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The Silmarillion and Christian Cosmology – October 4, 2021

J.R.R. Tolkien created a parallel universe.  It reimagines the Biblical story of Creation, but with the same tragedy of the Fall, including the fall of the angels, the fall of man, and the epistemological struggle of good and evil.  

The Silmarillion is a deeply Christian cosmology, albeit an imaginary one.  It explains the mythic truths of Christianity without ever mentioning them explicitly.  The same is true, of course, of The Lord of the Rings.  The Silmarillion is the pre-history of The Lord of the Rings.  It is Middle Earth’s Book of Genesis, and the Old Testament.  The Silmarillion is the Old and the Lord of the Rings is the New, but much like the Hebrew Bible and the Gospel, they are intimately connected.  One necessarily leads to the next. 

The Silmarillion begins with the beatific vision of Eru, who is called Iluvatar – a type of God the Father.  He establishes the original order and harmony of the Tolkien universe.  The harmony is created together in Great Music of life.  Iluvatar created the Ainur, the Holy Ones, who were the offspring of Iluvatar’s thought and sang music before him.  These were a type of the angels that reflect the glory of God, and also the heavenly saints of men to come.   

Yet, among the Ainur was Melkor, who had the greatest gifts of power and knowledge.  He sought to bring into being things of his own.  The discord of Melkor spread over the spread of the harmonious melodies before Iluvatar.  The melodies ceased, and Iluvatar pronounced judgment upon Melkor: 

“And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite.”  

And, Iluvatar revealed all things that were in store for future ages of the world to come.  

“And they saw with amazement the coming of the Children of Iluvatar, and the habitation that was prepared for them; and they perceived that they themselves in the labor of their music had been busy with the preparation of this dwelling, and yet knew not that it had any purpose beyond its own beauty.  For the Children of Iluvatar were conceived by him alone.” 

And, Iluvatar made the world, a new thing, called Ea – this, the habitation of the world, the Elves called Arda, that is, the Earth.  This is the primordial past of Earth, and of men, the preternatural Eden.  But, Melkor, the fallen Lucifer figure, the Middle Earth Satan, sought to dominate the world.  

“When therefore Earth was yet young and full of flame Melkor coveted it, and he said to the other Valar: ‘This shall be my own kingdom.'”  The envy of Melkor led to the battles of Middle Earth, first against the Elves, and later, men too.  

Yet, “slowly nonetheless the Earth was fashioned and made firm.  And thus was the habitation of the Children of Iluvatar established at the last in Deeps of Time and amidst innumerable stars.”  

Melkor, the name Elves dare not speak, they called Morgoth.  From Morgoth came all foul and fell things upon the Earth, including the Balrogs, the demon of terrors.  The greatest of Morgoth’s servants was a spirit called Sauron, who “after years he rose like a shadow of Morgoth, and a ghost of his malice, and walked behind him on the same ruinous path down into the Void.”  

This set the stage for the struggle and wars for Middle Earth in this first age at the beginning of days.  

This is reminiscent of the Fall of Man in Eden and being cast out of the Garden after Original Sin.  Satan the tempter tricked Adam and Eve into disobeyed God, and sin entered the world.  Death and destruction followed soon after.  So, it is in the world of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. 

Early in the first age of the world, the Ring of Doom is forged.  So too, are the Silmarils, which are the three ancient gems that contain the light of the Trees of Valinor, and the most precious things of the Eldar, forged by Feanor, of the original Children of Iluvatar.  

Of course, Melkor lusted for the Simarils, “the very memory of their radiance was a gnawing fire in his heart.”  The fallen Elves sent to Middle Earth seek to retain the fire of the radiance of the Edenic home in the West.  

The dwarves dwell in Khazad-dum in the latter times called Moria, beyond the Misty Mountains.  Moria is, also, Tolkiens inserting the truths and even names of Scripture into his grand tale, as Christ was crucified on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.  

Tolkien also introduces “new tidings” to Middle Earth with the arrival of Feanor and Men to Middle Earth.  The new tidings are also reminiscent of Scripture, in the words of the prophet Isaiah: 

“Get you up to a high mountain,
    O Zion, herald of good tidings; 
lift up your voice with strength,
    O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, 
    lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
    “Behold your God!”
Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
    and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
    he will gather the lambs in his arms,
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young.”

                                                                        (Isaiah 40:9-11)

Elrond and Galadriel, part of the original Eldar of the Elves were there, and the race of Eagles, who were sent forth “to dwell in the crags of the North, and to keep watch upon Morgoth.”  Galadriel is a type of the Virgin Mary helping guide and protect Middle Earth from the enmity of Morgoth and Sauron and the forces of evil.

