From the Gospel: The eagles and the road

11th Sunday in ordinary time, Year A. Today’s readings: Exodus 19:2-6a; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36-10:8

There is a question that has puzzled readers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings for decades and it surfaces repeatedly in online discussions: If the great eagles – those magnificent, quasi-divine birds who swoop in to rescue the heroes at critical moments – were available throughout the story, why did the Fellowship not simply fly to the fires of Mount Doom and drop the One Ring in from above? Why the long, gruelling, dangerous journey on foot through enemy territory? Why so much suffering, loss and sacrifice?

Although Tolkien himself never gave a definitive answer, the best responses offered by scholars and devoted readers alike point in a consistent direction: the journey itself was the point. The destruction of the Ring required not merely a physical act but a moral and spiritual transformation.

Frodo had to become someone capable of the task and his companions would have their loyalty tested through fire. The mission could not be reduced to an aerial shortcut because what was at stake was not simply the disposal of an object; it was the redemption of a world and redemption requires flesh-and-blood agents willing to suffer for it.

This Sunday’s readings lead us into a strikingly similar meditation. In the first reading, God speaks to Moses on Mount Sinai with remarkable tenderness: “You have seen how I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself.”

The image is evocative: the eagle who stirs her young, hovers over them, catches them on her pinions. God does not deny that he carried his people. The Exodus was God’s doing: Israel did not liberate itself; it was a divine power that freed the chosen people from bondage.

And, yet, the very next sentence carries a condition: “if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession.” The eagle’s wings are real but the destination is not one of comfort and ease. It is a vocation that demands a response and a commitment to a way of life: to become “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”.

St Paul, addressing the Romans in today’s second reading, likewise underlines both truths. Christ died for us while we were still sinners in an act of extravagant, unmerited grace. But that same grace, Paul insists, is directed toward reconciliation and a restored relationship with God, toward a people who will live with conviction and integrity as those who belong to Christ.

The gospel brings this dual reality into sharp focus. Jesus looks out at the crowds, “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd”, and his heart is stirred to its depths. Yet, he does not send in the metaphorical eagles, solving the problem with some grand, miraculous gesture.

Instead, he forms a fellowship, naming 12 disciples, giving them authority and sending them out to the lost sheep of Israel with specific instructions: “make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

This is simultaneously one of the most demanding and liberating truths of our faith. God does not stand aloof, watching us struggle: he has entered our history and carried us on his wings, saving and reconciling us when we were still his enemies.

But neither does he render our freedom, our cooperation, or our love unnecessary. In every generation he calls, equips and sends us, entrusting his harvest to human hands.

Much like Tolkien’s heroes, there are moments when we are carried and others when we must walk (or trudge!). Our mission will always involve both the eagles and the road.

bgatt@maltachurchtribunals.org