Robert Dueweke, OSA
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Why is St. Michael the Archangel on the UN grounds?

2/15/2017

6 Comments

 
Picture
When I first arrived at the United Nations, I was surprised to see the statue of St Michael slaying the dragon. I wondered why such a structure was on the grounds of a secular institution like the UN.
Today I stumbled on an explanation that I discovered from the UN Visitor's Guide. The title of the art work is "Good Defeats Evil" and it is a gift from the Soviet Union in 1990 and the artist is Zurab Tsereteli. The description from the UN site is as follows:
   [The statue] is a vivid symbol of the post-Cold War period as the dragon is created from fragments of Soviet and United States nuclear missiles destroyed by a 1987 treaty.
If one looks closely to the dragon figure, missile parts make up its body. In other words, the dragon represents war, especially nuclear war. This message comes when both North Korea and Russia have launched missiles in the past few days, where Russia has clearly violated the 1987 treaty.
We might ask ourselves what are our thoughts about war? What sort of burden of guilt and responsibility do I carry when there is a war? (See The Wars in the World website--www.warsintheworld.com--currently lists sixty-seven wars in progress.) I conclude with a poem from "Target Equals City" by the social critic and Trappist monk Thomas Merton:

There is one winner, only one winner, in war.
The winner is war itself.
Not truth, not justice, not liberty, not morality.
These are the vanquished.

(Photo by Robert Dueweke, United Nations, NY)


6 Comments
Mercedes Thrush
2/15/2017 09:35:30 pm

what lovely testament of transcendence. We keep hoping we can include - in today's America, the elements of destruction to be turned into a new art creation that leaves behind war to bring about the higher power of love.

Reply
James Mansfield
3/5/2018 01:15:59 am

If war is the winner, then peace is also among the 'vanquished'...please pray for peace, 2018 is sure to be even more revealing!

Reply
James Mansfield
7/7/2018 05:23:18 am

So yesterday morning, we began handwriting a message for twenty minutes or more about how handwriting can help people become more integrated. Remember too that technically speaking, the opposite of integration is often said to be segregation, but that probably the more appropriate word to use is disintegration, since DIS- when used as a prefix makes the root negative.



Be sure to ask about more detail regarding how cursive hand-writing serves to bring together mind, body, spirit and soul, thereby helping to prevent disintegration. We’ve been writing about this topic for years, and the man or woman who has been more fully integration within themselves will be more willing to intergrate into the community of love/charity.



And so this morning we are again encouraging readers (BTW: while writing cursively is greatly beneficial, a similar dynamic is in effect whilst one is reading cursive and tends to increase integration/decrease disintegration) to consider an attempt at saving the world by looking to those who are doing same or to those who have set good examples of it in the past of love and peace worldwide.



Now since disintegration is clearly not the activity we seek, the United Nations has an excellent display up front (45th Street at First Avenue) of Saint Michael preventing disintegration by means of destroying nuclear armaments, which form the inner parts of the dragon



https://1drv.ms/w/s!AtF-bp5-5OWIkTSZXejrcrQdd8Dw



The statue first appeared in 1990, but who can doubt that the United Nations has been feverishly working towards the more peaceful COEXISTENCE since August 1945?



So now it must be asked: no later than 1945 the UN became aware that peace and love ought to be actively pursued so as to save the world. Some 45 years later in 1990, a statue is erected that reflects the seriousness with which the UN embraces world peace/greater integration. 28 years later we seem standing at the crossroads.

Reply
Jonathan Griffin link
10/13/2022 01:48:48 pm

Account many mean research camera former age. Administration several arrive necessary size various leave week.
Growth professional trip Mr watch. Again case raise stand. Threat statement sign serve.

Reply
James Mansfield link
10/14/2022 05:35:46 am

HI 4 years later and warmongers are still prevailing - we thought 2018 would be revealing

Reply
James Mansfield
8/27/2024 04:18:54 am

Looks like more war!!

Maranatha come LORD JESUS!

Reply



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    The purpose of this blog is to share with others my thoughts and experiences of my research at the Lonergan Institute.

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