Does anyone ever wonder why some statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary show her standing over the Serpent? Of the many explanations online, the one posted by The Catholic Voyager on August 10, 2010, happens to stand out among the rest. [2]
This entry is not dependent on an explanation of the image and does not question it, but accepts it unconditionally because the Blessed Virgin Mary was the only human (the third one God created without Original Sin after Adam and Eve) Who had triumphed over Satan and therefore, to illustrate Her purity, the Serpent will forever be underneath Her feet.
In contrast to the undefilable and incorruptible Blessed Virgin Mary, Eve was defiled and corrupted, as are her descendants who, unlike the Blessed Virgin Mary and Her offspring, are not the Serpent's enemies but allies, even though the alliance has always been an uneasy one because within the human heart there is a constant, albeit imperfect struggle [3] between good and evil. No human, however pious, can escape the internal wickednesses because of Sin unless God has granted special graces to those chosen to do God's work, like San Francesco d'Assisi and Sainte Bernadette de Lourdes.
Whether knowingly or unknowingly, hundreds of Eve's descendants as pious pilgrims participated in a serpentine candlelight procession at Lourdes, as shown on a You Tube video [4] from approximately 6:46 to approximately 7:44. This imagery is most apt since all humans whose minds and hearts had been defiled and corrupted by the Serpent are collectively the Serpent. Accordingly, it was appropriate for the candlelight procession, however well-meaning, to snake under the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Below is a photograph of the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes high above the pilgrims at the Grotto [5]:
[1] Photo Of Blessed Virgin Mary at the University of Notre Dame on Google images.
[2] http://www.catholicvoyager.com/2010/08/how-can-mary-crush-serpents-head-look.html
[3] The internal struggle between good and evil is imperfect because the good which is tied to God's Truth is almost always obfuscated by Original Sin (rooted in deceit) to which Eve's descendants are bound.
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiOc2dpRmmc
[5] Photo of Pilgrims at the Grotto under Our Lady of Lourdes on Google images.
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