Thousands of people are flocking to an underpass of the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. They want to see a likeness of Mary stained in the concrete by the salt and snow melt from the past winter. Many claim to see Mary holding a rosary in prayer. I can see the resemblance, but it doesn't move me to make a pilgrimage like it does others. In fact, it's very difficult for me to understand why others do this.
I finally convinced myself this morning that this is important to them. I don't know why it didn't hit me this earlier. I caught a clip of a woman saying through her tears, "...I just hope that by coming hear, I'll get better." That's when the box of rocks hit my head. These people have committed so much of their lives to their faith in God that unfortunate events such as a terminal illness shake their belief to the core. I imagine they have huge battles of doubt in everything they have faith in. Some cave in and give up. Others cling even tighter to their faith and seek out events like this to affirm their beliefs.
I've come to believe The mind is much too powerful for us to understand its power. (That's makes sense, doesn't it?) What I mean to say is that, put your mind to anything, and, given enough conviction, it will be so. Lance Armstrong had a revelation while waiting to die, got on his bike and beat cancer. George Bush wanted to be like his daddy, and bought the presidency. Cults believe their from another planet and the Halle-Bopp comet is their ticket home, and they kill themselves wearing Nikes. For me, I hated being overweight, convinced myself to lose weight, and now I'm training for an Ironman. And so on and so forth. You can make yourself believe anything, all it takes is a little nudge from your consciousness to get you going. The stronger the belief, the grander the results.
So these people praying under the expressway are simply giving themselves a little nudge that their belief God does exist, because for some, that is what they need to survive. It's simply easier for them to use their religion to explain the unexplainable than to understand the complex science and mind power that makes up the human species and its interaction with the universe.