Tolkien on scandal

[nyj]

Got the book The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien as a present over the Christmas holidays . Was reading it (amazed at the volume of correspondence Tolkien undertook) and found some really interesting stuff in this work. Some of it is rather ordinary, some of it is amusing to read (like when Tolkien takes to task the Dutch translators of The Lord of the Rings) and some of it is quite profound.

I'd like to share one of those profound letters here.

This letter was written to Michael Tolkien, who I believe was either Tolkien's son or grandson. Since we don't have Michael Tolkien's actual letter, we are left to speculate what exactly brought him to his "crisis of faith" but it most likely (given Tolkien's response) had to do with clergy scandal.

Here is part of Tolkien's response (I'll post the rest of it later):

You speak of 'sagging faith', however. That is quite another matter. In the last resort faith is an act of will, inspired by love. Our love may be chilled and our will eroded by the spectacle of the shortcomings, folly, and even sins of the Church and its ministers, but I do not think that one who has once had faith goes back over the line for these reasons (least of all anyone with any historical knowledge). 'Scandal' at most is an occasion of temptation - as indecency is to lust, which it does not make but arouses. It is convenient because it tends to turn our eyes away from ourselves and our own faults to find a scape-goat. But the act of will of faith is not a single moment of final decision: it is a permanent indefinitely repeated act > state which must go on - so we pray for 'final perseverance'. The temptation to 'unbelief' (which really means rejection of Our Lord and His claims) is always there within us. Part of us longs to find an excuse for it outside us. The stronger the inner temptation the more readily and severely shall we be 'scandalized' by others. I think I am as sensitive as you (or any other Christian) to the 'scandals', both of clergy and laity. I have suffered greviously in my life from stupid, tired, dimmed, and even bad priests; but I now know enough about myself to be aware that I should not leave the Church (which for me would mean leaving the allegiance of Our Lord) for any such reasons: I should leave because I did not believe, and should not believe any more, even if I had never met any one in orders who was not both wise and saintly. I should deny the Blessed Sacrament, that is: call Our Lord a fraud to His face.

 

[stephen1964]

What a great letter! I'm going to look for that book.

 

[Dominus Fidelis]

Tolkien was one strong Catholic!

 

[JeffreyLloyd]

me too, I got to get that book!

 

[raptor13]

oo great quote. I'm actually writing an article on the whole sex abuse thing, and this could come in handy.

 

[KC Catholic]

That is an awesome passage, thanks for posting!

 

[Debi1967]

I have everything else that was written this is a must read as well gotta have it now for sure..........
BTW can someone lend me some money......Just kidding LOL

 

[thereselittleflower]

What an incredible quote . . what strong inight he had in what it meant to follow Jesus . . and how pertinent to our day . . He had a way of zeroing in on timeless truths - the very reason his Middle Earth books resonate so deeply . .

Peace in Him!

 

[ej]

It's an amazing book

 

[nyj]

Here is the rest of the quote:

If He is a fraud and the Gospels fradulent - that is: garbled accounts of a demented megalomaniac (which is the only alternative), then of course the spectacle exhibited by the church (in the sense of clergy) in history and today is simply evidence of a gigantic fraud. If not, however, then this spectacle is alas! only what was to be expected: it began before the first Easter, and it does not affect faith at all - except that we may and should be deeply grieved. But we should grieve on our Lord's behalf and for Him, associating ourselves with the scandalizers not with the saints, not crying out that we cannot 'take' Judas Iscariot, or even the absurd & cowardly Simon Peter, or the silly women like James' mother, trying to push her sons.

It takes a fantastic will to unbelief to suppose that Jesus never really 'happened', and more to suppose that he did not say the things recorded of him - so incapable of being 'invented' by anyone in the world at that time: such as 'before Abraham came to be I am' (John viii), 'He that hath seen me hath seen the Father' (John ix); or the promulgation of the Blessed Sacrament in John v: 'He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life'. We must therefore either believe in Him and in what he said and take the consequences; or reject him and take the consequences. I find it for myself difficult to believe that anyone who has ever been to Communion, even once, with at least right intention, can ever again reject Him without grave blame. (However, He alone knows each unique soul andits circumstances.)

He then touches on something that I think a lot of us here, in the United States can attest to. Especially his suggested "exercise".

The only cure for sagging of fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals. Also I can recommend this as an exercise (alas! only too easy to find opportunity for): make your communion in circumstances that affront your taste. Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and vulgar friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois crowd, ill-behaved children - from those who yell to those products of Catholic schools who the moment the tabernacle is opened sit back and yawn - open necked and dirty youths, women in trousers and often with hair both unkempt and uncovered. Go to Communion with them (and pray for them). It will be just the same (of better than that) as a mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man, and shared by a few devout and decorous people. (It could not be worse than the mess of the feeding of Five Thousand - after which [Our] Lord propounded the feeding that was to come.)

He then goes on to lament his failure as a father (I guess Michael is his son) for his sons doubt:

This is rather an alarming and rambling disquisition to write! It is not meant to be a sermon! I have no doubt that you know as much and more. I am an ignorant man, but also a lonely one. And I take the opportunity of a talk, which I am sure I should now never take by word of mouth. But, of course, I live in anxiety concerning my children: who in this harder crueller and more mocking world into which I have survived must suffer more assaults than I have. But I am one who came up out of Egypt, and pray God none of my seed shall return thither. I witnessed (half-comprehending) the heroic sufferings and early death in extreme poverty of my mother who brought me into the Church; and received the astonishing charity of Francis Morgan. But I fell in love with the Blessed Sacrament from the beginning - and by the mercy of God never have fallen out again: but alas! I indeed did not live up to it. I brought you all up ill and talked to you too little. Out of wickedness and sloth I almost ceased to practice my religion - especially at Leeds, and at 22 Northmoor Road. Not for me the Hound of Heaven, but the never-ceasing silent appeal of Tabernacle, and the sense of starving hunger. I regret those days bitterly (and suffer for them with such patience as I can be given); most of all because I failed as a father. Now I pray for you all, unceasingly, that the Healer (the Haelend as the Savior was usually called in Old English) shall heal my defects, and that none of you shall ever cease to cry Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.