HIGHLAND – From darkness into the light, Catholic faithful in the Diocese of Gary gathered with Bishop Robert J. McClory to celebrate the Resurrection of their Savior at an Easter Vigil Mass on the evening of April 4.
The altar was filled with flowers at Our Lady of Grace, but the focus at the beginning of the night was the front lawn outside the church, where the congregation watched the Service of Light as the Paschal candle was lit from the new fire by the bishop, who then joined Father Brian Chadwick, pastor, in lighting the small candles held by everyone in the crowd, who moved into the darkened church to continue the Mass.
“The candlelight is so beautiful; there’s nowhere I’d rather be,” said Jeanne Szigeti, of Merrillville, an OLG parishioner for two years. “I used to attend the Easter Vigil at St. Stephen, Martyr, in Merrillville, and after it closed, I joined Our Lady of Grace. Father Chadwick is a wonderful pastor and this church is so beautiful.”
Joining Szigeti at the Easter Vigil Mass was her daughter, Debbie DeVault, wife of the parish’s music director, Jim DeVault, formerly serving in the same position at St. Stephen, Martyr.
“Starting in the dark, and ending in the light, with everyone holding a candle, is so meaningful,” she said.
A highlight of the liturgy was the baptism of new Catholic Cayden Williams, 12, a seventh grader at Our Lady of Grace School, who climbed into the church’s baptismal font to have holy water poured over his head by the bishop, then changed into a white robe to receive his baptismal candle and, later, be anointed with holy chrism and receive his First Holy Communion.
“Everything about God amazes me,” said Williams, who remembers attending Mass with his aunt and uncle, Lynette Williams, of Dyer, and Carlos Razo, of Highland, even before he began attending school. “I wanted to be baptized because I want to follow the light of God to a bright future. God inspires me to become who I want to be.”
Lynette Williams, her nephew’s baptismal sponsor, said she was “nervous and proud” after shepherding Cayden through two years of Order of Christian Initiation of Adults lessons.
“I want him to have God in his life because I know how important it is,” she said.
Shaking hands with Cayden as he began his homily, Bishop McClory noted, “All of the (Scripture) readings today speak to Jesus’ Resurrection, and we have a concrete example in Cayden,” calling his baptism a continuation of the life of the Catholic Church.
The bishop explained that “God created the world out of love for all of us,” not because he needed to, and placed the first humans in the Garden of Eden that God created for them to live in forever. “But the humans said, ‘We are going to disobey you through our own free will.’ God could have ended the story there, but he identified his chosen people and saved them by the parting of the Red Sea.”
Despite their continued sinfulness, “God never stopped loving us … and in Genesis we are told that God will provide the sheep for the holocaust, the one whose death and resurrection would do all we need to get us in a good relationship with God. We were crucified with (Jesus), so we can also come to a new life with him.
“(It’s) not because I’m perfect that I’m going to be saved, but because you (God) are. You give me life everlasting,” said the bishop. “We say ‘Yes’ to that, and are put on a path to a happy, healthy and holy life. God gives us the sacraments that we celebrate tonight.
“We renew our baptismal vows tonight, to believe in God and live according to his plan,” added Bishop McClory. “At Our Lady of Grace church, the grace of Christ will be poured out as Jesus Christ saves us.”
For his final blessing, Bishop McClory sent the congregation out into the world with a message full of hope: “(Jesus) here to forgive our sins and give us eternal life.”
