On Easter Sunday, Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago visited Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Glenview to celebrate mass on the important Catholic holiday.
In his homily, Cupich talked about a book he finds spiritually enriching called “The Impact of God” by a Carmelite priest named Rev. Iain Matthew.
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In the book, Matthew posits that it’s not so much about making God an important factor in our lives, but that we are an important factor to God’s life, Cupich said.
As he meditated on Easter, Cupich said he thought of the story of Mary Magdalene in the Bible, who in the darkness before sunrise on Easter morning was grieving because the worst possible thing had happened — the death of Jesus Christ.
“And yet, there’s something at work inside of her, an impulse that allows her to get up from her grieving and the darkness that’s there, and break forward and come to the tomb.”
Cupich said that he often thinks of people who have suffered and are grieving, including those who are given difficult medical diagnoses, or who suffer an accident that changes their lives totally, or those who lose a loved one — a spouse, a child, a friend.
“And now everything in life has changed, and yet, there’s something in them that allows them to take the next step forward,” the cardinal said.
“Or again, those who suffer financial calamity, losing a job, a source of income. And everything comes crashing down. And yet they’re able to move forward.
“What this day of the resurrection helps us understand is that God is working in those impulses, that we’re able to take that next step, come out of the darkness, and the grieving, and the sense of loss.
“Because deep down inside of us, there is that seminal experience that there’s more to life than our failure, than our mistakes. And it’s a grace, a hidden grace, that God is working slowly in our life to allow us to take the next step, to move forward.”
He told the story of a pastor who, one year at the beginning of Lent, the Christian 40-day period of fasting and preparation for Easter, handed out little white rocks and told parishioners to put them in their pockets or purses or shoes to remain aware of life’s irritants and burdens.
At Eastertime, the parishioners were to bring the rocks back to church and put them in a pail, Cupich continued. But when they arrived at mass on Easter, they found the rocks glued to the wooden cross.
“And his simple point to the people was,” Cupich said, “leave those rocks there…the stones maybe that have been a burden to you in your life, that you worry about, and the anxiety that has been created in your heart.
“The stones that maybe other people have thrown at you and created deep resentment, or maybe the stones that you have thrown to others in your gossip.
“Or the stone, the big burden of an addiction, which you have tried to overcome by God’s grace.
“But leave the stones there…and truly leave them with Jesus on the cross and to find the internal freedom to move forward,” he said.
“Folks, that is what we do here,” Cupich added. “It is an opportunity for us, as we come here, week after week, to have a sense that our lives are bigger than perhaps we have given ourselves credit for. Yet… we have the ability to love to the point where we allow our lives to be broken for one another, to be generous to one another. To have our lives changed.”