City of Troy vs Mystical City of God

About this sermon

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts - this phrase is a warning that goes all the way back to the time of the Trojan Horse. A little known aspect of this tale is the pagan priest of Troy known as Laocoon. This Trojan pagan priest was the only individual who warned the men of Troy not to accept the gift of the wooden horse. Laocoon saw it as a temptation…as a false gift… as a forbidden fruit…as a dangerous ploy from the enemy. Laocoon’s arguments were quite strong and were proving to be convincing. But then, according to the story, one of the pagan gods sent two serpents…two snakes…that coiled themselves around Laocoon and his two sons thus killing them. With the only doubter having been taken from the scene, the men of Troy fell to the temptation. Laocoon is an example of the human race and the human soul having been overcome and wrapped up by the infernal serpent, Satan. The human race is a fallen race, for every human person …except one…since the fall of Adam and Eve…comes into this world in the state of Original Sin. Instead of coming into this world immaculate - without the stain of sin - we come into this world with macula - the Latin word for stain. Instead of participating in the Divine Nature…instead of having God’s Divine Life within us…we come into this world only participating in the life of the Old Adam, the Original Sinner. Like the men of Troy, the human race accepted a satanic gift that was bitter to the taste. Sin and death came within the walls of our souls causing us to be exiled from the earthly paradise known as Eden. But the human race is offered an image…a model of redemption. It is the Immaculate Mother of God with the serpent being crushed under her foot. Of course the truth of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, is necessarily connected to the Mystery of her Bodily Assumption. If she has not the stain of Original Sin, then it would seem most wrong to see her suffer one of the greatest penalties of that curse…an absolute penance of bodily death and having one’s body decay and corrupt in the ground. Mary has been perfectly redeemed…completely saved not just in soul but in body. Unlike the Trojans of old, the human race has not been completely defeated. Though severely wounded with Original Sin, actual sins, and the terrible effects of sin, we can still defeat our old enemy. In Christ, the New Adam, we can crush the infernal serpent. A city of Troy can be turned into a City of God if the false gifts, the temptations of this world are rejected. The Trojan Horse…the invasion of sin and concupiscence can be turned back over time. As we prepare for the great feast of the Assumption, let us ask Our Lady if we might be worthy to be part of her heel, a part of her foot, as she crushes the serpent’s head. For more please visit http://reginaprophetarum.org/#/ & please say 3 Hail Marys for the priest