Archbishop Inspires During Easter Visit to Tinley Park Parish

Archbishop Blase Cupich shook hands and warmed hearts at St. Julie Billiart in Tinley Park on Easter Sunday. Cupich chose to lead his first Easter Mass as archbishop at the south suburban parish rather than traditional Holy Name Cathedral in hopes the decision would unify parishes across the archdiocese.

Cupich stood before a maximum capacity crowd of 1,200 and spoke of the need for peace “which we need so desperately in our own personal lives and for the world.”

Listeners filled the seats and lined the walls for the 70-minute Mass, which was simulcast on a monitor in a parish hall. Cupich selected the parish as his Easter destination after an invitation from Pastor Rev. Louis Tylka in December.

Faith ‘Starts in the Heart’

In his 10-minute homily, Cupich spoke of Easter as a time for parishioners to renew their faith. He recounted a story of his mother’s heartbreak over the loss of his father in 2003. His mother Mary and father, also named Blase, had been married for 57 years and his death shook her belief system.

“...she found herself wondering beginning to doubt whether or not she would ever see him again. Her faith had always been strong, but yet doubts were creeping in,” Cupich said during the homily. “Every day she found herself going to his grave, but that was kind of easy, because my parents lived right next door to the cemetery.”

She asked the cemetery caretaker to place a candle on the grave on her husband’s birthday, their anniversary, the day he returned from the war and on Memorial Day. She would look out her window at the candle, and be reminded of their love, even in times of her loneliness.

“Death could not destroy that. And that gave her great consolation and was the source of the renewal of her faith. It didn’t start in her head, it started in her heart.”

Cupich mingled with visitors and spoke with media afterward, before leaving to continue the remainder of his Easter Sunday—which he noted would include a nap.