Although we celebrate the anniversary of Assumption Church on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1886, the Assumption faith community celebrated its first Mass on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1881. Seven years earlier, Bishop Foley of Chicago had invited Fr. Austin Morini, O.S.M. to organize the Italian Catholic community in Chicago and to form a parish. The Servite friars began their ministry to the Italians in 1874 in the basement of St. Patrick’s and continued their ministry (and organizing) at Notre Dame Church on the West Side. On September 27, 1880, Fr. Morini obtained three lots on Illinois Street between Franklin and Market (now Orleans). Work began on the basement of the church in November of that year. By Easter, Fr. Sostene Moretti, the pastor of the new parish, was able to celebrate the first Mass in what is now the Parish Hall. Pictures show that until it was renovated in 1962, the Parish Hall still bore ample evidence of having functioned as a church. Undoubtedly during the peak years of the parish, when the neighborhood was crowded with Italian immigrants, Sunday Mass was offered upstairs and downstairs. In 1883 a Servite residence was built east of the church. The remainder of the block was occupied by an industrial building to the west (where the present parish office and residence is located) and a four-story apartment building at the corner of Illinois and Franklin. In the nineteenth century, the 175 foot church tower literally towered over the neighborhood.

Much has changed in River North over the last 140 years. In fact, when Assumption began, this area was known as Smokey Hollow, because of the factories and forges that filled the air with thick smoke. This was also a transportation hub, since we were near the junction of the north and south branches of the Chicago River. The loading docks, the industrial grit, including the foundry just west of the church--all of that is long gone. Yet the fundamental fact remains. Our faith community began on Easter . . . just like the first community of believers.

Our four Gospels provide detailed accounts of the passion and death of Jesus, but they struggle to describe the experience of the Risen Jesus. That is hardly surprising, since we are now talking about someone who exists in a different dimension. The resurrected Jesus could appear just about anywhere and often did. He was clearly himself, but was not immediately recognizable. He still bore the marks of his torture, but they no longer caused pain. He could do very human things like cook breakfast and eat fish; but he could not be kept out by locked doors. There was a lot of confusion, uncertainty, and fear among his first followers. Only through time and with the aid of the Holy Spirit were these first followers able to understand what had occurred on Easter Sunday and come to decipher and embrace their mission.

We can imagine the same struggle occurring in the early days at Assumption. As an Italian National Church, Assumption was theoretically responsible for all the Italians living anywhere in the area around Chicago!  Now that we have celebrated our first Easter, what does the Resurrection of Jesus mean for us in this great sea of people?  Whatever their questions, ministry began; patterns were set; a free school was opened for the immigrant children; mission churches were established, one as far away as Melrose Park. 140 years later, we are still trying to figure out what the Resurrection means for us personally and for our church. Everything changes, although sometimes things come full cycle. Once again there are large numbers of immigrant children living in the neighborhood, and Assumption, along with the other downtown churches are trying to figure out how best to minister to them and their parents. The Renew My Church process is challenging us to feel once more the fire of the Spirit, the sense of urgency that the first community of believers experienced in bringing hope and healing and love to a broken world. This was the same sense of mission that our ancestors in faith felt at Assumption.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the women who come to visit the tomb on Easter morning, encounter an empty tomb and an angel, who directs them to tell the disciples what they saw and experienced. Matthew says, “They went away quickly, fearful yet overjoyed.” Their fear was natural. What they had seen was earth shattering; yet they were able to move forward because they were also filled with joy. This, I think, captures the mood of every age. Every age has its own challenges and its own resistance to the Good News. Yet Easter should also provide us with a hidden joy, because the worst that can happen to us has been overcome. So, in spite of our fears, our misgivings, our feelings of inadequacy, we move forward in faith.

                                          Fr. Joe