Father Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea parish in San Frncisco, gave a 12-minute homily on Easter Sunday, April 5.
Welcome to our regulars and our visitors, including the 8 men abd 1 women who were baptized last night. Very healthy that men are coming more. It used to be that religion was seen as women’s work.
We lit a bonfire on Geary Blvd and then took our candles from it. The flame was above our heads and we followed it into the blackened church.
In Christ’s tomb was an angel clothed in white. Will we have clothes in heaven? Thomas Aquinas says no, but at least here and in the Book of Revelation, there is evidence we will be clothed in white.
In the church we look for Christ in the altar. The altar is like a tomb. In fact, many of the altars in Italy from the first five centuries are sarcophaguses, tombs with the remains of saints.
David McCullough wrote of Wright brothers cracking the code of human flight. The brothers fought of attacks of unbelievers.
If people could not believe that man could fly, imagine how hard it was for people to believe that man could die and come back to life. But Christ did die,
I want to finish the homily by this poem by Sister Mary Ada is about the harrowing of Hades.
(In the poem one man, Joseph, the most just man who ever went to hell, is released.)
“The ancient greyness shifted suddenly and thinned
like mist upn the moors before a wind…”
If there are no clothes in Heaven and I made it into Heaven, everyone else would leave. The women would start cursing God.
Then maybe lose some weight. Exercise. Take care of yourself. Eat healthy.
I get your sense of humor. It’s good to be lighthearted at times.
To “lose weight”:
Your comment is lacking with regards to the contemplation of the plight of those who are unattractive from the womb and are not obese.
Who makes the clothes in heaven and how much do they cost? Who launders them? Who mends them? Are there styles and fashion shows? Do clothing trends change over eaons? Do clothes have rank insignia so we know who is more blessed or less?
If our pets are with us in heaven, can they wear clothes too if they wore them on earth?
Will we sleep in heaven? In that case we’ll need pajamas as well as a day outfit.
You can get help for your obsessions.
And, you can start by trusting God Who loves us all.
How old will people be in heaven? The age at which they die? The age at which they were most healthy and looked their best? 33 years old? What if someone died as a child? Will that person be 33 years old in heaven, an age he or she never grew up to be in a body he or she never had? Who would recognize him or her, then?
What if someone gets a sex change? Will he or she be the new sex or the birth sex in heaven? If someone gets enhancing surgery, are the results of that surgery present in the resurrected body or does the body revert to pre-surgery conditions and characteristics?
How will everyone talk to each other in heaven? Won’t it be loud? How will you find the person your looking for among the thousands of billions of people? Will we have homes and addresses? I might want to talk to some famous historical people, but I imagine I wouldn’t be the only one, so there might be a long line to talk to them. Wait… what language is spoken in heaven? What if I want to talk to Saint Peter but he doesn’t know English?
I would sure miss Disneyland, so I hope there’s a heavenly Disneyland for amusement. But bring back some of the old rides that I loved as a kid.
Don’t worry. There will be someone in heaven who understands your gibberish. Maybe Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse. (I’ll even be understood there and even understand myself.) Or, more likely, purgatory will rid you of it. And, unfortunately, the trans pretend make believe will disappear in the light. Yet, mental health healing is free and complete, so men will know they’re men and women will know they’re women.
I cannot tell if you’re serious. I suspect not. Yet, in case you are: our resurrected, glorified bodies will be unlike our current ones. Look at/listen to this Sunday’s Gospel. The tradition and Saints teach, and Scripture alludes to, that, in heaven, we will know one another, we’ll know our loved ones. We’ll be recognizable.Yet, what “age” in eternity will we be? Will we be the “age” we were when we died? My parents died in their 90’s. Will they be very “old” in heaven? Some of us here have experienced the tragedy of losing babies, even before birth. Will they be babies for all eternity? It seems not.Yet, with all of this, we trust our loving God. We simply don’t know. Our glorified bodies will not, however, have arthritis, cancer, dementia or other sicknesses, the result of a fallen world. That we do know.
I want nothing to do with the frociaggine of Disneyland. I wish to stay away from Disneyland forever.
I have an annual pass and I visit often. When life gets you down, Disneyland is a great place to go to be happy. It’s the happiest place on earth. I wish the outside regular world was more like Disneyland. It’s clean, exciting, and people are joyful. My Catholic parish on the other hand is like the opposite of Disneyland. Nobody seems happy to be there they just go to stay out of hell it seems. But people actually pay to go to Disneyland because it’s that good.