Fr. Joseph Illo's Blog
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Resources
  • Vocations
  • Contact

Welcome!

I pray that this site will serve to inspire
your life in Christ.

Salve Crux Spes Unica!
Hail, O Cross, our only hope!

From the Pastor’s Laptop: Mater et Caput

11/9/2015

 
PictureThe inscription at the base of the Lateran Basilica in Rome
Today is the Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran in Rome, the Cathedral of that city and the ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput (as it is written on the bases of the mighty columns flanking the central portal). Translated: “of all the churches in the City [Rome] and the world—mother and head.” She (the Lateran Basilica) is the Mother and Head of my little parish here in San Francisco, and the Mother and Head of your dear parish, wherever in the world you may worship the Good God. We celebrate the dedication of this particular parish, established in the year 324, because in solemnizing her dedication we render thanks for every one of our own little parishes.
 
Have you ever been to St. John Lateran? It is a magnificent church, immense but usually quite empty except on special occasions. Most parishes in Rome are empty these days, with only a few isolated people scattered among the rows of empty pews for Sunday Mass. I suppose today’s successful organizations (consider Facebook, Google and Uber here in the Bay Area, which employ thousands of the brightest and best) would consider the Catholic Church a dying entity. Considering her client base and revenue, we would have to agree.
 
And yet the pastors of St. John Lateran’s Parish in Rome have never given up. They have remained open through the barbarian invasions, Europe’s various civil wars, the current secularization. These men have given up expecting full churches, but they have not given up offering the Holy Sacrifice. They have had to redefine what “success” means in a post-Christian age. A successful pastor is a faithful pastor. He may or may not have lots of people at Mass, but he will continue to offer the Mass prayerfully and consistently, even if he is the only one at the altar. He will become a soul before God, and he will return every morning to the conviction that God Alone Suffices.
 
Those of you who have children know how discouraging it can be to see them casually toss Jesus away. Almost every faithful Catholic family I know has seen their children or grandchildren cave into practical atheism. Know this: the Domestic Church will suffer the same failures as the Parish Church. And the Parish Church suffers the same disappointments as the Mother Church in Rome. Most of our children will sell their birthrights for a bowl of porridge; they will suffer the bitter disappointments of life without God. We must do what we can to deliver Jesus, and then become a soul alone with God, heedless of success or failure. Our children are not our own; we are stewards, not owners, even of those we love the most.
 
The Lateran Basilica, a big empty Church in Rome, is our Mother and Head. We hope it will one day again ring with the joy of a thousand voices every Sunday. But in our time she is a Sorrowful Mother who has been abandoned by her children. She does not love them any less for it, nor love God any less.


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Fr. Joseph Illo

    Star of the Sea Parish,
    San Francisco, CA

    Picture


    Subscribe

    Subscriber Count:
    739
    Enter your email address:
    Delivered by FeedBurner
    by 7:00pm daily

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    2012 Homilies
    2013 Homilies
    2014 Homilies
    2015 Homilies
    2016 Homilies
    2017 Homilies
    2018 Homilies
    Abortion
    Adoration
    Advent
    All Homilies
    All Homilies
    All Saints Day
    All Souls Day
    Altar Boy Program
    Angels
    Ascension Of Jesus
    Atheism
    Baptism
    Beauty
    Book Recommendations
    Chaplain's Laptop
    Chaplain's Laptop
    Chaplain's Laptop
    Charity
    Christmas
    Communism
    Contraception
    Corpus Christi
    Courage
    Courtship
    Cross
    Death
    Divine Mercy
    Divorce
    Easter
    Epiphany
    Eucharist
    Eucharistic Adoration
    Eugenics
    Extraordinary Form Of The Mass
    Faith
    Faith And Reason
    Family
    Fasting
    Fatherhood
    Forgiveness
    For God And Country
    Freedom
    God
    God's Grace
    God's Mercy
    Good Samaritin
    Gratitude
    Heaven
    Hell
    Hhs Mandate
    Holy Hour
    Holy Spirit
    Hope
    Humanae Vitae
    Humane Vitae
    Jesus
    Joy
    Lap
    Laudato Si
    Lent
    Life & Death
    Life In The Spirit
    Lives Of The Saints
    Love
    Marital Infidelity
    Marriage
    Martyrdom
    Mary
    Mass
    Mercy
    Missionaries Of Charity
    Morality
    Mother Teresa
    Natural-family-planning
    Nfp
    Oratory
    Palm Sunday
    Papacy
    Pastors Laptop
    Peace
    Pentecost
    Pope Francis I
    Poverty
    Prayer
    Priesthood
    Pro-life
    Pro-Life
    Prolife0ca0617dd7
    Purity
    Reconciliation
    Redemption
    Religious Liberty
    Religious Vocations
    Repentance
    Resources
    Resurrection
    Rosary
    Sacred Heart Of Jesus
    Same Sex Marriage
    San Francisco Oratory
    Second Coming Of Jesus
    Sexuality
    Silence
    Sin
    Socialism
    Speeches
    Star Of The Sea School
    Stewardship
    St. John Paul
    St. Paul
    Subsidiarity
    Suffering
    The Camino De Santiago
    The Church
    Thomas Aquinas College
    Tridentine Mass
    Truth
    Violence
    War
    Wedding Homily
    Year Of Faith

    Archives

    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    January 2011

✕