The Weight One Hobbit Could Not Bear Alone

In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Return of the King, there comes a moment on the slopes of Mount Doom when Frodo Baggins simply cannot go any further. The Ring has grown unbearably heavy. His body is broken, his spirit crushed. The mission that will save Middle-earth is about to fail — not for lack of courage, but for lack of strength.

That is when Samwise Gamgee kneels beside his friend and says what might be the most beautiful line in all of literature: "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you."

And Sam lifts Frodo onto his back and climbs.

Tolkien, a devout Catholic, understood something the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Sam could not take the Ring. He could not fight Frodo's battle or remove his suffering. But he could show up. He could kneel down. He could carry his friend when his friend could no longer walk.

This is what the body of Christ looks like. Not a collection of individuals who happen to sit in the same room on Sunday morning, but people who notice when someone has collapsed under a weight they were never meant to bear alone — and who kneel down and say, "I can't fix this for you, but I'm not leaving. Lean on me."

The mission of God's Kingdom has always moved forward on the backs of people willing to carry one another.