Father Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea parish in San Francisco, gave an 11-minute homily on Sunday, October 17. He first cited feasts of martyrs of this week – Ignatius of Antioch, Luke, the North American Martyrs, John Paul II who suffered with Parkinson’s until the end of his papacy.
Most of the homily dwelt on our need to suffer here on earth
He mentioned Jesus’s favorite apostles – Peter, James, and John. 11 of the 12 apostles were martyred. James was the first apostle to be martyred. The only one not a martyr was John.
In the reading of the day James and John ask to be prominent in his kingdom.
“Jesus was patient with them. He said, ‘Can you drink the cup of suffering and sacrifice that I will drink?’ You know what they said? They said, ‘We can.'”
People who demand religious exemptions aren’t willing to take the cup of suffering. They demand cheap grace.
Weak Catholics of today cannot even abide with attending The Mass of the Ages where Latin is spoken. They have passed on the cup of their personal suffering, instead, making the rest of us change for their sense of comfort. There is no unity in that.
I bear no ill will towards the TLM or those who are attached to it, except when those so attached attack those of us who follow the Mass of Saint Paul VI, which is, after all, the prescribed liturgy for the Latin Rite. Your naming of the TLM as a cup of personal suffering passed on by those not so attached is one of those attacks. I would be perfectly ok with a TLM rite within the universal church, so long as that rite doesn’t continue to create these kinds of nasty divisions within the Church. Which, I think, is the same problem the Roman Pontiff has with some followers of the former liturgy. So, except for a few soon-to-be-cloistered Ecclesia Dei communities, it should remain the former liturgy.