Happy Easter – Christ is Risen!

On this special day, it’s worth dwelling on Tolkien’s reflection on the Christian story in the postscript to his essay ‘On Fairy-stories’:

I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature.

The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable Eucatastrophe.

But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation.

The Birth of Christ is the Eucatastrophe of Man's history.

The Resurrection is the Eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation.

This story begins and ends in joy.