The Sword of Beauty...
The sword of her beauty destroys sin.
Her beauty, the true beauty of grace, pierces the glamorous facade of monstrous ugliness, which is sin. Sin is the epitome of ugliness. No matter what package sin presents itself as, when unwrapped, the hideousness is revealed.
There is a saying "ugly as sin" and this is true, for sin is very ugly. Humans weren't made to live in ugliness, we were made for beauty- eternal beauty.
It was Bishop Doyle (not Archbishop Fulton Sheen, my mistake) who said that a person cannot continually live in sin and continue to pray the Rosary-- one will eventually go. Either sin will go or the Rosary will go.
I love the statues of Our Lady where she is crushing the head of the serpent. I love that she is who she is, just being herself, content and serene in the woman God made her to be.
She is not trying to impress people or compete with other women, she is just being who she is and in that power of grace comes deep, strong and irresistible beauty.
The sword of her beauty slays the dragon of sin. The Rosary is a very powerful sword of beauty that pierces the darkness. As we pray deeply, we are transformed. As we ask the Mother of Jesus, Our Mother, to help us, she smiles her beauty upon us and we heal. Our Mother comes to bring healing to us.
We as women, especially, can go to her with our beauty wounds, our desires and our broken hearts. She will not chide us or scorn us, she only desires to bring us to her Son.
The world needs this true beauty of women to bring healing in a very broken and dark world. We don't need more plastic surgery, we need to open our hearts to the river of grace. We won't find ourselves by misusing or hiding our femininity. We live out our true calling in the healing of our femininity.
And this healing isn't just for the "unstained." This beauty and love comes from the heart of Jesus, who brings redemption and life even from the darkness of death.
It would be totally awesome if Our Lady ever appeared under the title Our Lady of Eternal Beauty and if her image included her crushing the head of the serpent, with the sword of beauty sheathed on her hip.
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She also lived every station of Christian life. Before the Annunciation, she was a contemplative, She then sobsequently lived the married life. She was a "silent martyr". She was there when the holy spirited descended at Pentecost. She was living monstrance of Christ and the exemplar of all saints. Later in her life, when she went to Ephesus, she experienced what it was like to be a missionary.
Her life echoed what St. Paul said:
"I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it."
The beauty of Mary: One thing that saints to whom Mary appeared to were struck by was her stunning beauty.
Is this a matter of wonder? Her soul magnifies the Lord, one of whose attributes is Beauty itself and from who all that is beautiful comes.
We should endeavor to live our own lives so that the beauty of Christ shines through our own life.
-George