Introduction

"A Graver Sort of Quest"

"I offer You, Lord, my sufferings: to be endured for Your greater glory. I want to do what You ask of me: in the way You ask, for as long as You ask, because You ask it. I pray, Lord, that You enlighten my mind, inflame my will, purify my heart, and sanctify my soul." ¹

"Teach us, Good Lord,
To serve You as You deserve.
To give and not count the cost.
To fight and not heed the wounds.
To toil and not to seek for rest.
To labor and not to ask for any reward.
Except that of knowing that we do Your Will.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen." ²

Even though these words are from millennia after the War of the Ring was fought, they could have also been spoken by those in it, and actually were, through their actions. The most important battles during that time and the years before were fought in souls, not on fields, most importantly in those of Bilbo and Frodo and all others who fought against the temptation of the Ring and its power. Throughout the tale, it is acknowledged that "...a graver sort of quest in which every human life is secretly engaged," ³ was happening at the same time as the Quest to destroy the Ring. Aragorn acknowledged this when he refused to enter into the City of Minas Tirith as king after the victory of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields for he knew that his throne was not yet secure with Sauron’s final defeat still unknown. Another more important battle was still being fought and that had to be won first. While its outcome hung in the balance, all else did and if it was lost, all was lost. Like the vast majority of us, Frodo did not fight in combat as did the soldiers of Rohan and Gondor; instead, like all of us, his battlefield was in his own mind, heart and soul and "it is by warfare that the soul makes progress," as St. Abba John the Short (339-409) said. Frodo’s progress and that of so many others was great.

The war Melkor launched against Ilúvatar and His children is the same as the one our great Enemy is waging against God and us even now. As we cannot leave this battlefield until death takes us from it, for it is within us, it would be best if we could learn as much as we can about how to fight from those who have struggled before us and since "there are few more moving portraits of humanity under stress than Frodo Baggins," ⁴, certainly one of the sources we can draw from is the Red Book of Westmarch and the many different journeys the souls in that tale took. Our souls will not necessarily be torn apart as intensely as Frodo’s was on Amon Hen and at Mount Doom. More likely it will be like the other steps Frodo took in between leaving Bag End and arriving at the Fire as he heard the Ring’s insistent, constant temptations, whisperings and screams and said no to them over and over with every breath and step he could, though sometimes saying yes. He drew it ever closer to its doom, though he believed it would also be his own doom. What strength of will it took him to have done that. What faith, obedience and trust it took Gandalf to enter Moria, knowing it would be his death or Halbarad who said his death lay beyond the Door to the Paths of the Dead, but he would enter anyway. Hopefully after all our battles have been fought, we will "escape" as Boromir did, bloodied and bruised, but home to our heavenly reward and hear those lovely words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." ⁵ Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Faramir, Éomer, Éowyn and so many others would have heard those words. They ran the race; they kept the faith as St. Paul would say in a later age of his own journey. ⁶

That we know this battle will not end while there is breath in us should not discourage us or cause us to despair, but give us patience and strength to endure the battle and win the war. Watching Frodo struggle, we see that sometimes we can overcome our temptations and weaknesses and sometimes they overcome us, but like him and like Boromir, each time we can get back up when we fall and start the struggle anew to keep going and destroy what we know is evil. We all are, to one degree or another, slaves to sin or at the least, we all have the capacity to become so due to our fallen nature. We are all Ring-bearers of one kind or another, struggling with our own fears, troubles and addictions. We all do hateful, hurtful things to those we do or should love the most. We sometimes give into the seductive call of temptation, hate or anger. We sometimes desire things that we know are bad for us, things that can or have hurt us or others and will continue to harm, things that perhaps we try to pull away from, but still want and cannot part with without great strength of will and humbly asking for God’s assistance.

Tolkien, the master storyteller, was inspired by the Master Himself, to have his tale resound with such truth. He was "a little pencil in God’s Hands" ⁷ to use Blessed Mother Teresa’s words about how she wished herself to be used by God or to use Tolkien’s own words, God’s "chosen instrument." ⁸ What came was not from him, but came through him, from the Secret Fire, from the Holy Spirit, from, as Tolkien says, "the Writer of the Story (by which I do not mean myself)." ⁹ "We thank both authors of The Lord of the Rings, the inspired one and the Inspiring One...," Peter Kreeft wrote. ¹⁰

The Professor said "...the chief purpose of life, for any of us, is to increase according to our capacity our knowledge of God by all the means we have, and to be moved by it to praise and thanks." ¹¹ This tale allowed him and allows us to do that. In his desire to create a mythology for England, he actually created one for everyone, every land, every age. He sub-created in the words of an admiring reader who wasn’t even a believer, "a world in which some sort of faith seems to be everywhere without a visible source, like light from an invisible lamp." ¹² So it is perceived by any reader who is open to it. "Otherwise you would see and feel nothing, or (if some other spirit was present) you would be filled with contempt, nausea, hatred." ¹³ That, too, has been proved by those who have virulently attacked the tale.

