Editor's note: This story was originally published Nov. 18, 2014. We have re-posted in light of the Sunday announcement that Blase Cupich will be named a cardinal.
RIVER NORTH — Newly installed Archbishop of Chicago Blase Cupich marked his first homily as leader of the Chicago Archdiocese with a few bits of humor Tuesday:
• Cupich, in remarks delivered at Holy Name Cathedral, said he had "a bit of a panic attack" when he saw the biblical readings for the day included the story of how Jesus walked on water.
"I realize this new responsibility is going to be demanding, but seriously folks, I don't do walking on water. I can barely swim. So I hope this image in today's Gospel is not reflective of anyone's expectations," he said to hearty laughs from the crowd at Holy Name Cathedral.
In a serious note, Cupich said Jesus' walk was "intentional: He has come to seek out and to save the troubled, those who are lost."
• Cupich told of a former teacher who was apparently housebound. As a young priest, he would bring her Communion once a month.
On one particular day, the woman, named Marie Walsh, began to cough and Cupich asked her, "Marie, would you like to lay down?"
The woman "sharply muttered something which I didn't catch," he said. "So I asked her, 'Marie, what did you say?'"
The woman held him by the back of the neck. "And with a laugh in her voice scolded me, 'I said, 'Chickens lay eggs, people lie down.'
"She was correcting my grammar!"
"It didn't matter if she was in great pain or frail, she was going to make sure I spoke proper English," Cupich told the Cathedral crowd.
The story's point was that young people need to be taught the beliefs of the Catholic Church.
"Like Marie Walsh, let's stay close to them, so close that we can hold them by the neck, and tell them what it means for us to believe," he said.
• The new archbishop recalled how, on one sultry day, he was boarding a jet but having trouble getting his carry-on into the overhead compartment, blocking the aisle. The plane was hot and he was holding up an impatient crowd.
Finally, a man grabbed Cupich's bag, shoved it into a compartment, and asked him, "Well, Father, will that get me to heaven?"
Said Cupich: "Gee, I hope not on this flight!"
Cupich said Christ challenged people to leave their "comfort zone" and to "deal with the tension involved in change."
"Maybe we hear that challenge today as a call to leave behind our comforting convictions that episodic Sunday Mass attendance is good enough, that we don't have to change our habitual bad behavior, our unhealthy dependencies, our inordinate attachments because we get by as we are," he said.
The mission of Catholics, he said, includes making "our nation to be what it had always promised to be, to protect the vulnerable, poor and weak, to treat immigrants with justice and dignity, to respect life and be good stewards of creation."
• In remarks later, at the end of the mass, Cupich joked that his homily broke his father's rule that they should not last longer than seven to ten minutes.
If he couldn't present a homily in that time, "I should send a letter."
Of course, he said, his father's rule contained a bit of a conflict of interest.
"Dad worked for the post office," Cupich said.
Cupich, 65, replaces Cardinal Francis George, 77, who is battling cancer and stepping down from his post. He was given a standing ovation by those who filled Holy Name, a group that included church leaders and laity.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel expressed excitement for a "new chapter" in which Cupich will "chart a new course."
"Though we are a city of neighborhoods, our goal is to build a single future as one Chicago, and to do that we will rely on his values and voice — not just on Sundays, but every day," Emanuel said in a statement.
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