Is there any doubt in your mind that Rhadagast the Brown Wizard was inspired by St. Francis in the mind of Tolkien? In another post we talked about how Gandolf is probably the Pope. I thought this was pretty cool, that the wizards clearly reflect different Saints in the real world. Rhadagast loves nature just like St. Francis did and he wears brown just like St. Francis did. Cool.
I can’t wait to hear these words of joy; “Habemus Papam!,” but there are many prayers and sacrifices between now and then.
Please join the Church in prayer and sacrifice.
Dear Lord, I offer my whole life to you, all of my joys and all of my sorrows, to be united to your wounded and resurrected Heart, for the election of a Pope after your own Heart.
Dear Lord, I ask that, if it pleasing to your Will, to give me a greater share of suffering and the grace to suffer well, for the election of a Pope after your own Heart.
If you look to the saints you will see that they universally consider themselves to be wretched. They also universally persist in the understanding that hell is a real possibility, that people, even people who think they are good, can actually end up in hell for eternity.
The saints prayed constantly that they might not be week and fall into sin thus separating themselves from God. The closer they got to God the holier they became, no doubt. But the closer they got to God the more they became convinced of their wretchedness, their capacity for sin. It was their realization of their own sinful tendencies that marked their closeness to God, as well as faith in Him, that he could overcome those tendencies through grace. The more they understood the infinite goodness of God the more they understood their wretchedness as compared to him! And I do not mean that they held themselves in low esteem, abased themselves, or failed to love themselves! They simply came more and more to the conclusion that without God’s grace they would fall into the pit of hell. The more they came to depend on God the more they came to realize that, left to their own, they would damn themselves.
So why is it that average sinners during our times tend to become more and more assured that they will enter the Kingdom of Heaven even as they continue to wallow in sin or barely succeed in preventing themselves from falling into grave sin? Very few people come to a sort of profound understanding of their wretchedness as do the saints, yet in our times we all love to assure ourselves of our salvation. How can this be? If in fact so many have such a firm grip on salvation why then is there not widespread holiness? Why are we not seeing massive cultural renewal brought on by so many holy souls? Why are we not seeing profound unity wash over the Church? Why are not souls pouring into the Church and staying there with heartfelt obedience and genuine religious practice?
The fact is that our salvation is likely not as sure as we feel like it is. I am not saying we should constantly fear falling into hell, but we should, pray the prayer of final perseverance like we actually need the grace of final perseverance. Let us be matter of fact and honest with ourselves. If we don’t open ourselves to God’s love consistently more and more we are putting our souls in jeopardy.
We must pray for our salvation and that of all souls.
We must pray for the grace of final perseverance.
We must pray for more suffering and the grace to suffer well so that God can work more miracles in our lives thus bringing us closer to his Sacred Heart.
We must believe that God will save us, but not because we assure ourselves that we are ok, not because we do our best and leave the rest up to God, but rather, because we know that if we are humble that God will do his best within us. We must beg him to draw us near to his heart, and it is in this experience that we come to know the extent of our total helplessness and our very great need for his love. It is in this experience that we come to realize that his love is available to us, and that he is ready to give us everything we need to become saints. Only when we come to this realization, and only when we put the fear of our inadequacy aside in favor of the power of God, will we be on the steady road to heaven.
Do not be afraid! Set out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Just don’t expect the catch to be anything you expected! The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Satan thrives on secrets and secrets lead to lies, lies lead to distrust, distrust leads to broken relationships, broken relationships lead to fragmentation in the body of Christ, fragmentation in the Church leads to a decrease in the Church’s able unity to respond to the action of the Holy Spirit, a decrease in our ability to respond to the Holy Spirit leads to a loss of souls to Satan. Stop this ripple effect. Don’t be afraid to share your worst sins and your worst sufferings with your loved ones even if it means that they will know that you have sinned against them! If you can’t speak to your loved ones speak to a priest or a counselor. Satan loves to keep us fragmented, he thrives on darkness and secrets.
Do not be afraid to set out into deep water for it is there that Christ heals us!
“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:2-3)
We know the testimony of Christ is true. Therefore, why not speed the revelation and healing of ourselves through light. Why not come out from the darkness, cooperate with our loved ones, face consequences, and allow Christ to heal us?