The Red Book is a catechism of spiritual warfare "for eyes to see that can" that is merely disguised as a fantasy. As more than one admiring critic has said, this is not an escape from reality, but into reality. ¹⁴ Sean McGarth wrote, "This ‘escapist’ literature presents in vivid, dramatic pictures what is otherwise intangible and inexpressible: our battle for salvation, for overcoming the all-pervasive, crippling legacy of sin." ¹⁵ "Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings is a sublimely mystical Passion Play," Joseph Pearce wrote. "The carrying of the Ring - the emblem of Sin - is the Carrying of the Cross. The mythological Quest is a veritable Via Dolorosa. It is true that Tolkien’s detractors, and many of his admirers, have failed to grasp this ultimate truth at the heart of his myth. Unfortunately, those who are blind to theology will continue to be blind to that which is most beautiful in The Lord of the Rings... At its deepest [the reader] might finally understand that the Quest is in fact, a Pilgrimage." ¹⁶ It is, among other things, about the "miraculous grace of love." ¹⁷

"[T]he religious element is absorbed into the story and the symbolism," Tolkien wrote. ¹⁸ That is where the power of this tale is. It’s not obvious at first, but the more you become aware of it, the more obvious it is. There’s a deep comfort there, an "encouraging thought" that we are being watched over, guided, cared for and held, loved more deeply than we can imagine. "The Gospel resounds in its depths," says Ralph Wood. ¹⁹ Its depths, not on the surface, but deep down where things last.

The myriad heroes of Middle-earth have so much to teach us. They all show the virtue of docility, of being pliable in the Hands of God, Who is so very present in the story, like air: everywhere, but invisible, "that one ever-present Person who is never absent and never named." ²⁰ Nothing is random, nothing happens without a reason, without somehow advancing the ability to defeat Sauron and destroy the Ring. In fact, many of the events during the War of the Ring that seem like disasters to those involved are actually examples of the Hand of God guiding things as they should be, using the free will of His children, whether that will was being used for good or for evil. To name just three: the fall of Gandalf in Moria allowed him to return with greater power as Gandalf the White; the capture of Merry and Pippin by the Orcs got them to Fangorn Forest which roused the Ents who then destroyed Isengard; and the capture of Frodo and Sam by Orcs and their forced march which got them much closer to Mount Doom than they would have on their own so they made it in time to save the Army of the West from being destroyed at the Black Gate. When one looks at the whole story, one sees how deeply involved God is in all of this, even though He had not yet revealed Himself as fully as He would later through the Incarnation and Resurrection. Still there are those who are aware - among them, Aragorn, Elrond and Gandalf - who embraced their identities as His children and servants. Frodo, though he was not aware in the same way, belonged to a people who, as St. Paul says, do not have the law, but keep it as if by instinct, having it written in their hearts. ²¹ The dying words of G.K. Chesterton also resound here: "The issue is now clear. It is between light and darkness, and everyone must choose his side."

Frodo’s Fearful Courage

Frodo showed this after he overcame his initial reluctance at Bag End and at the Council. He didn’t want to take on the huge burden of the Ring. He considered himself entirely unequal to the task, but he knew he had been called and so embraced his vocation and his cross. Even though he did not know from Whose loving hands he had received it, he humbly accepted becoming a vessel God could work through and so learned why he was created. As the Ring was forged, so was the Ring-bearer. Even after Gandalf told him of the dangers of the Ring, how it possessed and "devoured" its bearers, Frodo agreed to guard it, "whatever it may do to me." He was terrified by Gandalf’s words, but because he did not want anyone else to be harmed by the Ring, he was willing to try to contain its poison within himself if he could. He did not know then what the terrible cost of his vow would be, or that he would be asked to bear the Ring much longer than "for the present" until someone better, wiser and stronger than he could take it. He and everyone else would learn that there was no one else better. He was willing, even expecting, to sacrifice his life. Even before he left the Shire, he did not expect to return; and though he did so physically, he could not completely return mentally or emotionally.

Frodo could have said no when the Secret Fire, the Holy Spirit, presented him his vocation at the Council. The Voice was heard within his own heart and soul. He could have remained still, but he did not. His fiat, his "Let it be done", was full of dread, fear, and longing to refuse, but still it was there. In speaking of this and the choices that confront us all, Cheryl Forbes said in an article for Christianity Today, "We choose to be chosen." ²² Frodo’s mind may not have understood why he responded the way he did, but his heart and soul did, for love and grace spoke there in a language that the mind does not always comprehend, but the heart and soul always do. God had prepared His child well. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you..." ²³ He knew Frodo would say yes, even though he had the freedom to say no. He had molded that beloved soul in such a way for this one moment. "...what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes; because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you." ²⁴ Frodo did indeed feel very much like "some other will was using his small voice"; but it was still his choice to let that Will speak. The choice he made then, he made again and again with nearly every breath and step he took toward Mordor, especially when they became harder and harder to take. But as his mortal strength was poured out, immortal grace was poured in. As he drowned in the darkness and hate of the Ring, Sam saw in his beloved master increasing light. "By our suffering and...our acceptance of the cross, we unleash forces that help us to overcome evil in the world," said Dorothy Day or as Gimli said, "[S]worn words may strengthen quaking heart." Once Frodo said "I will take the Ring," - the "sacramental, operative words that set in motion the only power that can conquer Sauron..." as Peter Kreeft says ²⁵ - he did not falter in his charge, even as his heart was filled with fear and despair and his body and soul endured the torment of the terrible physical and spiritual weight of the Ring. Sam was also completely surrendered and open to how God wished to use him.

It is said that the more important the task, the more the angels who are assigned to guard the one charged with fulfilling that task. "You are not alone," Aragorn told Frodo on the way to Weathertop; and indeed Frodo had many visible and invisible guardians assigned to protect him. The Valar, and Elbereth in particular, watched over him. Gildor, Tom Bombadil, Aragorn, and Faramir all had "chance" meetings with him and the other hobbits when they were in peril and would have been devoured if their rescuers had not come. Sam was prompted by some deep inner voice to take off the Ring when he was searching for his master in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and when they were close to the Fire, he and Frodo both responded to a Voice that called them to hurry. They were both inspired to call upon the aid of Elbereth, and she readily answered their prayers. It did not matter that the hobbits did not know how to pray. They still did so very powerfully, and in languages they did not even know. "The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness," St. Paul says. "For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit Himself expresses our pleas in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what He means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God." ²⁶ Such was the intimate relationship that God had woven between Himself and His beloved children that they responded to Him in the depths of their souls, even if their minds were ignorant.

