sin and sin leads us to darkness.

People ask why they are so depressed, so tired, so sad, so lifeless and the answer is that they need to forgive.

Instead of waking up in the morning complaining and being negative, we should wake up every morning praising God and being thankful that we are alive. A grateful heart means being appreciative of the love and mercy of God.

When we are angry we destroy, we destroy ourselves and all those around us.

When we are angry we enter into darkness and we are blinded by our anger.

What we need is forgiveness to counter our anger, forgiveness to live in the light of Christ, and forgiveness comes from mercy.

Anger is poison and it poisons us.

We need to let go of that anger and then we will be free.

Give our anger to Christ in the Eucharist.

Anger is like Velcro stuck so tightly that it hurts to let go, that it is painful to let go.

We need to pray for the people who have hurt us.

Today say to Jesus, I am tired of being angry, I am exhausted of being angry, I am tired of feeling unloved and unwanted, and I am tired of hurting.

Let the merciful love of Jesus touch us and heal us.

Let the Lord’s healing love penetrate into us, envelope us, and touch us.

Let us pray, Come Lord Jesus heal us.

We pray for God to help us, we pray for God to provide for us, but we also need to pray for God to heal us.

Healing goes into the heart and closes off the pain.

We are to walk in the light of love and not in the darkness of anger.

We are not to give power to darkness because we have the power of the Light of Christ.

On this the 10th anniversay of the 9/11 tragedy, Father asked us to pray for people of all religions, especially our brothers and sisters of the Muslim religion, that all of us may give up our anger and forgive our enemies.

The choir sang "God Bless America".