Lembas is another type.  It is the Elven waybread, “a wafer of white wax shaped as a single flower of Telperion.”  It was holy to the Eldar, “for the Eldar had never before allowed Men to use this waybread, and seldom did so again.”  Lembas helped them through their journey, “and he took also the lembas of Melian to strengthen them in the wild.”  It was their manna from Heaven, as the Israelites on their journey and Exodus through the desert wilderness wandering of forty years, and as King David wrote in the psalms, “Man ate the bread of Angels.”  (Psalm 77:25)  And so, now too, in the new and greater dispensation, man again eats the bread of angels, or in our case, Catholics consume the Body and Blood, and Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most Holy Eucharist.  

Elves, and even Men, set sail on ships to the West, into the eternity of their immortal shores: “gazing from afar upon the light of the Silmaril, and it was very great.  Then Earendil, first of living Men, landed on the immortal shores.”  “In those days there was a great building of ships upon the shores of the Western Sea; and thence in many a fleet the Eldar set sail into the West, and came never back to the lands of the weeping and of war.”  Those who take the shores to the immortal shores of the West break the circular cycles of life and death, and arrive, alas, into the peace of eternity.  

Men fell quickly under the power and sway of Morgoth, or that is, Satan.  “It is said by the Eldar that Men came into the world in the time of the Shadow of Morgoth, and they fell swiftly under his dominion.” 

It is under this dark dominion that Sauron wielded the One Ring of power and of doom.  In that, Saruon the Deceiver forged Nine Rings to ensnare the kings of Men.  These became the Ring Wraiths, the Nazgul haunting Middle Earth in service to Sauron and the One Ring.  

And Melkor and Sauron set up a new religion to worship the Darkness.  Yet, there remained “a remnant of the Faithful,” who refused to bow down to the Darkness.  Leading the remnant of the Faithful was the King of Numenor, and his sons including Isildur.  

“The days are dark, and there is no hope for Men, for the Faithful are few.”  Such was the situation that Men found themselves in the darkness of Middle Earth under Morgoth and Sauron.  It was in these dark times that the spirit of Sauron took on a new form: 

“There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dur, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible; and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure.”  Sauron forged the One Ring of Power in the Mountain of Fire in the Land of Shadow.   And, Sauron destroyed the land of Men in Numenor and burned the White Tree.  

Yet, the exiles of Numenor established themselves in the realm of Gondor, and Sauron prepared himself for a great war against the Eldar and Men of the West.  By way of necessity, there was established a great alliance between Elves and Men.  

During the last siege “Sauron himself came forth; and he wrestled with Gil-galad and Elendil, and they both were slain, and the sword of Elendil broke under him as he fell.  But Sauron also was thrown down, and with the hilt-shard of Narsil Isildur cut the Ruling Ring from the hand of Sauron and took it for his own.  Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and his in waste places; and he took no visible shape again for many long years.”  

Yet, the Ring betrayed Isildur and the Ring was lost to history for a time.  “For the blood of the Numenoreans became mingled with that of other men, and their power and wisdom diminished, and their life-span was shortened, and the watch upon Mordor slumbered.”  

It was in this diminished state that Sauron was allowed to return again in the third age of Men.  “But the Dominion of Men was preparing and all things were changing, until at last the Dark Lord arose in Mirkwood again.”  

It was in these dire times that the Lords of the West sent messengers – in reality, a type of the prophets of Old – back to Middle Earth to contest the power of Sauron, and “if he should arise again, and to move Elves and Men and all living things of good will to valiant deeds.”  Chief among the messengers was Mithrandir, who the Men of the North called Gandalf.  And, Elrond prophesied to Gandalf, “Nonetheless I forebode that the One will yet be found, and then war will arise again, and in that war this Age will be ended.”  

These are the wars and rumors of wars of the Antichrist, and the siege of Christendom and every faithful remnant of Christian.

Yet, in this dark hour, arose the return of the King, the Heir of Isildur, Aragorn, the son of Arathorn, in the line of Elendil, tall in stature, part of the ancient heroes of old of Men, Elf friends to the Eldar.  

However, it was the small in stature, a Halfling, Frodo the Hobbit, who would carry the burden of destroying the One Ring of Power.  The smallest and humblest of creatures would take the evil ring into the Fires of Mount Doom for its ultimate destruction.  

Christ and the Return of the King will ultimately destroy the power of Satan forever casting him back into the pit of fire from whence he came.  The humble and the faithful will thence rest forevermore in the Kingdom Come in peaceful bliss.

