The Pity of Bilbo

In the second chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo learns the dark history of the creature Gollum — how he murdered for the Ring, how he skulked in darkness for centuries, how he now hunts the very thing Bilbo carried home to the Shire. Frodo's response is immediate and human: "What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!"

Gandalf's reply is one of the most quietly devastating lines in all of literature: "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."

Tolkien, a devout Catholic, understood something essential about grace — it is given precisely where it is not deserved. Bilbo's mercy toward Gollum made no practical sense. The creature was dangerous, treacherous, pitiable only in the way that disgusts rather than moves us. Yet that single act of unearned mercy became the hinge upon which the fate of Middle-earth turned. Without Gollum at Mount Doom, the Ring would never have been destroyed.

This is how the Almighty works. Grace flows to the undeserving — which is to say, to all of us. Paul writes in Romans 5:8 that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Not after we cleaned ourselves up. Not once we proved ourselves worthy. While we were still Gollum, crouching in the dark.

The mercy that saves the world never looks reasonable at the time.