“I see men like trees, walking” (Mark 8:24).

In today's gospel lesson, Christ heals a blind man - but at first his eyesight isn't that good and he says, “I see men like trees, walking” (Mark 8:24).

I've often wondered if J.R.R. Tolkien recalled this verse when he envisioned the giant, tree-like Ents of Middle-earth he wrote about in his classic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.

Fr. John