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away.”                                                                   

                                                                                                (Revelation 21:4)

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Burning Bush, Burning Hearts. Exodus as Paradigm of the Gospel – September 29, 2020

What if Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, and the Sacraments were all encoded within the Exodus? 

My newly published book, Burning Bush, Burning Hearts: Exodus as Paradigm of the Gospel, examines this very question. The book offers in-depth commentary on the underlying symbolism hidden within the story of Exodus that points directly to the Catholic faith. 

Much has been written on the many scriptural prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the coming of the Messiah. These are well-known. However, much less attention has been given to the prophetic symbolism embedded in the Old Testament that points to the coming of Christ in unspoken signs and symbols. My book focuses specifically on these unspoken prophecies—the divinely inspired symbols embedded with people, places, things, and miraculous occurrences. These unspoken prophecies are the typologies hidden within Exodus.   

The whole story of the Exodus is a foreshadowing of the coming of Christ. It is interwoven with signs and symbols for the New Covenant. The Apostles and the early Church Fathers refer to this symbology in the Old Testament as “types” and “figures.” This typology is most pronounced in Exodus. The typologies in Exodus are so central that they reveal quite explicitly, through symbology, the coming of the Messiah and his sacrificial mission. If Genesis 3:15 is the protoevangelium, then, Exodus is the full-fledged Old Testament Gospel. The Exodus predicts the Gospel so strikingly that it could very aptly be called “The New Exodus” or “The Second Exodus.” 

The signs and symbols of Exodus offer a preview of the coming Redemption. The Exodus was the preview of the Incarnation. The types of the Old Testament gave way to the reality of Christ, the Church, and the Sacraments. These types can be seen in the main characters of Exodus, in Moses, and Aaron, and Joshua. They can be seen in the main events of Exodus: the Passover lamb, the crossing of the Red Sea, the theophany on Mount Sinai. The types can be seen in the miraculous objects too: the manna from Heaven, the water from the rock, the column of cloud and the pillar of fire, the bronze serpent on the pole, the Tabernacle. The typologies can be seen as well in the individual sacrifices, such as the daily whole burnt offering, the Yahweh and Azazel goats, and the red heifer. They can be seen in the appointed times of the Jewish feasts as well. All was type and symbol. The Exodus is filled to the brim with typological prophecies of Christ. 

The truth is these typologies are found throughout the Bible and the writings of the early Church Fathers. St. John the Baptist knew these typologies well, as he exclaims in the presence of Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) St. Paul, and the rest of the Apostles, knew these typologies as well too, as he states matter-of-factly: “These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17). In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul goes into this in more detail: 

“I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same supernatural food and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” (1 Cor. 10:1-4)

He is proclaiming the typologies of Exodus as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and the Sacraments. The Israelites passed through the Red Sea guided by the column of cloud and the pillar of fire. As the Fathers explain, the Red Sea is a type of a baptismal font. The Israelites go down into the waters of Baptism in crossing the sea and reemerge from the other side. The Holy Spirit as the cloud and the fire blesses the waters of the Sea. Pharaoh and the Egyptian soldiers are a type for sin. As they chase the Israelites through the Sea, the waters fall back down upon them, drowning and wiping them away. The water of Baptism similarly wipes away Original Sin and all of our sins, just as the Egyptians are washed away from the Israelites. Similar expositions can be made of the manna from Heaven and the water from the rock to the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit. 

My book attempts to plumb the depths of these many varied instances in Exodus and their foreshadowing of the reality to come. Christ is the new Moses and the new Joshua leading us in this new Exodus. The Israelites were freed from slavery and oppression under Pharaoh. The Cross of Christ similarly frees us from the slavery of sin and death. Jesus is the fulfillment of Moses as a type of redeemer of his people. Just as Moses is the redeemer of his people the Israelites, so too, is Christ is the true Redeemer of all people through the Church. Moses is the singular person who offers atonement for the Israelites as the forerunner to Christ, who is the one Mediator between God and humanity. 

The typologies of Exodus point towards Christ’s First Coming in his Incarnation. They point also towards the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Finally, the typologies of Exodus point towards Christ’s Second Coming and the end of the world. My book tries to offer insights into each of these occurrences through the symbols found in Exodus. The typologies of Exodus are our blueprint and roadmap. They reveal to us how we are to live our lives, in our own Exodus, in the desert wilderness of this world, in order that we may enter into the Promised Land of Heaven. 