God had not chosen any of the Company of the Nine Walkers foolishly, despite Elrond’s doubts about the wisdom of including Merry and Pippin. Gandalf voiced his strong support for the younger hobbits inclusion, based on their love for Frodo, not on wisdom. He discerned, as he had of Gollum, that they too had some part to play, though he did not know what that would be. Denethor lamented that the Ring had been given into the hands of a "witless fool" but God’s wisdom is not our wisdom or even the wisdom of the Wise. What seemed like folly was actually part of His grand plan, a part in the Music that He had heard from the beginning and those who would play it for Him were hearing for the first time. Elrond already knew how the Ring could corrupt or weaken the will. He truly feared for what lay ahead for the Company, but he also recognized that it was not their own choice, but God’s, as to who the Ring-bearer would be, so he trusted in that choice. Aragorn speaks of this also. Such trust in God’s providential care is what we must all have.

God knew exactly what He was doing when He presented Frodo his part in the Great Music, and how lovely that melody must have sounded to Him as it was played out, as more and more His beloved child gave himself to his task in obedience, love, and sacrifice. Of course, God knew the burden would overcome Frodo in the end, that a terribly discordant note would threaten to overwhelm the entire symphony that had, up to then, absorbed all the other miscues that had tried to impose themselves. No one was immune from the temptation to use the Ring, not even the one God created to be the most immune. It was then that He chose another to play his own final part in the Song. When Frodo was claimed fully at last and could no longer say "Yes" to the Divine Will, it was God Himself Who said "Yes" for him.

God called all Nine Walkers for the purposes He had set aside for them. "You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last..." ²⁷ He filled Frodo with His grace, the "elvish beauty" Sam saw in his beloved master. He nurtured Sam’s love over decades so that it would ever be faithful and never falter on their dark road. He placed Merry and Pippin in the Company to allow for the salvation of Boromir, who thought he was only there to seek an answer to a troubling dream. The two younger hobbits thought they were just there because they wished to be with Frodo, but God had much grander plans for them, for they helped to engineer the defeat of Isengard through the rousing of the Ents, the saving of Faramir’s life, and the defeat of the Witch-king, who believed his own publicity too much. Gimli thought he had only traveled with his father to get advice on how to deal with the dark messenger who had come to them seeking information about the thief who had stolen "a trifle that Sauron fancies". Legolas thought he was there to report the escape of Gollum. Elrond said, however, that it was "so ordered" that the entire Council and those then chosen to be the guardians of the Ring-bearer, and no others, were called to decide the fate of the Ring and of their entire world.

It was among the most humble of those gathered that God chose His Ring-bearer: a small, mortal vessel with a quaking heart, but with a strong will and determination. "[I]t was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning, and to shame what is strong that He chose what is weak by human reckoning; those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen - those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything." ²⁸

It was this humility that allowed Frodo to offer himself up "out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could; and also in complete humility, acknowledging that he was wholly inadequate to the task." ²⁹ He knew he couldn’t survive on his own wits, strength, knowledge and experience. He constantly placed his trust and life in the hands of friends and strangers he believed would be able to take care of him and help him fulfill his Quest. He dedicated his entire strength to that goal, even as despair filled him more and more as to whether he could actually accomplish it. In the crucible of suffering that was the Quest, everything was burned away, including his identity as a happy, innocent, carefree hobbit. He was stripped down to naked will and endurance and clothed in grace.

He became the suffering servant, a sacrificial lamb. He did not die on a cross, but he very nearly died carrying that cross. He did not and could not redeem Middle-earth under his own power, but he was very much a vessel of the One who did. "Frodo is not intrepid, that is, fearlessly courageous," says Claudia Riiff Finseth. "He is fearfully courageous." ³⁰ He was terrified by the burden he had taken on, but he continued. He was tired, cold and hungry, but he went on out of love. He was twisted inside out by the Ring, but he fought against it with every breath and when he failed, he got up and fought again. He was as intent on saving everyone else as Denethor was not, even as he came to understand more and more that it would come at the cost of himself. He was spent bit by bit on that terrible and grace-filled journey, poured out like a living sacrifice. His body seemed too small for all he had to endure, but not so his heart. He gave and gave and gave. He sacrificed everything so those he loved and so many others he did not even know, but still wished to save, wouldn’t have to sacrifice anything. He also showed mercy, compassion and true caring for Sméagol for he knew what that tormented creature was suffering because he was becoming addicted to the same thing and was being torn apart by the same desires. He was "his brother’s keeper" as he carefully cultivated the tender shoots that began to bloom in Sméagol before the fire of Sam’s harsh words burned them away and Sméagol sank back into the darkness from which he had barely emerged.

Frodo was emptied of hope, of even his memories, so that there was nothing left inside of him but the wheel of fire, demonstrating that there were, in fact, two quests going on: Frodo’s to destroy the Ring and the Ring’s to dominate and destroy him. The Ring did not spare his heart any more than it did his body, tearing it to shreds as it weakened his frame. Still he held onto those shreds and continued on. He discovered that he was indeed "made for perilous quests". God allowed His Enemy to torment Frodo as mercilessly as He would later allow with Job, but both held fast and triumphed. Frodo was infused with more and more grace throughout the Quest, as seen in the increasingly bright light that Gandalf, Sam and Faramir witnessed, that bolstered his courage and strengthened him to endure the terrible rape of his heart and soul, the despair and terror, the hunger and thirst.

