Chesterton reflecting on the grotesque in nature wrote,

But certain gestures in God’s providence even more than in His creation hint at whatever in the divine intellect is the prototype of a sense of humour in ours.

It seems, for instance, something like a heavenly jest that the canonisation of Margaret of Hungary should have been reserved for an age that passionately disapproves of almost everything she exemplifies. To begin with, was she not doomed by her parents, even before her birth, to a life of inhuman self-repression?

In 1241 Bela IV of Hungary and his queen had been hunted from one refuge to another by a Tartar invasion—that nightmare of eastern Europe in the 13th century. Tracked to their last resort, an island fortress in the Adriatic, they awaited inevitable capture and such gruesome death as might suit the horrid humour of their pursuers. At the queen’s suggestion they promised to consecrate their unborn child to God if He should save their kingdom and lives. Thereupon the Tartars, their attention suddenly distracted by news recalling them to their own country, turned their backs on the prey within their reach and departed.

Margaret of Hungary belongs to the category of born saints. For generations God had been preparing her as a willing victim for her country. Sanctity was in her blood. Hungary’s first three kings, her ancestors, had been St. Stephen, St. Emeric and St. Ladislas I.

The doctrine of original sin shows the need of the remedy of our Saviour's Incarnation and Passion.

The doctrine of original sin and the consequent corruption of human nature it entailed is fundamental for understanding the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God and our need of that remedy. It should be noted that Divine Providence has made use of two remedies for man’s sanctification—one is contained in the law of nature, the other in Holy Scripture; for by the former law the knowledge of good and evil is imprinted in men’s hearts with the decree that they should practice the first and hate the other. He also gave them a natural love and reverence for God resembling that of children for their father. Besides this natural interior inclination there is one that is exterior, for the sun, the moon, the stars, the beauty of the movements of the heavens, the changes of the seasons, the development of things, and finally all creatures say:- “ God made me.” The animals, with the perfection of their bodies and the instincts God bestowed upon them for their preservation, especially incite us to this love and reverence (cf. St. Augustine, Confessions X).

The result of the natural law was that although some men were just and holy, the universal punishment of the flood shows how small was their number compared with that of the wicked.