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Rahner and the Mysticism of Everyday Life – January 8, 2016

The events of the past few decades reflect a movement away from solid Traditional Catholic theology.  Rahner may be a symptom, or one of the causes, of that movement away, and troubles in the Church today.  In the mid-20th century a movement arose among certain German and French Catholic theologians to reform the Neo-Scholasticism in Catholic thought and teaching. (that is, the 19th century, modern-era revival of the original medieval Scholasticism, ie, the influence of St.Thomas Aquinas’ writings in theology and philosophy.) This loosely based movement of Catholic theologians became known, and criticized, as the Nouvelle Theologie, or the “New Theology.” They themselves, however, generally preferred the term Ressourcement, or a “return to the sources.” The main thrust of the movement was to develop a theology by returning to the original sources of Scripture and the Church fathers, a positive theology, to not shun the modern world, to have a more critical attitude towards Neo-Scholasticism, and to anthropologize theology. Some of the theologians often associated with the movement included 20th century Catholic luminaries as Joseph Ratzinger, Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, Jean Danielou, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hans Kung, Edward Schillebeeckx, and Karl Rahner. Their ideas became a strong counter-balance to the well-entrenched neo-Scholastic ideas of the 19th century Catholic thought. Moreover, their movement and their ideas carried a strong impact in the writings and reforms enacted in the Second Vatican Council. For that reason alone we should seek to understand their origins and impacts upon modern Catholicism in the post-conciliar world, a post-mortem analysis if you will. Yet, even though they had great influence in the Church Council and were among the preeminent Catholic theologians of the 20th century, they were not without criticism. Critics, such as French Dominican theologian Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, accused them of not “returning to the sources” but of starting a “new theology” disguising within it the errors of Modernity, Relativism, and Positivism. This criticism is not without merit. Pope Pius XII even issued an encyclical in 1950, Humani Generis, “The Human Race,” primarily in response to and criticizing the Nouvelle Theologie and warning against the dangers of Modernism’s influence upon theology. Nevertheless, many of the reforms promulgated by Vatican II were influenced by their ideas, which liberalized and modernized many aspects of the Church and the liturgy; focused on Ecumenicalism and the call to holiness for the Laity. Following Vatican II, the Nouvelle Theologie movement basically broke into two camps of divergent ideas, one more progressive and one more traditional, the spirit of which are still at work.

Karl Rahner is typically bunched into the progressive camp. His primary body of work is his vast 24 volumes of “Theological Investigations.” Yet, as great as a Catholic thinker that he was, not all of his ideas or theological writings are considered orthodox, in fact, just the opposite. Some of his theological notions have been spurned as a watering down and a trivializing of orthodoxy, and been outright rejected. He is often criticized for theories such as the Transcendental-Anthropological Method and Anonymous Christians, that some argue relativize the truths of Christianity. He also studied under the German philosopher Martin Heidegger and was influenced by his Existentialism. In his own defense, Rahner claimed to absolutely not contradict the Magisterium of the Church at all, but simply, he tried to view it in a new light. For better or for worse, he had a tremendous impact on the Council and the post-Conciliar world of Catholic thought. [As a note, this article is in no way an endorsement of all of his views and ideas.]

On the other hand, there are certain aspects of Rahner’s writings that are appealing, such as his emphasis, in line with Jesuit Ignatius spirituality, that God can be found everywhere in everyday life. As he wrote, God can “come to meet us in the streets of the world.” Harvey Egan referred to this as Rahner’s “mysticism of everyday life.” He referred to Jesus Christ as the primordial sacrament (“Ursakrament”), and the Church as the basic sacrament (“Grundsakrament”). Yet, according to Rahner, grace is everywhere. Again, this is an area that he has been criticized for by traditionalists. This “uncreated grace” manifests itself throughout history and is at work with mankind everywhere. He says, “The simple and honestly accepted everyday life contains in itself the eternal and the silent mystery, which we call God and his secret grace, especially when this life remains the everyday.” The sacraments themselves are the explicit, ecclesiastical and historical manifestations of this sanctifying grace through the person of Jesus Christ. They are still decisive, efficacious acts for the salvation of the individual. The Church sacraments are the “epiphanization” of the sacraments of everyday life. He views the sacraments and the liturgy as specific manifestations, of this grace found everywhere, as the climax of salvation history.

