All in Tolkien & Catholicism
To the man who wrote of quaint hobbit-holes and grand kingdom halls, friendship and hospitality were valued in a heroic sense. He is often quoted, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” And oh, how true it is.
This quote has been stuck in my head for some time now (as I'm sure you've noticed since I write about it so often), and it's come to mean quite a lot to me. It's the kind of quote I'd like to paint across a giant canvas and hang above the entry way of my home. Evil things do not come into this home…
Tolkien created Middle-earth with painstaking detail and wove importance and meaning into nearly every page of The Lord of the Rings — and the dates of important events are no exception. Chiefly, March 25th marks the date when the One Ring was destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. Being the most important event of The Lord of the Rings, this date is sure to hold some significance, don’t you suppose?
I so loved the comparison Bishop Barron made between Jesus and Frodo in his discussion of The Lord of the Rings. The way that evil is ultimately defeated, by both Christ and by the Fellowship, is so unexpected. Evil isn't conquered by a greater evil, it is conquered by good -- the ultimate expression of goodness: self-sacrificial love. The love that holds nothing back, that offers oneself entirely no matter the consequences. He "allows the evil of the world to spend itself on him."
Christianity is so thoroughly woven into every aspect of The Lord of the Rings; it must have been written, I had decided, by someone who was thoroughly steeped in Christian truth. I had known he was a Christian, or assumed as much given his themes of redemption and his Christ-like characters. But I had assumed, like me, he was a Protestant Christian.
