EUCHARIST and EUCATASTROPHE
‘May the Eucharist be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.’
On Thursday, 24 February 2022, Vladimir Putin inflicted the ‘ancient Chinese curse’ of May you live in interesting times onto the world. The Russian army invaded Ukraine.
All rational people fear this could be a prelude to World War III. Many will have nightmares of being evaporated in a mushroom-cloud, at the flick of Putin’s little finger.
The Ancient Chinese Curse
The curse “May you live in interesting times” is neither ancient, or Chinese! This saying was probably penned by Neville Chamberlain’s father or brother.
Neville Chamberlain was the Prime Minister of England who negotiated ‘peace’ with Adolph Hitler. Hitler is universally understood to be the most loathsome, malignant narcissist of all time. Chamberlain triumphantly returned to London, naïvely waving the Munich Agreement aloft, claiming “Peace For Our Time!”
Within a year, Hitler had invaded Poland and Britain declared war — World War II.
History is packed with malignant narcissists and psychopaths. The list spans Caligula to Genghis Khan, and includes Ivan the Terrible; Pol Pot; Stalin & Mao Zedong, to name just a few. The one Ireland knows more intimately is Oliver Cromwell. These monsters brutally killed millions, upon millions of innocent human beings.
Dictators hold their power over little people because they can easily kill one person, or a family: demolish a home or even a whole community. In olden days, a knight might cleave his way through the village. Nowadays, a remorseless invader can drive a tank over innocent people, or just bomb them from afar.
The exact circumstances of this video are unknown. Some reports say it was a Russian tank while one report suggests it was a Ukrainian Strela-10 Rocket Launcher stolen by Pro-Russian saboteurs. It is unclear if the driver just lost control of the machine or whether he deliberately ran over the non-combatant elderly man passing-by in his car.
What is more important is what happened after the car was run over. Despite the ongoing invasion, a group of people worked to extricate the old man from his badly crushed vehicle. Such selfless behaviour never makes it into the history books — but this is exactly what makes humans, truly human!
Gentle folk
“Even the smallest person, can change the course of the future.” [JRR Tolkien]
Many of the powerless people in the world are the kindest folk. Days gone-by, some would be serfs or indentured servants, toiling long and hard to provide for family and community. Often, such people do not seek power or vast wealth because they already have riches beyond compare. Each of us knows some of these “Hobbits” in our lives.
After 2 long years of the COVID pandemic, these people are still a ray of hope with their kind words. Some might be more surly and not say much, but always show up to help in times of need! Through the voice of Samwise Gamgee, Tolkien reminds us: “There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”
“Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here”
In Dante’s epic poem, Inferno, this proverb is inscribed above the gates of Hell.
For a Christian, one of the most serious sins is to despair – to give up all Hope. (To clarify: I believe that our Loving Father has infinite forgiveness for this sort of despair arising out of a severe depression.)
The idea of Hope in such dire circumstances led Tolkien to coin a new word: “Eucatastrophe.” Tolkien defined Eucatastrophe as a “good catastrophe, the sudden joyous turn…” This notion obviously arose from Tolkien’s devout Catholicism and traumatic experiences during World War I.
Tolkien may have deliberately coined this word to have similarity between EUCatastrophe and the EUCharist. As Katie Marquette noted, “it is important to understand the felix culpa narrative, the fortunate fall, the reality that ‘All Things can be Made Right Again.’ There is nothing that will not be rectified, though much of earthly life is experienced as “the long defeat.” As a Roman Catholic, Tolkien understood the Eucatastrophe of the Cross - Humiliation, Suffering, Death - turned into the Triumph of the Resurrection.”
So, what can we do to help?
Two suggestions:
First: pray harder! This includes praying for peace; praying for the innocent victims; praying for the conversion of the perpetrator and especially praying that this conflict does not escalate to nuclear war.
A devotion which Catholics should consider is the Holy Rosary. Through the Rosary, we ask our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to intercede on our behalf with her Son, Jesus Christ.
For anyone who is a tad rusty on the Rosary, there are links below to Catholic Arena articles on how to learn the Rosary in English and Irish.
The link to the Rosary ‘as Gaeilge’!
Learn the Rosary in Irish — Catholic Arena
Secondly, we need to be very generous with humanitarian aid & financial support. There will be many refugees & injured / homeless people inside Ukraine. Please do not forget that Russian civilians are also going to suffer through the financial sanctions being placed on their motherland — thanks to Putin and his cronies.
Photo: Gregory Gresko, Lviv, Ukraine.
The Lord of the Rings is an allegory for how regular people cope with catastrophe. The phrase said by Galadriel was: “May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” Tolkien was a devout Catholic so perhaps his true message was:
“May the Eucharist be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”
Dr. Kevin Hay