Hope Overwhelms the Shadow of Death

Faith, Hope, & Love- Day 14 of 40 in 'The Art of Dying Well' by St. Robert Bellarmine

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

—J.R.R. Tolkien in his trilogy novel, Lord of the Rings (Return of the King).

Lord of the Rings is certainly my favorite novel and film! There are many reasons, but the one that seems to stand the test of time is that it always sets off a spark of hope in my soul in a very similar way that the story of Scripture does. It is not that I place LOTR above Scripture or on the same level, but I recognize that Tolkien is tapping into the same story.

Like a good Biblical commentary by a New Testament Scholar, Tolkien is providing his own commentary on the Christian story through fantasy and mythical world-building. He has arguably been just as successful in sharing the Gospel as any famous evangelist (he helped lead C.S. Lewis to the faith), and he has helped countless Christians better understand the overall narrative structure of Scripture in a way very similar to Dr. N.T. Wright. Above all, he is very good at putting hope at the center of all of his work and helping us all believe in the fairytale in ending of Scripture, which he calls ‘Euchatastrophe.’

Tolkien elaborates on this word he coined in one of his letters:

"I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives – if the story has literary 'truth' on the second plane (....) – that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest 'eucatastrophe' possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love."― Letter 89

Hope anchored in Christ is like light that pierces through the dark clouds of our time. As the Author of Hebrews reminds us, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain” (Hebrews 6:19). Because Christ as defeated Death itself, it no longer has the last word, but Resurrection does! Christ now intercedes for us as our High Priest in Heaven, and despite stormy waters, he has become the ‘anchor for our souls.’ My old friend Josh Garrels has a beautiful song about this very verse:

However, in order to have a strong and abiding hope, we must remember that our love for Christ must remain stronger for Him than the love of our own sins. Bellarmine reminds us that sin can hinder or block our signal to God. Just like a bad or weak internet connection cannot allow you to stream the movies you may want to watch, sin disrupts our own prayer life, and we cannot confidently ask for what we need. As the Scriptures remind us, “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16). However, a life full of impurity and disobedience must first come to God with sorrow and repentance before requests can be confidently made. Why? Because without a pure heart, we do not know how to pray. One of my favorite lines comes from a popular worship song called Hosanna by Hillsong, “Break my heart for what breaks Yours.” Without a heart that longs for the salvation of the world and God’s purposes to prevail, our prayer life will be in ruins, and our despair will overwhelm any sense of hope that we might possess.

In his 3rd chapter on the nature of hope, Bellarmine writes,

“Another virtue of a just man is hope, or "a good conscience," as St. Paul has taught us to call it. This virtue comes from faith, for he cannot hope in God who either does not know the true God, or does not believe Him to be powerful and merciful. But to excite and strengthen our faith, that so it may be called not merely hope, but even confidence, a good conscience is very necessary. For how can any one approach God, and ask favours from Him, when he is conscious of heaving committed sin, and of not having expiated it by true repentance? Who asks a benefit from an enemy? Who can expect to be relieved by him, who he knows is incensed against him?

Hear what the wise man thinks of the hope of the wicked: "The hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind; and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that passeth by." (Wisdom v. 15.). Thus the wise man admonishes the wicked, that their hope is weak not strong; short not lasting; they may indeed, whilst they are alive, entertain some hopes, that some day they will repent and be reconciled to God: but when death overtakes them, unless the Almighty by a special grace move their heart, and inspire them with true sorrow, their hope will be changed into despair, and they will exclaim with the rest of the wicked: "Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us. What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow," &c. (Wisdom v. 6 8.) Thus doth the wise man admonish us, that if we wish to live well and die well, we must not dare to remain in sin, even for one moment, nor allow ourselves to be deceived by a vain confidence, that we have as yet many years to live, and that time will be given to us for repentance.”

We will complete chapter 3 with a final meditation on the nature of charity (or God’s agape-love) on Monday.

Have a blessed weekend!

-Kyle

*Perhaps, I will see some of you at the Stations of the Cross tonight!