Mary In Cloth

Found in a pile of garbage, an object with La Virgen de Guadalupe caught my attention. It was carefully wrapped in a soft piece of cloth. It is an object that holds a candle, with the image of Mary in front, and when the candle is lit, the light radiates through Mary giving her a saintly glow. This light that penetrates the picture, traditionally speaks of her purity and sainthood. Those who pray to Mary have a notion of complete purity that cannot be stained by anything. The candle, which one lights during a time of prayer, illuminates her body, especially her hands that are put together in prayer. This imagery presents a woman who has the power to look over others and to pray for humanity. However, its particular location in this case altered my traditional interpretation of such object.

For some, this object holds a lot of value, and its obvious notions of Catholicism are evident in how Mary is portrayed and in the placing of the candle. However, its setting and the fact that we can control the light that this object physically gives, connect interestingly to a reading we have discussed in class. Liebman describes God as a force. In his argument, he also mentions that we are dependent on this force as much as this force is dependent in us. He adds that we have control over this force and that we can decide when to let it affect us and coexist with us. In the same way, the fact that there is a candle behind this particular image of Mary, reminds me of our power over this force. A Catholic does not necessarily have a set time and place to pray or a set rule of what one can pray for. By this, I see the addition of the candle as an object that we can use to say prayer, or to show gratitude. However, we can decide when to do this, giving us power over the object. I don’t think that it necessarily gives us power over Mary and what she represents to Catholics, but I think that with the availability of the candle and our control over it, one can decide when to light the candle according to our needs. In this interpretation, I contrast traditional values and notions of Mary’s image with reference to Liebman’s interpretation of God as a force that coexists with humans. God is not an all powerful force, in contrast, Liebman thinks it is a force that we can control.

Having found this in a pile of garbage, carefully wrapped in cloth, reminded me immediately of the correlation between the material of the religious objects, and the meanings people assign to objects. In Dharma Bums, Kerouac offers Ray’s life as a way of meshing Buddhism and Catholicism together. In Ray’s journey, we see that he insists to hold on to Catholicism as he is absorbing various practices of Buddhism. He speaks of detachment and how one should detach him/herself from things, people and/or feelings. Ray’s journey suggests that we should find that inner peace which is not found in material things but rather in nature. It dismisses any notions of materialistic value, because throughout this journey Kerouac experiences being a dharma bum through his character Ray. The refusal of this object with the image of Mary perhaps is one that supports this rejection of materialism. The careful placement and wrapping in a cloth of something that can be considered very valuable, is powerful in this context. Letting go of an object, fully rejecting it by throwing it away with waste, but doing so in a manner that preserves its dignity, I think is important, and speaks to Kerouac’s interpretation of Buddhism as he holds on to Catholicism. Ray finds Buddhism essential and his practice of Buddhism changes his life in positive ways, but he still holds on to Catholicism. The way this object presented itself to me a few weeks ago, simply caused me to pick it up out of sympathy and respect for Catholicism. Before my encounter with these texts, I never imagined that I would be able to interpret it in any other way but the traditional way. However, with these interpretations in mind, I was able to pay more attention to the object, its features and the circumstances in which it presented itself to me.