Father Joseph Illo, pastor of Star of the Sea parish in San Francisco, gave a 13-minute homily on Sunday, January 28.
“It was a wonderful night last night, our school gala. Archbishop Cordileone was there. He stayed the whole night. Often he’s there to glad-hand and get off to the next thing, but he seemed to like being with us last night.
“Today is the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas a patron saint of Catholic education. Our headmaster, Dr. Culvert, did his PhD in Thomistic philosophy in Toronto. This year marks the 750th-year anniversary of Thomas’ death. He wrote the Summa theologica but he did not finish it. He had a vision after Mass one day and he said ‘after seeing what I have seen in the Holy Eucharist everything I have written is as straw.’
“That’s why he’s a saint, not because he was smart, because he was, but because he loved the Lord Jesus. Many of our teachers are from Thomas Aquinas College. We will be opening a high school, Nativity High School in August of this year to provide a classical education at that level.
“In the Gospel today a possessed man appears in the synagogue. Possessed by a demon, rather a team of demons. This man is divided, and Our Lord has to integrate him. Our country, our church is so divided. Catholic education strives to re-integrate our lives. Our Lord prays, ‘I pray that they may be one.'”
For some time I’ve thought that Archbishop Cordileone looks exactly like Mini Me.
Profound insight.
What do people think you look like?
Looks are very important, ya know.
1 Samuel 16:7
I get compared to Ryan Gosling quite a lot. Anyone else?
Well, no one actually has said it to my face, but…Jabba the Hut.
“Our country, our church is so divided. Catholic education strives to re-integrate our lives.” I am not sure how to say this, and I invite anyone to say this better. I think Fr. Illo would say a proper Catholic education would establish the integrity of a person’s body/mind (soul) through creation as opposed to transgender thinking wherein there is a battle between the physical body and the mind over gender. The re-integration Illo speaks of would be very relevant here. But the re-integration would apply to all aspects of human endeavor to the end that the goal of humanity is the glory of God in all things vs. the glory of Man (Humanity). Whatever is divisive in the Church is the proper object of Catholic education and its re-integrating power. Or at least that is my take on Fr. Illo.