[Pearls Ep. 124: Tuesday]
In the Lord of the Rings (yes, this one’s by Steve…), the One Ring hungers to return to its master, and to do so gains control of the minds of those who find it – bending them to its purpose of returning home (and driving them mad in the process). As summarized in the movie adaptation, “but then something happened that the Ring did not intend. It was picked up by the most unlikely creature imaginable: a hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, of the Shire.”
This was a problem for the Ring, because the humble heart of the little Hobbit was not so easily captured and turned by the wiles of the One Ring.
Here again we encounter the marvelous allegory of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
As we complete our reflection on the Body and Blood of Christ, we turn to this line from the Anima Christi – “within your wounds, hide me.”
Tolkien’s allegory is perfectly suited to shed light on all of this.
We enter into Christ’s wounds by taking on the mind and heart of Christ that embraced those wounds. We take on His humility, His self-sacrifice, His charity. When we take those on, the enemy is blind to us in a certain way, because the enemy could neither foresee nor fathom the self-sacrificing love from which they came.
That’s not to say that the enemy isn’t aware of us. He is. He despises us. But he can’t see how to get at us.
Here’s how Mother Mary Francis, who we heard from yesterday, puts it – “When we are hidden in the wounds of Christ we are safe from danger, but not from the peril in which He chose to situate himself. We cannot ask to be hidden in the wounds of Christ as though sealed off from being wounded ourselves. Rather, hidden in those wounds of Christ, we are safe on a far deeper level – safe from self.”
The hobbit’s humility saved him from the allurements of the One Ring. Likewise, when we take on the mind of Christ, we are immune to the allurements of the fallen world and the false promises of the enemy. So, as we enter into the spiritual battle raging all about us, we may suffer worldly wounds such as mockery and persecution, but we are protected against spiritual wounds such as pride and despair.
St. Paul himself exclaims that for the sake of Christ “we are being slain all the day.” Paul says this not in protest or acrimony, but in joy. These are the words of a man who is hidden in the wounds of Christ; who is saved by the Body of Christ and inebriated with His Precious Blood.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life