The story of “Our Lady of the Underpass” has come to a rather pathetic close:
The underpass Virgin Mary is gone.
After a man defaced a salt stain that had drawn pilgrims to the Fullerton underpass on the Kennedy Expressway, authorities painted over the image, which many Catholic residents said resembled a popular representation of the Virgin Mary.
Authorities charged Victor Gonzalez, 37, of Chicago Friday with criminal damage to state supported property, a misdemeanor, for allegedly writing with black shoe polish the words “Big Lie” over the image, police spokesman David Banks said. A public telephone listing for Gonzalez could not be found Friday.
Banks said witnesses told police they saw a man on a bicycle writing on the image around 11:35 p.m. Thursday.
Police then directed the Illinois Department of Transportation to paint over the image because of security concerns, IDOT spokesman Matt Vanover said.
Hundreds of people had flocked to the underpass since last month to see the image. Many prayed and placed flowers and candles near the stain.
IDOT has said the stain was likely the result of salt run-off.
The image itself means little to me, of course. The devotion of those who found meaning in the image means quite a bit. They were harming no one in any meaningful sense of the word. The injury on the faces and in the voices of those to whom the image actually had meaning is sad and rather touching. It doesn’t take a lot of idiots like Gonzalez to make the world a harder, sadder place.
UPDATE: She’s baaaccck.. Not wanting to leave anything to divine intervention some pious ladies have removed both paint and shoe polish.
A couple years ago there was a local supermarket here in Jersey City whose freezer case had a frost image of Mary that caused a stir for a week or two and made it into the papers. Needless to say it was a source of endless amusement among the enlightened. I’m not a believer myself, but I appreciate your gentle take on the salt-stain Mary. Simple faith is just not a thing to mock. If anything, it evokes envy in me.
Who are the real idiots? I can respect true and fervent faith, but these people have done nothing but waste time, effort, and money in the fruitless worship of a salt stain. Their “faith” would have been more productive if they had volunteered serving food in a soup kitchen, distributing coats and blankets to the homeless, or building houses for Habitat for Humanity. Faith demonstrated through good works is honorable and has my respect. The blind and robotic worship of so-called miracles and marian apparitions is false and empty hope that does absolutly nothing to make the world a better place.
I’m always fascinated when I visit family in Chicago and they point out the location where this exists. I was there just 2 weeks ago and people still leave flowers there. I take no stock in it, nor does my family. I’m sympathetic, but not supportive, of those whose faith is in idols. The bible is pretty clear about such things.
BUT…as to LedNasty’s comment…
Its always a source of great amusement to me when high minded, “I know better” critics point a finger and say, “they should spend their time helping the poor and building homes and feeding the hungry…blah blah blah.”
My experience has ALWAYS been that such comments come from those whose own contributions to the general good (in time AND money) would be an embarassment in comparison to the gentle, giving, typically selfless souls who search for meaning beyond themselves…even if it IS in salt stains on underpasses.