WHO IS THE GREEN DRAGON?
I have listened with a passing interest to some of the posturing of the Cop 26 attendees, as they make claims that humans can save the planet if only they would be subservient to them. While their private jets and motorcades belch fumes into the air, they crow about Green issues, and virtuous pledges to save the planet.
We are urged to leave our cars - even though not everyone has one - at home and walk to work or shops (Don’t get me started on the promise of increased tree-planting; in the U.K. the proposed HS2 will rip through miles of ancient wood land, displacing the habitat of wildlife and people alike).
While St. Francis - a man who knew how to respect God's creation - elevated the Oxen to warming the new born Saviour in his crib, climate change enthusiasts blame the humble domestic cow for doing what comes naturally - producing methane gas emissions. St. Francis knew that what cows produce is good for cultivating the soil and growing Greens (that's vegetables to you and I). They provide leather for shoes, milk for breakfasts and hooves for glue-making. All natural products of course. The hypocrisy is obvious, I won’t go on, as this is not meant to be a political post – just an observation.
The benefits of Observation I always advise beginner statue restorers that one of the biggest tools we have is the ability to observe detail. That way we see the flaws as well as the merits, and are better able to re-create precisely the intentions of the creator, by that I mean the original artist. We are all too familiar with badly observed art restorations, and how they ridicule the nobility of the original subject.
Recently while restoring a statue of Our Lady as the Immaculate Conception, one of its details presented a new possibility for reflection.
The statue depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary as a young pregnant girl standing on a globe with a serpent at her feet. The globe is often decorated with several stars. The imagery alludes to the “woman” found in the book of revelation, or “Apocalypse” as some know it.
The Woman and the Dragon
Revelation 12 :1-5
1. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: 2. And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered.
3. And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his head seven diadems: 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might devour her son.
It's You again. I have also observed, that the depiction of the dragon has trans morphed over the centuries from a dragon, into a snake. I believe it was St. Catherine Laboure who in an apparition saw the snake like creature as a brownish gold colour. However, I find that on statuary he is almost always painted a shade of green.
I have restored many statues representing St. Mary as the woman of revelation, we tend to know the image as Our lady of the Immaculate Conception. Whenever I start work on restoring the dragon/snake, I find myself thinking "Oh, it’s you again!"
God made man steward over the earth
Notwithstanding that God made man steward over the earth, and we should rightly care for it and its creatures. Yet watching the shenanigans at Cop 26 has made me reflect on the pseudo religious nature of the Climate change princes of this earth. They are like that dragon, hoping to devour our youth with their greed; like the Green snake, coiling around the globe, attempting to dominate it, whilst actually squeezing all life out of it, and I can’t help thinking “Oh, it’s You again!"
Of course, when restoring the Green dragon/snake, I am obliged to observe that the Blessed Virgin Mary has her foot on its neck.
May Our Lord hasten the reign of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, ever Virgin!