Middle Earth

I never read Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. I tried but I couldn't get past the first chapter. And then Peter Jackson made the film. And I could not get enough of it. And now, I am definitely an LOTR fan.

A lot of literary critics and religious scholars say, and Tolkien himself reportedly admitted, that LOTR is "a fundamentally religious and Catholic work."(In the same manner as C.S. Lewis' is a Christian work.) I never really thought about it all that much but once I'd heard other people's arguments, I could no longer divorce that underlying myth from the story. And that just made me fall in love with it more.

If I ever had the chance to design an Easter card (which I noticed is conspicuously absent in the card section at the bookstore), I'd make one with an LOTR theme and then I'd quote lines from the film. In the scene from the second film The Two Towers, Frodo and Sam watch in helplessness as their enemies attack.

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

And then, on the inside it would say:

He has risen! Christ has overcome the darkness. Happy Easter!

Okay… so Hallmark would never go for that. Let's bring on the Easter bunnies. Oh well. It was worth a shot.

Films and stories like LOTR remind me of what I often take for granted: that whether I like it or not, whether I intended it or not, by virtue of being baptized a Catholic and a confirmed Soldier of Christ, I am involved in a spiritual battle. There are no swords, dwarf-forged or otherwise. No sacred quest. No ring to be destroyed. But there is, certainly, a battle between good and evil. My heart knows with a conviction that can only be from God that I was not born for this world. That there is a better place than this.That I am, in some sense, in Middle Earth-already here but not quite where I'm supposed to be.And to get where I am supposed to be will take much sacrifice, courage and strength.

Many times, over the year, I feel the unease and the tension of this knowing but I shrug it aside and convince myself that it's just because I'm stressed or worn out. But during Holy Week and Easter, when even the weather and the world seem to stand still, there is no running away from it. And I am reminded of the drama that occurred 2000 years ago and continues to unfold to this day: the reality of sin, the pain of suffering, the cost of love, the agony of betrayal and abandonment, the power of doubt. And then, just when you think you can't bear any more sorrow, the surprise of a promise fulfilled, the joy of finding what was lost, the blessing of a reunion, the power of life after death.

The battle for Middle Earth ended with the return of the King. As will the battle on this Earth, only our battle will have effects that reach farther into eternity than any other story.

But the good news is, we already know how this battle turns out. It ends with the Good triumphant, the Hopeful rewarded and the Sinful?

He is forgiven. This is the promise of Easter. And this is what is worth fighting for.