"This Jewel Among the Hobbits"

The greatest grace that Frodo was given was having Sam at his side. To paraphrase 1 Sam 18:1, "Sam’s soul become closely bound to Frodo’s and Sam came to love him as his own soul." If we are fortunate, we will have a Sam with us to give us unconditional love and support on our journey for this struggle is not one we can win alone. But it can be won. It must be won if we are not to be totally lost. We can learn as much or more from Samwise the stouthearted, Samwise the loving, as we can from Frodo. Sam would have very much wanted his beloved master to be spared his trials, but he did not advocate that at all when it was being debated what path Frodo should take shortly before the breaking of the fellowship. Sam just knew that he needed to be there, to help Frodo carry his cross by whatever means he could. Even more than Galadriel’s phial, Sam was Frodo’s "light in dark places", and a light to us all, a shining, visible beacon of the invisible Love that surrounded them and surrounds us. Frodo told Sam that if their tale was ever told there would be clamoring to hear more about Sam, so he made sure he wrote down many examples celebrating the heroism and love of that "jewel among the hobbits" ³¹ for future generations to find in the reverent tribute to his beloved friends that makes up his part of the Red Book. For Sam was not just a nurturer of plants and flowers, but of the heart and soul that his was knit to, as can be shown by his reverent kisses to forehead and hand; his promise in Shelob’s lair to return if he could like a human Greyfriars Bobby, the faithful Scottish dog who remained at his master’s grave until his own death; his calling out, despite being terrified of discovery in the tower, "I’m coming, Mr. Frodo!" and singing to Frodo in defiance of his fear, so that his master would know he was not alone in that terrible place; his joy at their reunion, deep enough that he knew he could be happy forever simply holding his treasure.

It took great strength and courage for Sam to be there always for his master; to continue to love more and more; to never not love, even when his heart broke. That is why he was created: to love that special, bright, shining soul that was Frodo’s; to be a visible beacon of God’s love for him, to love him even when he was being twisted into something unlovable, since without that love Frodo would not have been able to accomplish what he was created to do.

Sam loved with God’s love, but so did Frodo as he sacrificed and expended himself wholly for others. He was very aptly named Bronwe athan Harthad, Endurance beyond Hope, as he pushed past his tears, doubts, terror and despair; held on because his Sam still had hope; struggled to the point of crawling when he was too weakened by his torment and the weight of the Ring to do anything else. Sam was just as determined to help fulfill the Quest when he took the terrible weight of the Ring upon himself after he thought Frodo dead. When that fear proved false, he carried his master up the mountain, in the end crawling with Frodo on his back.

Frodo knew all along he would not be able to give up the Ring, but he was still completely set on destroying it, even if it meant dying with it. When he could no longer bear the punishment that had lashed him for months, Harthad Uluithiad, Hope Unquenchable, did not give up. ³² Even as Mount Doom fell into ruin around them and death seemed imminent, when Frodo no longer needed Sam’s hope to keep him going and tried in vain to have him abandon it at last, Sam would not. He encouraged Frodo to come further down the path and it was there the eagles found them. Both hobbits show us in their dogged perseverance that we must stay the course even when it becomes difficult and seemingly impossible to finish or even survive.

"It’s so easy not to try," is sung in the much-maligned animated version of the tale, and indeed that is true. It is much harder to "do", and those who don’t even try, are not the ones who are remembered or even known, as Sam pointed out on the Stairs of Cirith Ungol. The tales that are remembered are those of heroes who persevered, even if they themselves perished in the end. Sam and Frodo had many reasons not to hope, many reasons to despair on the way to Mordor, so weak, exhausted, starving and dehydrated, but they went on with and without hope. Months of demonic torment had worn Frodo down to the point of being a puppet in the Enemy’s hands at the Fire, but the same months of grace-filled service to his Creator won him a reward of which Sauron could not have conceived of. "[E]vil labours with vast power and perpetual success - in vain: preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in," Tolkien wrote ³³ and that is borne out throughout the tale, including at the Fire. We should remember that as we suffer our own assaults from the Enemy.

As long as Frodo served God, he was free, though he was being bound more and more tightly by the cords of the Enemy. Sam freely surrendered his will, heart, and strength to Frodo out of love, and in such heroic service also served God. He was free and bound at the same time, but he chose to be bound, and therein lay his freedom. He had no idea Who put his master forward as he struggled to decide what to do after Frodo’s apparent death, but he recognized that Someone had, and not Frodo himself. When he saw his star in Mordor, he saw a tangible, visible sign of goodness beyond the reach of evil, and he trusted in it enough to know that he was not the only one watching over Frodo. On the strength of that grace-filled sign, he was able to sleep deeply and without concern, even in enemy territory. "Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe." ³⁴ That is what makes their trust and faith so beautiful and inspiring. God looks after His own, even those who do not know Him, but in the darkness of ignorance, reach out to hold onto Him anyway.

Appointed Paths

Aragorn knew his steps were being guided by God. He did not always see the Path right away, but when he did, he followed it without hesitation. He spent his entire adult life in humble service: as a Ranger; helping Gandalf track down Gollum; guiding four frightened hobbits to Rivendell; placing himself in the service of Frodo during the first part of the Quest, then of Théoden, and afterward of Gondor; and one knows that he would continue to be a servant even as king, because he was aware of Whose servant he was. It was because of this knowledge of the invisible world and his service to his Creator that he said his fiat and did not allow Éowyn to dissuade him from walking the Paths of the Dead, for he knew he went "on a path appointed," just as Frodo and all the others did. Neither he nor Frodo would have willingly walked such physically and spiritually desolate Roads, but both did in obedience and trust as part of their embrace of the Will of Another. None of them walked alone.

