March 25: Feasts of the Annunciation and the Fall of Sauron

March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation in the Catholic World and the Feast of the Fall of Sauron in Middle Earth.

I

The name Sauron sounds like rooted in “saur” as in dinosaur or “giant lizards.”  Lizards belong to the class Reptilia which includes snakes, turtles, and crocodiles.  Reptiles are cold-blooded creatures, i.e., their body temperature depends on its surroundings.  It is believed that dinosaurs are reptiles.

In the book of Genesis, the most prominent reptile is the snake.  Satan, in the form of a snake, tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Eve ate it.  She gave the fruit to her husband, Adam, who also ate it.  And they sinned. This is the Original Sin.

Sin entered into the world through the disobedience of a woman, Eve.  So to save people from their sins, it is fitting that this salvation would be done through the obedience of another woman, Mary.  By saying her “Yes” to the will of God, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, and on her virginal womb, the Son of God became the Son of Man.

The Son of Mary is Jesus, whose name means he who shall save people from their sins.  In obedience to the will of the Father, Jesus died on the cross.  Then the veil on the temple covering the Holy of Holies was torn into two and the barrier that separated men from God was removed.  Christ died to preach the Gospel to the Dead, even to Adam himself, and opened the gates of heaven to them.  On Christ side flowed blood and water, which signify his church, his bride, just as Eve, the wife of Adam, was taken from Adam’s side.  Christ rules his Church as her head.  And through the Church and her Sacraments, Jesus undoes the works of Satan.  In the Last Day, Jesus shall crush the head of the Ancient Serpent, as promised by God in Genesis:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel. (Gen 3:15)

In the book of Revelation, the prominent reptile is the huge Red Dragon and his enemy is the Woman Clothed with Sun.  The Woman is Mary, the Mother of God.  Her title “Clothed with the Sun” is evident from the rays of light that shines forth from her in the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe (The Aztec rendition of Guadalupe is “She who crushes the head of the Serpent”).  This title is also evident from the Miracle of the Sun that he wrought in Fatima.

The Huge Red Dragon represents Atheistic Communism, as explained by Our Lady to Fr. Gobbi of the Marian Movement of Priests.  The color is red because it enlarges itself by wars and conquests.  Red is the color of the flag of the former USSR and of China–the two communist countries.  Taken together, these two countries represent a vast land area and more than one-fifth of the world’s population.  The aims of these two countries is nothing less than the conversion of the world to Godless Communism.  Communism has already infiltrated the hierarchical church through Liberation Theology, and the tail of the dragon has swept a third of the stars–the priests, bishops, and cardinals.  The dragon has spewed out a flood of heresies against the Woman.  But as Our Lady promised in Fatima, “In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

II

In Silmarillion, Sauron also battled against a woman named Luthien:

Then Sauron sprang upon Luthien; and she swooned before the menace of the fell spirit in his eyes and the foul vapour of his breath.  But even as he came, falling she cast a fold of her dark cloack before his eyes; and he stumbled, for a fleeting drowsiness was upon him.  Then Huan sprang.  There befell the battle of Huan and Wolf-Sauron….

Ere his spirit left its dark house, Luthien came to him, and said that he should be stripped of his raiment of flesh, and his ghost be sent quaking back to Morgoth; and she said: ‘There everlastingly thy naked self shall endure the ttorment of his scorn, pierced by his eyes, unless thou yield to me the mastery of they tower.’

Then Sauron yielded himself, and Luthien took the mastery of the isle and all that was there; and Huan released him.  (Silmarillion p. 206)

But the final defeat of Sauron was in the Lord of the Rings, when Gollum, with the ring he took from Frodo, fell to the fires of Mount Doom:

A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements, tall has hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed.  Towers fell and mountains slid; walls crumbled and melted, crashing down; vast spires of smoke and spouting steams went billowing up, up, until they toppled like an overwhelming wave, and its wild crest curled and came foaming down upon the land.  And then at last over the miles between there came a rumble, rising to a deafening crash and roar; the earth shook, the plain heaved and cracked, and Orodruin reeled.  Fire belched from its riven summit.  The skies burst into thunder seared  with lightning.  Down like lashing whips fell a toreent of black rain.  And into the heart of the storm, with a cry that pierced all other sounds, tearing the clouds asunder, the Nazgul came, shooting like flaming bolts, as caught in the fiery ruin of hill and sky they crackled, withered, and went out. (Return of the King pp. 240-241)

‘The realm of Sauron is ended!’ said Gandalf.  ‘The Ring-bearer has filfilled his Quest.’  And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky.  Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast and threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away. (Return of the King p. 243)

The date is March 25, 3019 of the Third Age.  The next day is the start of the Fourth Age.