The Allure of Evil
A brief comment on the Amazon Show Rings of Power
Celebrimbor: From the beginning, a part of me… knew. A part of me saw. But I… I wanted what he offered. So, I, I blinded myself to, to what he was.
Galadriel: So did I.
So often we would like to imagine that evil is obvious or apparent. We think somehow that we would recognize it when we see it. But the truth is that very often evil appears quite fair and beautiful even. And those who follow evil are rarely destructive villains chasing after the ruin of all things. More often they are men and women twisted by some wound, or some pain and in seeking after some apparent good they do so in a twisted or erroneous manner.
This sets the scene for the recent episode in the Amazon show Rings of Power with Celebrimbor and Sauron.
If you are afraid of spoilers, stop reading. If you are undaunted, please continue.
Now while the show Rings of Power is by no means perfect, they have done a rather remarkable job of showing the seductive allure of evil and how it creeps into our lives and our hearts.
Celebrimbor—when he at last manages to free himself from the illusions and mind games of Sauron—realizes fully what he has done. And that what has occurred has not completely been against his will. In some sense he wanted what Sauron offered him. He wanted fame and power, but he also wanted to save lives, create beauty, and guarantee peace.
St. Thomas Aquinas (in the Prima Pars of his Summa Theologiae, Q. 49, for those interested) reminds us that evil occurs when someone tries to pursue a good end or object but in a bad way, there is some defect in the “principle of action” or movement.
Evil preys upon our best impulses and our highest ideals and begins to take us down a treacherous road, a road of shortcuts and bad means. And we blind ourselves along the way, we let ourselves be fooled and convinced.
It’s like when we are in love and we convince ourselves that our significant other’s faults and vices are somehow not important or lesser than they really are. We blind ourselves to reality, to truth.
I found myself remarkably moved by Celebrimbor in the series. He went from a rather vain smith, to a tortured man trapped in illusions and deceptions, to a man deeply scarred but still noble.
And this is a good lesson for us all; that our failures to see, our failures to resist the allure of evil, are not the end. The Devil, the great deceiver, would like us to believe that once we have given in that we cannot return. That we have opened a door that cannot be closed. We see this in Rings of Power in some ways. Celebrimbor and the various elves of Eregion have opened a door to the Deceiver, to Sauron, and he uses that to full effect, placing them under his spell again and again.
And yet…We have something that the elves of Eregion do not have. I think in particular of the Sacraments and the Sacramental life of the Church.
In the Sacraments we can find our habits reformed, our loves and attention reoriented. Reconciliation is perhaps the best example of this. When we fall to the allure of evil, when we attempt to pursue some good through defective means and we fall into sin we are not lost forever.
The door to the deceiver and the accuser has been opened, but we already have an Advocate in our hearts, The Holy Spirit sent by the Son and the Father. And the Advocate with a great roaring wind can help us to shut that door again.
To rise from where we have fallen and to look not at the glittering allure of evil, but at the perhaps more somber joy that is goodness and light.
And that joy is not found alone, but with many others. This too is a beautiful message that can be discovered in this episode of Rings of Power. Celebrimbor in his efforts to escape is almost dragged back to Sauron, all his efforts wasted and for nothing. But then Galadriel appears. Galadriel also suffered from the allure of Sauron, she too knew what it was to be tempted by what he offered. And so she meets him in tears and in sorrow and it is this meeting which brings Celebrimbor to courage, which helps him to rise and to even face Sauron himself.
We are surrounded by others, by a Church of redeemed sinners, men and women who every day fail and who every day God encourages and helps to rise again. And these souls in turn encourage us and we encourage them!
Our rising up from sin and the allure of evil is not a task for an individual alone, but for the entire Body of Christ.
Together we rise and we shake off that which is evil and we train our eyes and our hearts for that far horizon which awaits us.
Be not afraid or ashamed by your falls and by your failings. Rise up, make your way to Reconciliation, call upon your friends and good Christian souls, and start again with God and with your neighbor.
Let us pray:
God of everlasting mercy, who graciously restores man to grace
through the Paschal Mystery,
Grant to us your servants here on earth, the courage to rise each day
and to pursue you with ever more ardent love.
Grant us the wisdom to see and to understand
in what font we have been washed,
by whose Spirit we have been reborn,
by whose Blood we have been redeemed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.