This tale was written as it was lived which adds to its reality. No one saw very far along the path. Frodo, Aragorn, and Sam all agonized over their decisions and wondered which path to take, but all kept going. When the hobbits were lost in the Emyn Muil and Sam wondered if they would ever find a way out, Frodo was confident that they would. In the depths of his soul, he trusted the One Who was leading him to Mordor. Sam suffered so when he thought he made the wrong choice in leaving Frodo in Shelob’s lair or when he revealed to Faramir that Isildur’s Bane was the Ring. But Faramir reassured him that he was meant to do the latter and it was clear he was meant to do the former also. If he hadn’t left Frodo’s apparently dead body and taken the Ring with him, they would have both been captured and the Ring too.

It is actually much better if we don’t know where our path will lead for we may fear the darkness so much that we cannot fulfill our purpose. Frodo said as much to Gandalf when he said he was glad he didn’t know he was in danger of becoming a wraith after being stabbed by the Morgul blade or he would have been too terrified to move. Sam echoes the same when he wonders what sort of tale he and Frodo have landed in, that if they had known how it would be, they wouldn’t have set out. Frodo is so frightened of what he fears to be ahead -- greater suffering and inevitable death -- that he is barely able to make the decision to go on, but what our fears show us may not be the truth. When Frodo made the choice to continue on, his fears did not leave him; our fears may not leave us, but they did not keep him from taking one more step, one more breath, again and again and again. We need to follow in his footsteps and everyone else’s who made such heroic sacrifices and do what they did and make the decisions that seem best, even if nothing is clear and all choices seem evil at the time. Even when we feel we are stumbling around in the dark and nothing is going right and bad things happen from our choices and we seem to have chosen wrongly, as Frodo and Aragorn felt after the breaking of the Fellowship, that is when we must pray and trust that God has a plan for us. Verlyn Fleigher says it beautifully when she wrote that the those in the story "illustrate, with the consequent pain and loss of all that seems most precious, the absolute necessity of letting go, of trusting in the unknown future, of having faith in God." ³⁵

God allows everything for a reason and even our wrong or seemingly wrong choices can bring good and be shown it is all meant to be that way as Gandalf later reassured Aragorn. After Frodo made the difficult and painful decision to break with the Company, he was rewarded with the peace that it was the right one, though God amended it and made it even better. That is the peace we will all have if we surrender to God’s Will for us and carry our own crosses. We will fall many times as Frodo did, but we can rise each time as he did. And if we fall, as he did at the Fire, we will have God there to raise us again, as he did, if we have shown by our previous actions that we would desire that.

Even the angelic Gandalf who would have had the most knowledge or intuition about his Creator’s plan questioned whether certain events or actions of his were right or not. He could see farther and deeper than anyone with his eyes of faith, hope and trust, but even his vision was incomplete. Only God can "see all ends." No one knew right away whether their choices were good or bad. No one knew all the consequences of any particular action. They were and we are always working with incomplete data. Neither they or we can see very far down the Road. All we need to have is the hope, faith and trust that they did and walk steadily toward our goal with our hand in God’s and believe that He will not steer us wrong, even if the way leads into great darkness. Gandalf did not know whether Frodo and Sam would succeed anymore than anyone else. In fact, as he said at the Council, he wondered whether success was even possible, advocating that the attempt to destroy the Ring had to be made, even if the attempt failed. Still he shared the hope that Galadriel spoke of to Frodo in Lothlorien, that "what should be shall be". He would have seen the frailties of mortal wills and how they failed at times to live up their potential to correspond with the grace they had been given. Elrond would have seen the same in his own kind as well Men’s. But Gandalf also knew that hobbits were full of surprises and so helped shore up Frodo’s courage as best he could to do his part in the war against Sauron, for that was what the Istari were sent to do, to succor and support, teach and guide, even when the way is unknown. The barely concealed mirth Pippin saw in Gandalf in Minas Tirith is evidence of the Maia’s deep faith and trust. Gandalf knew his Creator was stronger than any foe out in the field and that is the faith that guided him his entire time on Middle-earth.

But walking the right Path was not always an easy task for any of the free peoples. It is more painful for a soul to commit evil, but it is not painless to choose the good. Redemptive suffering has great value, and no one suffered more in mind, body, and soul than did Frodo. As Australian professor, Barry Gordon, said in a paper he sent Professor Tolkien called "Kingship, Priesthood and Prophecy in The Lord of the Rings", Frodo was "the Lamb whose only real strength is his capacity to make an offering of himself." ³⁶ As he, Aragorn and Gandalf all responded to their callings, each grew "in power and grace," as Clyde Kilby wrote. ³⁷

Gandalf’s will was so docilely given to his Creator that when his very life was asked, he freely gave it. "No man can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends." ³⁸ As Richard Purtill says, "Gandalf...is a free creature who freely answers the call to imitate Christ. He and Frodo, who walks his own Way of the Cross, are thus closest to Tolkien’s deepest moral ideas." ³⁹

"[Gandalf] was being asked to make a hard choice," says Michael Martinez. "And Gandalf made the correct choice, but in doing so he had to abandon the Valar’s plan. ...Ilúvatar needed to make some changes. Gandalf therefore went willingly to the sacrifice, as he had been forewarned." ⁴⁰

The idea that "he was being asked to make a hard choice" again brings out free will and surrender. Gandalf could have chosen not to accept death by refusing to enter Moria, as Frodo could have chosen not to accept the Ring. Gandalf’s will was so conformed to that of his Creator that he even trustfully surrendered his life. It was not he who feared to enter the mines, but Aragorn for him; and it did indeed appear to mortal eyes that the wizard’s death was a catastrophe for the Company. But throughout the tale it is shown that God uses apparent disasters to His good. Gandalf’s death allowed him to be "sent back" with greater powers, and thus to be able to better fight against the Shadow and the servants of such.

