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Symbolism
Antidote for Evil: Snowflakes and Angels
Lyle J. Arnold, Jr.
In the past decade, we have witnessed lucid and repulsive exposés in a long and grisly train of books and articles about disgusting clerical impurities that chug and rattle on ad infinitum. The latest filthy episode about clergy abuse and cover-ups in Ireland probably surprised no one. Nor, I assume, did the recent news that Portugal's parliament passed a bill on January 8th, allowing same-sex marriage.
I believe that any possible critique to come from our Bishops about the Portugal debacle would be blackened by their past activity when in California they worked behind the scenes to help pass an Assembly Bill that legalized sodomy. Unfortunatelly, in today's Progressivist Church clerical bacchanalia and caballed-blackouts no longer cause surprise.
The marvels of nature provide an antidote to today's filthy scandals |
In the temporal sphere things are just as ugly. After all, in a statement that staggers belief, presidential candidate Barack Obama based his acceptance of same-sex unions on the Sermon on the Mount.
Along the same lines is the increase of hardcore pornography in mainstream America. It is "affordable, accessible, anonymous and, increasingly acceptable. The all-pornography, all-the-time mentality is everywhere." (2) Fully 90% of children between 8 and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet.(3)
The Church is not guiltless in this sphere either. According to serious sources, the order of Christian Brothers owns Lodgenet, "which is one of the largest providers of in-room porn to the hotel industry, serving 1.8 million rooms.” Some of the movies offered by Lodgenet include Girls Who Love Girls, Filthy Young Innocents, and AC/DC Sex. (4) Do our Bishops care? On the contrary, they would have tried to block porn filters for computers destined for Catholic school libraries and classrooms. (5)
How does one cope with this filthy tide of ruthless evil, both in and outside the Church? It has been said that when injury or temptation strikes, one should apply the opposite. Hence, if you burn your finger, place it in ice water. If an evil thought appears, replace it with a prayer to Our Lady and your Guardian Angel. If you hear intolerable blasphemies, reflect on Our Lord's and Our Lady's three hours of indescribable agony as He hung on the Cross.
This principle of doing the opposite is, in fact, the axiological principle of the Counter-Revolution. We must remove ourselves from the ugliness and infection of polluted acts by our clergy and the porn industry by focusing on their opposite, which is snow-white and seraphic purity.
Snowflakes and angels
A most delightful article published by Tradition in Action releases us from the smut that seeks to deform our society and the spotless Bride of Christ. Its title is Snowflakes Reflect the Diversity of God.
It is hard to resist speculation that when God gave us snowflakes, He did so in order to bless the world by giving us something of angelic purity and beauty. Since no two snowflakes are alike, this leads to a reflection on the Angels. Like snowflakes, each Angel is different from the other, made of different species. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us:
Raphael's cherubs don't fit the angelic grandeur, as doesn't Caravaggio's indecent depiction below
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"There are no angelic families or races. Each individual Angel stands apart from all others more distinctly different than an elephant from a fly. The pleasant individual differences we notice from man to man and woman to woman are as far from the differences between Angels as a ripple on a pond is from the towering power and smashing violence of a stormy sea." (6)
While snowflakes symbolize purity, Angels are the embodiment of it, and they are unimaginatively beautiful. Indeed, when little Lucia Santos described the first 1916 visit of the Angel of Portugal to the three shepherds at Fatima, she described him as "a transparent young man ... more brilliant than a crystal, penetrated by the rays of the sun ... like snow that the sun shines through until it becomes crystalline ... The light was so intense that we were almost unaware of our own existence for a long space of time."
This description of the virile beauty and majestic power of the Angel contrasts bitterly with the often juvenile and insipid depictions of Angels by famous painters of centuries past. As we enter the period of the Renaissance, Raphael's impish cupids in his Madonna (c. 1513) seem more fitting for a comic book. Then, as the Renaissance sank deeper and deeper into fleshy art, Caravaggio slithers into nudity with his The Rest On The Flight To Egypt, c. 1594-6.
I venture to say that these improper depictions of Angels serve the Revolution, by distorting our image of the angelic power. Who is moved to go to these insipid cherubs or sensual beings in times of great trial and temptations against purity? We are living in the days when Our Lady of Good Success warned that "Hell would be unleashed." At Fatima Our Lady told Jacinta of Fatima, "The sins that lead more souls to hell are the sins of the flesh."
We have need to return to images of the Angels that can help us to fight the ubiquitous evil and immorality around us. We can, for example, turn to contemplate the marvelous Angels of Fra Angelico or warrior figures of St. Michael thrusting Satan into the pits of Hell.
Fra Angelico's Angel in The Annunciation
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In nature, we find the snowflakes that also serve as a graphic, angelic-like reminder to guard our chastity in the streets inundated with filth. The beautiful six-pointed snowflake is at once enchanting and pure, like an Angel. So also, by considering the snowflakes in this light, we are led to avoid the sins of flesh.
May Our Lady of Good Success, she who said that Hell would be "unleashed” in our days, favor us with a special grace, to find in snowflakes and Angels an antidote for evil. Like medieval men, may we learn to see God in the world around us and discern the symbolism of his creatures to be faithful in this earthly battle.
1. Atila S. Guimaraes, Vatican II, Homosexuality & Pedophilia,” TIA, 2004; Randy Engels, The Rite of Sodomy – Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church, New Engel Pub, 2006; Leon J. Podles, Sacrilege – Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church, Baltimore, MD, Crossland Press, 2008; Michael Rose, Goodbye Good Men – How Liberals Brought Corruption into the Catholic Church, Regnery Pub/Inc, Wn. DC, 2002.
2. Pamela Paul, Pornified – How Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families, NY: Times Bks, 2005.
3. Bsafeonline, www.answersingenesis.org/bsafe.
4. Thomas Strobhar, "Holy Porn," New Oxford Review, February 2008, pp. 28.
5. Ibid., p. 29.
6. Walter Farrell and Martin J. Healy, My Way of Life – The Summa Simplified, NY, 1952, p. 65.
Posted January 22, 2010
Related Topics of Interest
Snowflakes Reflect the Diversity of God
The Luminous Angelic Assistance
Our Lady, Queen of the Angels
Bees - A Symbol of the Church
The Middle Ages, a Forest Filled with Symbols
The Military Virtues Every Catholic Must Have
A Prayer to Our Lady, Queen of Angels, For Protection
Related Works of Interest
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