I wasn’t looking for a crime mystery when I walked into the Catedral de Santa Clara de Asís in Cuba, but that’s just what I got.
Evening Mass had already begun, so I entered the catedral quietly. Passing a 10-foot statue of the Virgin Mary in the foyer, I noticed it was pockmarked with gouges and missing chunks of stone. It looked worn, even battered. I couldn’t help wondering how it came to be in that condition.
The Virgen had a story to tell, and the parishioners were eager to share it with me. The locals call Mary’s statue the Virgen de la Charca, or the Virgin of the Pond. The statue was standing in the Catedral of Santa Clara when the church was dedicated in 1954, but soon thereafter, it disappeared. No one knew who had taken it, or how or why they had pulled it off. But this was only the first mystery.
The second mystery occurred in the 1980s, when she mysteriously returned. Someone dumped her into a small pond. The Virgen was a little worse for wear, but Santa Clara — and all of Cuba — joyfully received her. The catedral placed her back in the foyer in 1995.
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While these first two mysteries were ones of crime, the third mystery is one of faith. Throughout the 30 years of her disappearance, the parishioners of the catedral never forgot the stolen statue of Mary. They never replaced the statue, and their devotion to the Blessed Virgin remained steadfast. When it returned, the damaged statue of the Virgen was a powerful reminder of Mary’s enduring presence, and served as a visual and tactile cue to Mary’s suffering. The parishioners could run their fingers inside the statue’s chinks, gashes, and scrapes, and consider how Mary’s real presence is a guide and a grace in their own bruises.
For all her wear and tear, the Virgin’s statue is especially honored here, not despite her wounds, but because of them. Her statue helps us recall that the Virgin Mary knows our wounds deeply and intimately — from our inside out, not just the outside in.
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After Mass, the priest circled a group of worshippers around the battered, white statue. The men and women held hands and whispered greetings, and then the priest led us in prayer. He thanked God for returning the statue to the church and asked for petitions to Mary. Several parishioners asked for healing prayers for loved ones. My Spanish is imperfect, but their devotion to Mary, their gratitude for the return of her statue, and their faithful and firm affection for her, needed no translation.
Gratitude is contagious. I was thankful for the parishioners’ warm welcome and added my prayers for them and for the vitality of the catedral’s ongoing ministries. The thieves who took the statue of Mary could not steal Mary’s true presence. Her tenacious affection for us continues whether a statue of her is there or not. It is already alive for us — and she proves her deep love through the depth of her wounds.
I was glad the statue was returned by whatever means. But, even more than that, I was both touched and taught by the reality of Mary’s presence to which the statue pointed. Maybe Mary’s love is not such a mystery after all.
3 Lessons I Learned from the Virgen de la Charca
1. Offer our wounds to the wounded. Mary’s battered statue reminds us that she is no stranger to pain. She knows what it is like to be harassed, heartbroken, hacked, heaved around, and generally mishandled. Her wounds are our blessings, because she knows our hurts as well, and we need not feel shame or embarrassment in asking her to bless and heal them.
2. Honor Mary by remembering her past blessings and future graces. The parishioners and people of Santa Clara never replaced the stolen statue. It became a reminder of blessings and a prompt for future prayers. Similarly, we can place reminders around our home, our car, and our person to remind us of Mary’s continued presence in our lives.
3. Create a habit, through regular practice, of prayer and devotions to Mary. Such habits are not ruts, but dig deeply into the rich soil of her life and love for us. It is easy for sporadic devotions to fade and our resolve to rest, but Mary’s enduring embrace is always there for us. Just as parishioners waited 30 years for the Virgen de la Charca to return, Mary also always waits for us to embrace her in return.