The reason for the entire Quest is summed up by Aragorn after Gandalf’s fall: "The counsel of Gandalf was not founded on foreknowledge of safety, for himself or for others...There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark." The grave threat of Sauron had to be countered, and it was better to at least attempt the seemingly hopeless task than to do nothing. Treebeard said much the same thing to Merry and Pippin after the Entmoot had concluded and the Ents had decided to march upon Isengard. "Of course, it is likely enough...that we are going to our doom: the last march of the Ents. But if we stayed at home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later." Théoden would rather die in battle than hide in illusive safety and not even attempt to save his land, for he knew defeat and death might come in any case, and it would be better if it found him defending his people. The hope behind the Quest lay in trusting to God that all would work out as it was meant to be as long as everyone did his part, that "what should be shall be" as Galadriel says to Frodo. How difficult it is to achieve those levels of self-surrender that Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf showed, but we also have two millennia of saints to show us that it is indeed possible. Without the cross, there can be no crown. Without suffering, there can be no glory. Nothing is promised, nothing is sure, except for the victory that awaits us at the end, if we have persevered.

Spiritual Warfare

Galadriel’s test of the Fellowship’s hearts showed them what they really wanted to do and what their choices were. Sam was asked what he would do if he could go home and have a garden of his own, but his heart was firmly in his master’s keeping. He would "go home by the long road with Mr. Frodo or not at all." The whole Company faced their own tests of whether they would give in to their heart’s desire or continue on the hard road they were treading, and none of them turned back. They knew they had much more than their own wills and desires to be concerned about.

Watching all those who struggle with the temptation the Ring presents, we see we all have the potential to do evil even if we are normally good. But we also have the same potential to resist that evil, with God’s help. We can walk away from the drinking, the drugs, the slot machines, the toxic relationships, whatever is poisoning us. We can say no to hate and anger and the hurt and violence it causes. We can choose another path. We may fail many times; we may fail in the end; or we may succeed, depending on how open we are to receiving and responding to the grace that is available to us. Even if we fail, mercy can be given to us, if that is our part in the Music.

Gandalf, Galadriel and Faramir all faced the possibility of claiming the Ring. Frodo offered it freely to the first two and Faramir could have easily taken it if he had wanted to. They all resisted the temptation. Gandalf was terrified of Frodo’s offer. He knew what it would do to him, how it would have took him and destroyed him and through him, all that he had stewardship over. Faramir realized the danger as well and said he would have refused to use it even if Minas Tirith was falling into ruin and he alone using the Ring could have saved it. Elrond said none of the Wise would dare use it for they would have only set up a new Dark Lord. Galadriel was mightily tempted but failed to succumb. She, Elrond and all the Elves would rather have had Imladris, Lothlorien and all that was sustained by the Elven Rings fail when the One Ring was destroyed instead of the Ring still allowed to exist. Either way, the Elves were doomed. If Frodo’s Quest failed, they would be exposed and eventually defeated by Sauron. If it succeeded, the Ring would be gone but they fear so too would be the power of their Rings. But they and Faramir were more willing to lose their lands than ‘save’ them through doing evil. They realized it wouldn’t be saving at all, but the loss of everything, including their own souls. They would have rather died than do a moral wrong. They well understood, "What gain, then, is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?" ⁴¹ Sam was tempted briefly but saw right through the lies and illusions the Ring showed him. Frodo continually struggled against temptation and at times successfully resisted and at times was overcome. When the Ring was no longer able to seduce him into putting it on, it resorted to brutal coercion, but even that at times, Frodo was able to overcome with help.

Compare those refusals to Denethor who said he would hide the Ring and not use it except at the "uttermost end of need" but he was already at that end. Boromir would have used it right away had he been able to wrest it away from Frodo. Saruman hadn’t even seen it or touched it, but was corrupted by it. He would certainly have used it and betrayed not only his Creator but his newer master. Those who resisted the lure of the Ring, either completely or after a fall, were rewarded. Those who did not weren’t. Boromir was given the grace of a good death and Frodo and Bilbo were allowed to sail West. Saruman’s soul as it rose after death was rejected by the Valar and the Witch-king and Sauron were reduced to impotence.

At the time of her own terrible test, Galadriel was well aware of who she would become if she claimed the Ring that Frodo freely offered her, for she had long dreamed of this very moment. She was momentarily intoxicated by the power that could be hers, but when she could have grown to such heights, she instead had the strength of will and the grace given to the Firstborn to withstand her trial and shrink back to "a slender elf-woman" instead of the dark and terrible queen Frodo beheld in his vision. She recognized that the heights of power would actually plunge her into the depths. She chose humility instead. She "will diminish...and remain Galadriel."

Her words to Frodo after she passed the test - "for we have chosen" - underscore the fact that personal choice and free will were involved here, that temptation on both their parts to turn back, to become something they were not meant to be, was resisted. Galadriel realized that she’d rather submit to God’s plan for things than her own wishes. She surrendered her own will to that of God’s and was no longer tempted to follow anything else. She would remain His child, not a terrible queen. Her fiat had been spoken and she would not turn back, any more than Frodo would.