Do not be afraid! Christ will give us all the grace we need to move forward once we step out into his territory, his light, his life, his love. Once we have faith we will be healed by love.
Christ has clearly taught that if we are true to him that we will experience persecution from those who are not true to him, or at least not entirely true to him.
All the saints experienced such persecutions even from within the Church.
So the question I must pose to myself is this: am I a persecutor or am I manifesting a true love of Christ?
So often the Christ-like are not obvious to us. So often they seem like the opposite of what they are especially to the selfish of heart, we sinners!
“There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem” (Isaiah 53:2-3).
Who are those whom we mock and make fun of? Who are those who we are unwilling to sacrifice for, to love. Who are those whom we are so convinced are faking it, they aren’t really what they say they are!? Who are those who really make us mad, who call us to account? Who are those who we make to feel like they are not welcome? Who are those who we spurn and hold in no esteem? Who are those that we judge to be ridiculous?
There is a possibility that they are Christ to us. Lets stop being so sure of our own judgments and bring this to God in prayer.
We Christians too often identify the justice of God with the justice of damnation. The reality is that the penalty of damnation originates in the soul of a person who decides to rebel against God. The cause of damnation is not God, but rather the sinner who embraces evil at the expense of God.
The Justice of God on the other hand is loving and his love is just. The Love of God makes us righteous, it challenges us in a way that is radically beyond our understanding or expectation. His love seeks to stretch us to make room for his presence, to purify us from within our deepest heart. Purgatory is a place of God’s love, and it hurts, it burns. We have reports from souls in purgatory as some have had the benefit of speaking with them. I have heard that they say we should attempt to suffer as much as we can here on earth because it is easier than to suffer there. On earth we have myriad comforts to ease our pain while purgatory is a state of intense suffering as God’s love scours our souls directly, scraping the concupiscence from within our inner hearts. To say this is done with something of a spiritual bristle brush would be insufficient! Certainly, the spiritual pain we will experience as God readies us for perfect union with him will be far worse than any physical pain we can experience here on earth.
In Purgatory we won’t be able to take a hot shower, buy some ice cream, or lean on a loved one’s shoulder! We won’t have the comfort of the blue sky or a beautiful sunset. We won’t witness the quiet hope of a spring morning or the majesty of a torrential downpour.
And lets not count our chickens before they hatch! Living Purgatory here on earth, and its a lot better than Purgatory will be, is the key to attempting to make our salvation more secure by cooperating with the grace of God. These things can’t come from us, not from works that originate in us as St. Paul has said. But with the grace of God we can and will submit ourselves, by works through his love within us, to the process of “being saved” (Ephesians 2: 8-9, 1 Cor 15:2, Acts 2:47).
So let us not delay! We must take action. By taking on a heavier load for Christ, by declaring war against all evil within us, we will secure our salvation and that of others!
Don’t be afraid! Pray for more suffering!
The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians. Our Lord tells us that if we are like to him that we will suffer as he suffered. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we will die but we should be ready to die for Christ and for the Church, for the salvation of souls, if we are called to do so.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (John 12:24).
One way we can open ourselves to God’s sacrificial love, to die to self, is to pray, that if it pleases Him, God might give us more suffering for our salvation and that of all souls. God won’t give us anything we can’t do with the help of his grace! This prayer opens the heart to the will of God and wars against every sinful aspect of our person; it opens up a love of generosity no matter how fearful we might be when we pray it.
Please see my post here for in depth explanation.
See the source of this awesome video and project here.
My Dad, when my sisters would say eewww when he clipped his toe nails, would put them on the table in front of them and say “now there, you’ve got a first class relic!”
I think Gandalf is obviously the Pope. Think about it. The White Wizard? At first I thought he might be St. Dominic, but then I thought he must be the Pope because I realized where the Pope stays during the summer! Or I suppose he could be both St. Dominic and the Pope. He is sort of a multi purpose character in the imagination of Tolkien’s Catholic mind.
Castel Gondolfo!
The other wizards are clearly named after different kinds of saints and bishops as well.
I just thought that was pretty cool. More later in a Tolkien Minute series.
annunciationblog.com 