The Humble Heel That Crushes the Serpent

Fr. Scott Haynes

A Meditation on the Miraculous Medal

Feast Day, November 27

There is a quiet place in every church where candles tremble before a statue of Mary. It is here that many children first learn to pray, and here, too, that the mystery of the Miraculous Medal begins to speak. Imagine a boy kneeling before the white statue of the Virgin, his small hands cupped around the medal he has just received. The question rises in his heart with the simplicity only a child can have: Why does her heel crush the serpent? Why not her hand or her crown? Why the heel?

To understand the answer, we must listen as Scripture speaks with the voice of Israel.

1. The First Gospel: A Promise Told in Hebrew Cadence

The Hebrew text of Genesis 3:15 carries a rhythm that echoes across centuries. Adam and Eve have fallen, and God speaks directly to the serpent:

“I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”

In ancient Jewish imagination, the head of the serpent is the place of venom and power. The heel is the vulnerable, lowest part of the human body. Two images meet: the place of pride and the place of humility. This contrast sets the tone for all salvation history.

The rabbis saw this verse as a battle between pride and lowliness, between cunning and purity. Early Christians heard in it the first whisper of Christ’s coming, and the Church, reading with the eyes of faith, recognized Mary as the Woman whose child conquers the ancient enemy. Christ is the Victor, yet Mary participates in His triumph in a unique way.

But why is it the heel that crushes? Why place such power in the lowest spot?

The mystery deepens.

2. The Heel in Jewish Thought: Hidden, Humble, and Chosen

In Jewish symbolism, the heel often represents what is unseen and unglorious. Jacob was born grasping Esau’s heel, a detail the rabbis found meaningful. The heel is the poor man’s weapon, the part that touches dust and earth. It is vulnerable to attack, yet it is also the closest to the ground where the serpent slithers.

The serpent cannot reach the head without first meeting the heel.

This tells a spiritual truth: evil strikes low, but God uses the lowly to overthrow evil.

This is the pattern of God’s works in Israel:

• David with a sling.

• Gideon with three hundred men.

• Ruth gleaning in the fields.

• A barren Hannah weeping silently in the Temple.

God loves to lift the lowly and confound the proud.

Mary embodies this more perfectly than anyone:

“He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid” (Luke 1:48).

Her humility is not weakness. It is the very space where God acts with greatest strength.

3. The Boy Kneeling Before Mary

Return for a moment to that child before the statue, troubled by the image on the Miraculous Medal. He has been told, perhaps, “Mary crushes Satan because she is strong.” It is true, yet the answer feels incomplete. Strength alone does not explain a heel. Victory alone does not explain humility.

So he asks her in his heart. Children pray with a clarity many adults forget.

And Heaven answers with a story whispered through tradition.

4. A Mystical Tradition: “What Part of My Body Do You Desire to Be?”

Some spiritual writers imagined a dialogue at the dawn of the Mystical Body. Christ, seeing His Mother’s purity, asks:

“What place in My Body do you desire?”

Mary does not ask for the heart, though her love is unparalleled.She does not ask for the head, though her wisdom is profound.She does not ask for the hands, though she served every day of her life.

She looks down and asks for the heel.

The lowliest.The simplest.The most hidden.

The place that is almost forgotten, yet the place where victory happens. The place that meets the serpent.

Christ grants her desire, for her humility magnifies His glory.

5. Why the Heel Crushes: A Victory of Humility Over Pride

The battle is not between equals. The serpent is proud and cunning. He raises his head in defiance. But Mary, in her humility, lowers herself completely.

In the spiritual world, humility is not weakness. It is strength. It is light. It is freedom from self. It is the soil where grace grows.

The serpent’s head meets the force of the heel, and pride is shattered by humility.

This is why the Miraculous Medal shows Mary’s feet resting upon the globe, the serpent beneath her feet. Her power is real, but it is a received power. It is Christ’s power moving through her because she is empty of self and full of God.

The heel crushes because the heel is humble.

6. The Miraculous Medal: Rays, Rings, and a Mother’s Desire

When Mary appeared to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830, she came not as a queen seated on a throne but as a Mother standing in prayer. Light poured from her hands like waterfalls of grace. Some rings, however, remained dark.

St. Catherine asked why.

Mary answered:

“These rays symbolize the graces I give to those who ask. The dark ones represent graces for which people do not ask.”

Again, Mary points us to humility. She desires only to give what God gives through her. She does nothing of herself, yet she intercedes with a generosity that never tires.

Look again at the medal. She stands upon the world, and her foot—the humble heel—presses down upon the serpent’s head. She stands not as a warrior queen, armored and triumphant, but as a Mother full of grace, praying for her children and pouring light upon the earth.

The victory is quiet.It is maternal.It is rooted in humility.

7. The Child’s Answer

At last the boy understands. Not with a theological treatise, but with a simple truth that sinks deeply into his heart:

Mary crushes the serpent because she is humble.She chooses the low place, and God fills it with power.She chooses to be the heel so that Christ may be all in all.

And now the statue seems different. It is gentle, yet powerful. It is lowly, yet victorious. The boy’s small voice whispers a prayer he did not know he could pray:

Mary, teach me your humility. Let me take the low place with you. Let me stand with you against the serpent. Let your heel become my own, and let Christ triumph in me.

In that moment, the child begins to understand the great mystery of holiness. Victory does not belong to those who climb high, but to those who go low. The proud rise like mountains, but the humble crush serpents underfoot.

8. A Final Reflection

Every time you hold the Miraculous Medal, remember that the greatest battles of your life will be won not by brilliance or strength but by humility. The heel of Mary is the sign of God’s strange and beautiful way: He conquers through what is small. He lifts the meek. He crowns the lowly. He looks to the hidden places where faith quietly grows.

Ask Mary to place you beside her heel, close to the ground where souls are won. Ask for the graces she longs to give. Let her humility shape your heart.

And when the serpent rises, remember this: it is always the humble who crush his head.

Mass on the Feast of the Miraculous Medal

You're invited to submit the names of loved ones to be remembered in the Mass on the feast of the Miraculous Medal (November 27).

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