The reality of the spiritual warfare raging inside every soul, from the First Age to this present, is very clearly shown than inside Frodo on Amon Hen. In that intense, focused, and painfully amplified attack, it is shown that our greatest enemies are not those we meet on the physical battlefield, but the spiritual one. "For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens." ⁴² But our greatest allies are found there also. We cannot resist the Enemy on our own power. We need help in this terrible struggle and there will be times we will writhe, tormented, like Frodo. We were all created to be children of Light. Even Melkor/Lucifer was first made an angel of light, indeed the brightest of all the angels, before he chose the darkness. Sauron, Saruman and the men who became the Ring-wraiths were created children of God. We can choose to abandon our Creator as they did, for the journeys of the villains are at times our own also, or we can choose to cleave to the One Who made us and become His slave instead, even when darkness beckons with its delusory promises of freedom. It is only when we cling to God will we be free. None of us are safe from the pull of the dark, but we can always come back, as Frodo chose to. God will provide many chances for our redemption, but He will also respect our free will. It will be our choice to return or not. Frodo was given that choice on Amon Hen. He gave that choice to Sméagol, Wormtongue and Saruman and Gandalf offered it to Théoden and Saruman. It was their choice to reject the dark and embrace the light or to continue on the same path into the Abyss that they were already on.

Frodo’s own mortal will would not have been enough to contest with Sauron, but God protected His child here with angelic aid as He had all along, as Gandalf related later: "I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark Tower; and the Shadow passed."

Still it was neither the voice Frodo heard commanding him to take off the Ring nor the crushing power of his enemy that made the choice for him. It was his own will, shored up by Gandalf, which decided at the last instant it could. God allowed Frodo to be tested in this way to bolster his will for the challenges that lay ahead, just as He had in the barrow. The Ring intended this for evil: to compel Frodo to reveal his location to Sauron; but God used it for good. Frodo’s eyes were opened. He saw the Eye and visions of the warfare all about him and though "[a]ll hope left him," his will was able to throw off the shackles of the terror that had previously paralyzed it. He was increasingly buried under the despair of seemingly certain doom, but he refused to surrender to it. He actively fought his spiritual battle, though he was being torn apart by it, unlike Denethor, who was very passive and did not fight either physically or mentally. He looked into the palantir, saw what Sauron wanted him to see and surrendered completely to despair. He died spiritually before he died physically, just as Saurman had. Both rejected any attempt to ‘cure’ them. Frodo also saw what Sauron planned, but instead of fleeing, he continued to walk down the path as it was laid before him, bearing not just the increasingly heavy physical weight of the Ring, but the terrible weight of despair and dreadful power of the evil he was walking toward. In his small, weak body, he had strength of heart that Denethor had abandoned. We need to remember this when we are being crushed by our own crosses, that there is help for us, that we can choose not be defeated, but to continue on, even though the various Roads the heroes traveled were very dark, physically and spiritually, there was also light. Sam saw his star; Frodo saw his Sam; Pippin detected Gandalf’s hope and Faramir tried to convey his hope to Éowyn. Even in the darkest night there was that hope, the star that twinkled above that evil could not reach, mar or destroy. We can see that light ourselves if we but look up into the night. Denethor did not see any of that. Black, starless night had come to him. He hid in his tower and eventually killed himself and tried to murder his son. He did not want either of them to travel down the path he saw or thought he saw. Sam also wrestled with despair and came out victorious. He had no idea how to proceed after Frodo had apparently been killed, but he went on because he knew the Quest was too important for it to fail. He heard a voice inside his head that urged him to give up the Quest, but he told it in no uncertain terms that he would not. His hope was not in the task itself, but in Frodo.

It was while Frodo walked his Via Dolorosa, his Way of Sorrows, poured out like a living sacrifice, all but crushed by the terrible menace toward which he walked, staggered and crawled, that "[t]he parallels with Christ’s carrying of the Cross are obvious," says Joseph Pearce. "Furthermore, such is the potency of the prose and the nature of Tolkien’s mysticism that the parable of Frodo’s burden may even lead the reader to a greater understanding of Christ’s burden. All of a sudden one sees that it was not so much the weight of the Cross that caused Christ to stumble, but the weight of evil..." ⁴³

Frodo had abandoned hope, but Hope did not abandon him. It walked by his side. His own will hardened to fight against the dark, even as the Enemy chipped away bit by bit at that will and at his very identity until he was robbed even of his memories. His will, last to fall, was finally stripped from him at the Fire. He was a shell, a sacred vessel emptied in service, but filled at the same time with grace and light. At the Mountain, Sam beheld a vision of Frodo’s shining soul, shorn of the veils of flesh that surrounded it, and after that transfiguration, saw his beloved master as a spent figure, gasping for breath, an empty husk consumed by both Light and Dark. Both visions were true. Frodo had given everything he possibly could, filled with all the grace he needed to accomplish his task. When that was done, there was no strength left in him to withstand the greatest assault of Sauron upon his heart, will and soul.

But, thankfully, "[t]he plan of salvation does not depend on the vulnerable will of the players," Fleming Rutledge says. "The Writer of the Story has the greater will." ⁴⁴ Frodo had nothing left to give, but he could still receive. God returned to him the mercy and compassion Frodo had originally extended to Gollum in reward for all Frodo had suffered in God’s service. The Quest was completed and later he was rewarded for his endurance and sacrifices of blood, sweat and tears, indeed the sacrifice of his very self as a whole and healthy hobbit. Bilbo and Frodo both escaped worse harm because they showed pity and mercy. "Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them." ⁴⁵

Those who had surrendered to the darkness, however, were only interested in themselves and in what they could achieve for their own victory. Boromir fell to the temptation of the Ring, but redeemed himself by trying to save Merry and Pippin. He lost his life but saved his soul. He "escaped"as Gandalf says. Saruman wanted the Ring and dominion over everything just as Sauron did. Sméagol wanted the Ring back so he could avenge himself on everyone who had wronged him as well as the more innocent wish of fish three times a day. Denethor wanted to continue to rule, and if he couldn’t have that, then he would "have naught." He was under the sway of the Dark Power and did not even know it.

