Tolkien created Middle-earth with painstaking detail and wove importance and meaning into nearly every page of The Lord of the Rings — and the dates of important events are no exception. Chiefly, March 25th marks the date when the One Ring was destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. Being the most important event of The Lord of the Rings, this date is sure to hold some significance, don’t you suppose?
I so loved the comparison Bishop Barron made between Jesus and Frodo in his discussion of The Lord of the Rings. The way that evil is ultimately defeated, by both Christ and by the Fellowship, is so unexpected. Evil isn't conquered by a greater evil, it is conquered by good -- the ultimate expression of goodness: self-sacrificial love. The love that holds nothing back, that offers oneself entirely no matter the consequences. He "allows the evil of the world to spend itself on him."
Christianity is so thoroughly woven into every aspect of The Lord of the Rings; it must have been written, I had decided, by someone who was thoroughly steeped in Christian truth. I had known he was a Christian, or assumed as much given his themes of redemption and his Christ-like characters. But I had assumed, like me, he was a Protestant Christian.
You're probably wondering what an emo album from 2006 and a virgin martyr from the early Christian Church have to do with one another. Though their stories are set nearly two-thousands years and philosophical worlds apart, Saint Lucy and the My Chemical Romance album, The Black Parade, both speak to the power of commitment, perseverance, and a heart on fire for their beliefs.