Rahner believes these should not be seen as isolated interventions of grace into our lives but symbolic expressions of this “liturgy of the world,” that is, God’s continual self-communication everywhere and our free acceptance of it. According to Rahner, the liturgy of the Church is the real symbol of the liturgy of the world. In this sense, God can be encountered in the banality of life, in its repetitious cycles, and every day routines, or in his words, “is seen by man in his dreary existence only through a haze, obscured by the banal ordinariness of life.” In this, Rahner concludes, we Christians, must become “mystics” of ordinary life, partaking in the “experiential grace” of the absolute mystery of God. Even the “most common small things” has the “imprint of the eternal God.” He continues, “People who place their small time into the heart of eternity, which they already carry within, will suddenly realize that even small things have inexpressible depths, are messengers of eternity, are always more than they appear to be, are like drops of water in which is reflected the entire sky, like signs pointing beyond themselves, like messengers running ahead of the message they are carrying and announcing the coming of eternity..” The mysticism of everyday life encompasses even the most humble of actions, such as working, eating, sleeping, sitting, walking, laughing, etc. Every moment of every day has the potential to be an encounter with God. Rahner considers this the “more excellent way” of love that St.Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13, where love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor.13:7) To Rahner, there is nothing profane in the ordinary, but when we surrender in everything to the mystery of God, His Spirit will be with us in our everyday life. So, whether you appreciate his writings or think he borders on heretical, Rahner at least beautifully captures the idea of living with God and for God in our everyday existence.

What follows are excerpts from one of Rahner’s meditations called “God of My Daily Routine.”

“I should like to bring the routine of my daily life before You, O Lord, to discuss the long days and tedious hours that are filled with everything else but You.”

“Look upon us men, who are practically nothing else but routine.”

“What will become of me, dear God, if my life goes on like this? What will happen to me when all the crates are suddenly swept out of the warehouse? How will I feel at the hour of my death? Then there will be no more “daily routine”; then I shall suddenly be abandoned by all the things that now fill up my days here on earth. And what will I myself be at that hour, when I am only myself and nothing else?   My whole life long I have been nothing but the ordinary routine, all business and activity, a desert filled with empty sound and meaningless fury. But when the heavy weight of death one day presses down upon my life and squeezes the true and lasting content out of all those many days and long years, what will be the final yield?”

“..the genuine yield of my ungenuine life will be only a few blessed moments, made luminous and living by Your grace.”

“That’s why I now see clearly that, if there is any path at all on which I can approach You, it must lead through the very middle of my ordinary daily life. If I should try to flee to You by any other way, I’d actually be leaving myself behind, and that, aside from being quite impossible, would accomplish nothing at all. But is there a path through my daily life that leads to You? Doesn’t this road take me ever farther away from You? Doesn’t it immerse me all the more deeply in the empty noise of worldly activity, where You, God of Quiet, do not dwell?”

“Do I come into Your presence just because this life has revealed its true face to me, finally admitting that all is vanity, all is misery?”

“O God, it seems we can lose sight of You in anything we do. Not even prayer, or the Holy Sacrifice, or the quiet of the cloister, not even the great disillusion with life itself can fully safeguard us from this danger. And thus it’s clear that even these sacred, non-routine things belong ultimately to our routine. It’s evident that routine is not just a part of my life, not even just the greatest part, but the whole. Every day is “everyday.” Everything I do is routine, because everything can rob me of the one and only thing I really need, which is You, my God.”

“But on the other hand, if it’s true that I can lose You in everything, it must also be true that I can find You in everything. If You have given me no single place to which I can flee and be sure of finding You, if anything I do can mean the loss of You, then I must be able to find You in every place, in each and every thing I do.”

“Thus I must seek You in all things. If every day is “everyday,” then every day is Your day, and every hour is the hour of Your grace. Everything is “everyday” and Your day together.”

“Only through Your help can I be an “interior” man in the midst of my many and varied daily tasks. Only through You can I continue to be in myself with You, when I go out of myself to be with the things of the world.”

“It is only the love of You, my Infinite God, which pierces the very heart of all things, at the same time transcending them all and leaping upwards into the endless reaches of Your Being, catching up all the lost things of earth and transforming them into a hymn of praise to Your Infinity.”

“In Your love all the diffusion of the day’s chores comes home again to the evening of Your unity, which is eternal life. This love, which can allow my daily routine to remain routine and still transform it into a home-coming to You, this love only You can give. So what should I say to You now, as I come to lay my everyday routine before You? There is only one thing I can beg for, and that is Your most ordinary and most exalted gift, the grace of Your Love.”

“Touch my heart with this grace, O Lord. When I reach out in joy or in sorrow for the things of this world, grant that through them I may know and love You, their Maker and final home. You who are Love itself, give me the grace of love, give me Yourself, so that all my days may finally empty into the one day of Your eternal Life.”

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