More than anyone else, Sméagol walked in both worlds of good and evil, almost as much as Frodo did, though in opposite ways. He had started his possession of the Ring with murder, betrayed Frodo and Sam to Shelob and in the end claimed the Ring himself. He promised to "serve the master of the Precious" and he did that, very faithfully after his own fashion, but he was also being undone by his continuing lust for the Ring and was looking for a way to possess it again himself. His good deeds, taking the hobbits through the Marshes for example, did not accrue any grace to him since he was already steeped in sin.

Sam despised "Slinker" and "Stinker" but he held back from killing him when he had the opportunity as he held the Ring by then and knew a little of what Frodo and Sméagol had to bear. Frodo was claimed by the Ring at the end, but because he gave mercy to Gollum, he was given mercy himself. Over and oven it is shown throughout the tale, as in our own lives, that actions taken and choices made affect the souls of those making them. It is we who choose our salvation or damnation, though there is always the possibility of mercy being given.

So Much Owed, So Much Given

Winston Churchill’s words, "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few," could not only be said of those who fought in the Battle of Britain, but of four hobbits who journeyed far from their home to save Middle-earth. Frodo and Sam were both terrified of Shelob, but "Frodo, hobbit of the Shire, walked steadily down to meet the eyes" and Sam fought and defeated that gigantic foe. He was terrified to enter the Tower of Cirith Ungol, but love propelled him on in both cases. Merry was nearly paralyzed by his fear of the Witch-king, but overcame it to help Dernhelm/Éowyn. Pippin was instrumental in saving Faramir’s life. May we all have the courage of these, so small in body, so great in heart!

It is also through the courage of Gimli, Legolas, Faramir and every soldier of Rohan and Gondor who were, at times, as the hobbits were at times, "horribly afraid" but still showed bright examples of perseverance, loyalty and dedication to completing even seemingly impossible tasks, as they discovered they were braver than they ever thought they could be, that they could push past their own fears and do what they needed to because others they loved depended on them. They learned as we have learned that evil is alive and well in the world, but in so many other ways so is love, faith, humility and self-sacrifice. Though we fight "the long defeat" here, ultimately victory has been promised, and everything we can do to help ourselves and others to contribute to that, will be rewarded.

The darkness will not endure forever. Love and light will. This lesson is sorely needed in our era of broken promises and betrayal of friends and spouses and we can point to the shining example of love, faithfulness and devotion of Sam and Rosie, who were open to the gift of life and celebrated their golden anniversary and far beyond, surrounded by their many children. It is a shame that such selfless openness is not at all understood and is indeed frowned upon and criticized as ridiculous and worse by our ‘me and only me’ society. Ask anyone who dares to have more than two children. But Sam and Rosie show where there is great and true love, many miracles can happen.

All the heroes traveled far in their journeys, but Frodo farthest, not only physically, but spiritually. He had indeed "grown very much" as they all had. On the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, Sam says that some in the tales they loved as lads came to a "bad end", but then he adds the important qualifier: or what would be considered to be a bad end, showing that not all bad ends truly are. The final sacrifice Frodo made in leaving Middle-earth behind, the land and people he loved and that he suffered so much for seems unfair and unbearably sad, but it was actually a great blessing, a reward in proportion for all the sacrifices he had already made, the hope of healing, peace and joy rising in his heart once more. After he passed West and was able to reflect upon the events in his life and their true meaning, hopefully he would realize:

"The will of God will never take you,
Where the grace of God cannot keep you.
Where the arms of God cannot support you,
Where the riches of God cannot supply your needs,
Where the power of God cannot endow you.

"The will of God will never take you,
Where the spirit of God cannot work through you,
Where the wisdom of God cannot teach you,
Where the army of God cannot protect you,
Where the hands of God cannot mold you.

"The will of God will never take you,
Where the love of God cannot enfold you,
Where the mercies of God cannot sustain you,
Where the peace of God cannot calm your fears, Where the authority of God cannot overrule for you.

"The will of God will never take you,
Where the comfort of God cannot dry your tears,
Where the Word of God cannot feed you,
Where the miracles of God cannot be done for you,
Where the omnipresence of God cannot find you." ⁴⁶

We can also hope that one day Frodo saw his Sam again on the white shores of the West and having become that "glass filled with a clear light", ran to embrace his heart’s brother, and now whole and complete, they "lived together happily ever after": the very ending Bilbo said in Rivendell that he wanted for his book. It could have indeed ended that way, but even after death, our story goes on.

May the light of all the myriad heroes whose stories Professor Tolkien retold "in this very nick of time" be a beacon for us as well to draw strength and inspiration from when we must make our own journeys to Mordor or confront the Shadow in other ways and places.

"A man came, sent by God. His name was John. He came as a witness, as a witness to speak for the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light, only a witness to speak for the light." ⁴⁷

"[T]here is no artist who is not gratified when his work is praised, and Jesus, the Artist of souls is pleased when we do not stop at the exterior, but, penetrating to the inner sanctuary He has chosen for His dwelling, admire its beauty." ⁴⁸

Join me now as we explore this "fundamentally religious and Catholic work". ⁴⁹
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