The Creature Who Deserved Death

In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo learns that the wretched creature Gollum has been skulking behind the Fellowship in the darkness of Moria. He recoils. He knows what Gollum has done — the murders, the treachery, the centuries of corruption. "What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature," Frodo says, "when he had a chance!"

Gandalf's reply cuts to the bone: "Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement."

Frodo does not understand yet. But later, when he stands over Gollum with every reason to kill him, he chooses mercy instead. He spares the creature who deserved death. And in one of literature's great ironies, it is Gollum — kept alive by that undeserved mercy — who stumbles into the fires of Mount Doom and destroys the Ring when Frodo himself cannot.

Tolkien, a devout Catholic, understood something profound: forgiveness is not a reward for the deserving. It is an act of obedience that sets purposes in motion we cannot foresee. When we extend mercy to someone who has wronged us, we are not excusing what they did. We are making room for the Almighty to work in ways our limited vision could never predict.

The mercy you extend today may be the very thing God uses to accomplish what you never could on your own.