Frodo Baggins and Reconciliation

The Lord of the Rings is emblematic of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Frodo Baggins bears the Ring of Power — the Dark Lord Sauron’s weapon to rule Middle Earth and “bind” souls to his malicious will. The One Ring, however, can only be destroyed by the fires of Mount Doom, deep within the enemy’s realm, Mordor. Courageously, Frodo undertakes the mission to purge this evil forever. 

Throughout the tale, Frodo — accompanied by hobbits (like the faithful companion, Samwise Gamgee), elves, dwarves, a wizard and men — treks hundreds of miles, endures battles, hardships, and even the One Ring’s torturous weight to achieve this end.   

However, when he finally reaches the bridge overlooking Mount Doom’s volcanic chasm, Frodo is “tense, erect, but still as if he had been turned to stone.” He clutches the ring, unable to let it go. The temptation to keep it is overwhelming. Instead of freedom, the hobbit claims the devilry as his own. Ultimately, the mission is only accomplished when Gollum — whom Frodo spared time-and-time again throughout the journey — attacks him, steals the One Ring, and falls into the fiery abyss. 

One would think Frodo failed, but as J.R.R. Tolkien emphasizes: 

“I do not think that Frodo’s was a moral failure. At the last moment the pressure of the Ring would reach its maximum — impossible, I should have said, for any one to resist, certainly after long possession, months of increasing torment, and when starved and exhausted. …His humility (with which he began) and his sufferings were justly rewarded by the highest honour; and his exercise of patience and mercy towards Gollum gained him Mercy: his failure was redressed.”

While evil still lost, Frodo could not destroy it by himself. Yet once the One Ring meets its demise, he is “pale and worn” but “himself again; and in his eyes there was peace now, neither strain of will, nor madness, nor any fear.” 

Similarly, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we bear torturous souls; we have to “trek” to a church; and we must offer ourselves fully to God’s loving mercy. Conversely, Satan tries to tempt us away from confession through self-doubt, hubris, malaise, and even animosity toward priestly authority and God. Satan wants to ensnare us in darkness — like the One Ring. 

But, like Frodo, we can only go so far. We cannot destroy sin. Yet God can and does; and he has given “this power to men to exercise in his name,” states The Catechism of the Catholic Church. (Jesus Christ imparted this gift to his apostles — and priests — when he said to Simon Peter, “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”) 

Once we receive absolution, we are reconciled to God and the Church, becoming a “new man,” as St. Paul writes.    

As a devout Catholic, Tolkien understood this sacrament’s power. And he described the books as “fundamentally a religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously so in the revision.” It is not far-fetched then to suggest that he would have had reservations of placing his hobbit on par with Christ — who did destroy sin and death on Calvary. Evil’s destruction was borne by Christ; and only he could do so. And it is safe to assume this sacrament’s efficaciousness is woven in the tale’s resolution. But Frodo is still a hero for he had “done what he could and spent himself completely (as an instrument of Providence) and had produced a situation in which the object of his quest could be achieved,” as Tolkien once wrote.

However, sin has a cost. The Sacrament of Reconciliation offers forgiveness and mercy, but “it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused.” As the Catechism states:

“Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must ‘make satisfaction for’ or ‘expiate’ his sins. This satisfaction is also called ‘penance.’

After the One Ring’s destruction, Frodo — though lighter of heart — still has physical and spiritual wounds from bearing the great evil. Though his main quest may have ended at Mount Doom, Frodo is thrusted into another journey: finding peace and reconciliation. In the tale’s denouement, the hobbit “dropped quietly out of all the doings of the Shire” and he once told Sam “I am wounded, wounded; it will never really heal.” As he narrates in the film, The Return of the King, “There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep.”

Eventually, Frodo does find solace, which happens when he departs Middle Earth from the Grey Havens to the Undying Lands. Boarding a ship, he begins to smell a “sweet fragrance on the air” and the “sound of singing,” and beholds “white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.”

The ending strikingly resembles a soul — dutiful yet weary from his or her earthly pilgrimage — heading toward heaven and eternal rest. Indeed, the Book of Revelation tells us God will “wipe every tear,” and that heaven is devoid of “death or mourning, wailing or pain.” Sin’s ramifications will be cast away.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is merely the first step in the journey toward heaven, although a tough step for many to take. After all, we all bear sin. We are broken, susceptible to temptation and resistance. However, our effort towards God’s loving mercy matters. 

This Lenten season, let’s not languish behind our front door’s threshold, but emulate Frodo and go on the “adventure” toward God — he who is at the beginning and end of all things.