County of statue: Mercer County
location of statue: US-67, St. John's Catholic Cemetery, N. of Viola
Altar built: 1942
"We often like to think of the Resurrection only. We have images of Jesus looking all bright and shiny and handsome, smiling, with his arms open wide in welcome – setting aside images of Jesus stripped, beaten, bloodied, his arms forced apart and nailed to a wooden beam. We’ll think of Jesus during his earthly ministry with little children gathered at his feet and blind people being gently touched by his soft hand – and not think of the whip in the temple or the rough carpenter’s hands praying in agony.
"That moment in the Bible when Jesus beckons the little children to come to him – this is not a purely happy moment filled with pleasant niceties. It comes with a rebuke. The disciples want to shoo away the youngsters, who are generally seen as a distracting nuisance – but Jesus says, “No.” He goes against the grain, disrupts the general practice of the time, upsets social protocol, and gathers the children to him. In the divine eyes of Jesus, every human being is a child – His own beloved child, whom He wants to hold in His arms and love unconditionally. In our modern time, to the people who, perhaps, make children over-precious and nearly adore them, this makes perfect sense. Of course Jesus wants innocent and lovely children near him. But… Jesus also wants the outcast and reviled near him. Jesus lovingly wills to die next to two thieves being executed for their crimes. Do we think of that? This is true love of humanity.
"Why, then, did Jesus drive the money changers out of the temple with a scourge that he made out of cords? (John 2:15) Why did he not have mercy and forgiveness upon them and just give them a big old hug? Jesus did have mercy and forgiveness upon them – he did what he did for love of them. He spoke to them in a language that they could understand about the wickedness of their acts and the dark path down which they were leading themselves and the people. This is a moment in the Bible when we can see Jesus as most obviously human – one of us. He is upset by the callous, unloving intentions and methods of the money changers, who are not interested in helping the people to be reconciled with God. Their interest is in making a personal financial profit from people’s desire for God, using the religious laws of the time to their self-centered advantage. This cannot stand. I’m thinking that Jesus is so filled with justified anger that he cannot humanly utter a pretty speech to sway them. This is the time for Jesus to use his muscles, muscles formed hard and strong from laboring in manual construction, and shake open the eyes of the drowsing, slap the petty and cruel upside the head, and zealously protect and cleanse the Sacred Place of his Father with a show of human force. I suppose that he could have turned all of the money changers into gnutes or rained fire and brimstone upon their heads – but, instead, he did what any one of us human beings could do… and, perhaps, should do: disrupt the status quo.
"We stone prophets. That’s what we do. We “kill the messenger”. That’s what we do. God knows. And God loves us so much that He is willing to let us do that to Him. God loves us so much that He sends His Only Begotten Son to us – to do with what we will. Christ loves us so much that he is willing for us not to like him. He is willing for us to be annoyed with him, to mock him, to try to drive him over the edge of a cliff. He is willing for us to kill him, for he will do what he has come to do – he will love us. He will show us the way to deepest and truest joy, he will become the way. Jesus gives us the promise of things yet unseen and does not couch it in niceties. He gives his very body and blood for us to gnaw upon – and if we refuse to understand it, then he is willing to let us walk away. He will not force us to love him in return, he will not force us into his arms. But, he will weep for us, weeping tears of blood, and he will be vulnerable for us, pierced through in the excruciating pain of crucifixion. And the first sign of the veracity of his promise will be an empty tomb." ~ Bible Bursts
"Aledo, Ill., Oct. 1. [1942] - (Argus News Service) -
"Above is a new outdoor altar, in face brick and stone trip in St. John's cemetery north of Viola, which was donated and constructed by Antone Comsek of Shale City, superintendent of the Hy-Tex brick plant.
"The new altar, the first of its kind in any Mercer county cemetery, will be dedicated at 11 o'clock Sunday morning, Oct. 11, at special ceremonies in the cemetery. The Rev. John T. Schield, pastor of St. Catherine's parish will have charge and the sermon will be by the Rev. Edwin Smith, C. S. R., of St. Alflonsus church, Davenport.
"The cross which surmounts the altar is about 20 feet high and the altar about 10 feet wide. All of the masonry work was done by Mr. Comsek" ~ suddenlink.net
Who Is Jesus?
"Jesus was a first-century Jewish carpenter from Nazareth in Galilee. He became a master teacher who performed many miracles of healing and deliverance. He called 12 Jewish men to follow him, working closely with them to train and prepare them to carry on the ministry. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word of God, fully human and fully divine, Creator and Savior of the World, and the founder of Christianity. He died on a Roman cross to give his life as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world to accomplish human redemption." ~ Learn Religions