I love words. I really can’t remember a time when I did not love words. Fun for me is reading a dictionary (I know, I am weird!). I also love it when people make up words. When our daughter was a toddler she used to call butterflies flutter-byes. The English writer and academic J.R.R. Tolkien also liked creating words of his own (a little more complex than a new word for butterflies). Even as a teenager Tolkien made up entire languages. He was also fluent in 35 different existing languages.
One of the words Tolkien created is the word eucatastrophe. The meaning he gave the word is this: when an unexpected turn of events at the end of a story prevents a terrible, probable and expected doom. Eucatastrophe takes the Greek prefix eu, which means good, and attaches that prefix to the word catastrophe, which most of us know means an unhappy or disastrous fate or conclusion.
So a eucatastrophe is a sudden turn of events at the end of a story which insures the protagonist does not fall victim to some expected, predicted, plausible and probable doom. A eucatastrophe is the ultimate plot twist.
It is easy to understand the Resurrection as the eucatastrophe for Jesus. We have traveled through all the events of Holy Week—the entry into Jerusalem, the final meal together, the foot washing, the Way of the Cross, the crucifixion and burial in a tomb. Each of these events seems like one more puzzle piece in what was expected to be the end—the end of Jesus’ life, the end of his followers, and to some, the end of human history. But that isn’t what happens. The end of the story is resurrection, a eucatastrophe.
Even if you are not a Christian, we all understand resurrection; things that were expected to be the absolute end, the ultimate falling apart of everything we love and hold dear, turns out to be a blessing, a new hope, an unexpected but meaningful part of our journey. Divorce crushes us, but opens us to a new life and sometimes to new love. The diagnosis of an illness changes our understanding of what really matters in our life. We lose our job but we learn to let go of fear and discover work on an unexpected pathway. The death of someone we love almost more than life itself makes us realize just how very deep and wide love is and that our love for someone never dies. Not ever.
Today, Easter Day, is a wonderful time to ponder and give thanks for the eucatastrophe of our Christian story, but it is also a wonderful time to ponder the eucatastrophes in our own lives. To look at the times when we felt everything had ended, was doomed, and disastrous; but in the waiting, in the enduring, even in the suffering, a new way, a different journey was made open to us. Morning comes after the long, dark night.
Instead of wishing people Happy Easter today, grin your sly smile and just say Happy Eucatastrophe!
I love J. R. R. Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings series. I bought them for my son when he was a boy and have seen all the movies. I was not familiar with the word eucatastrophe and found it to be an interesting word. I looked it up and I can see how it could be connected to the Passion and Resurrection in the Gospel as a happy ending! Enjoyed your post as always.
Hi Jeanne. . . Thank you for sharing your blog with me. I read this post this morning as I sit in room 633 of the Cancer Center at Baptist Hospital with Alex. It was just what I needed this morning. Sending you love, and hoping for a Eucatastrophe.