The Dawn of Our Salvation

When the archangel Gabriel appeared to the humble maiden, the Blessed Virgin Mary, all creation held its breath in silence waiting for her response. Indeed, her answer would decide the doom of the world. Neither the great armies of ancient Egypt nor Babylon nor Persia nor Alexander the Great nor even the great Roman Legions could save the world from from its doom of eternal slavery to Mordor (Satan and his minions). Only the Humble Maiden and her divine Son could do this. The humility of this simple, humble maiden overcame Satan's pride and made it possible for the Son of God to take flesh and save us from the doom that was brought about by Adam's sin.

Such was God's plan for saving the human family; it is his "method" of heroism. The heroism found in Tolkien's writings are a faint but wonderful reflection of God's plan of heroism: "In both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the ways of providence, often managed and interpreted by Gandalf, are to use unheroic, humble figures ... in a heroic manner. The world is to be saved by humble, ordinary people, not the mighty, powerful and wise." [Colin Duriez, The J.R.R. Tolkien Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1992) 114]

Jesus Our Healer-King

While John was baptizing Jesus in the Jordan, God the Father anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus is the King, the Anointed One of God. The very name "Christ" is derived from the Greek word for "king". Furthermore, the Hebrew word for messiah means "anointed" or "king". But how does the Gospel from today's Mass end? "He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people" (Mt. 4:23) Curing or healing is a great prophetic sign of the Messiah, the King!

The hands of the king are the hands of a healer; and so shall the rightful king be known. -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994) 140

Jesus the Christ is the center of time and history. Anne Carroll's high school world history book is aptly named: Christ the King: Lord of HIstory.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!

Our humble beginnings

What follows, my friend, is the essential text that inspired both this blogsite and The Dunedain:

‘But this is terrible!’ cried Frodo. . . . O Gandalf, best of friends, what am I to do? For now I am really afraid. What am I to do? What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!’
‘Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began the ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.’
‘I am sorry,’ said Frodo. “I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum.’
‘You have not seen him,’ Gandalf broke in.
‘No, and I don’t want to,’ said Frodo, ‘. . . He deserves death.’ ‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when it comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many.' (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994) 65-66.)

Welcome to "the pity of bilbo"

Welcome to our website. We have named it "the pity of bilbo" because we think this is a very essential part of the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. We will be posting issues and back-issues of the renowned newsletter The Dunedain. It has many wonderful themes such as friendship, mercy, and Divine Providence.
-Charlie Bak, MSA
Editor of The Dunedain