The title The Sparrow can be seen as a reference to the hymn “His Eye is on The Sparrow” from the New Testament, in which Jesus reassures his followers that not even a sparrow can fall without God’s notice, that God sees your suffering and helps you.
The hymn is as follows: “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew Chapter 6:26)
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.” (Chapter 10:29-31).
The Jesuit linguist Emilio Sandoz, the only survivor of the mission to Rackhat, has been physically and mentally scarred. More to the point, his faith in God has been shattered. He says to a younger priest John Candotti, “Don’t hope for more than that, John…”God will break your heart” (50). Sandoz followed the beautiful song from Rackhat to discover an alien species, the Jana’ata, that values dependency and physically and mentally rapes him.
Even according to Russell in “A Reader’s Guide” at the end of the novel, the moral of the story is “ ‘Even if you do the best you can, you still get screwed…’" Russell continues, "Emilio has kept his end of a bargain that he made with God, and he feels betrayed. He believes he has been seduced and raped by God, that he’s been used against his will for God’s own purpose…God gives us rules but those are rules for us, not for God.” Perhaps this can explain the holocaust or any atrocity from a religious perspective?
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