In recent years, I have had the privilege of going twice to Santiago de Compostella in Northern Spain, not I confess, as a pilgrim, but as a tourist. But it was impressive, watching men and women of all ages, tired but triumphant having followed the Camino de Santiago (or at least a substantial part of it) – the way of St James and finally completed their journey, Every week on Tuesdays a service is held in the great Cathedral wherein is the shrine of St James, at which hundreds of pilgrims give thanks and celebrate their arrival. But for the really keen ones, the final goal is Cape Finisterre, the most westerly tip of Spain, (which literally means “the lands end”) where recent tradition dictates that in ending their journey, the pilgrims, first, swim in the sea just below the Cape and then burn their clothes or their boots. Afterwards, in the late evening, you are supposed to watch the sunset from the lighthouse. The idea is, that through performing these actions, you spiritually cleanse yourself, symbolising spiritual renewal: the pilgrim then becomes a new person. On a fierce, baking day, we watched pilgrims arrive there, perspiring, dishevelled and visibly exhausted. We saw the many smouldering remains of cremated jackets and footwear, and caught the rather unpleasant aroma of burnt cagoules and leather soles. But, it was an extraordinary and moving sight.
Watching these things, I wondered how these people really felt at the end of their journey. Was there jubilation or was there perhaps a sense of anticlimax? What had this done for their spiritual lives? Where would they go from here? Was this felt as an end in itself or only a beginning? Had they spiritually arrived or in the bigger picture, were they still just passing through on their way to an even greater goal? I started to think about the meaning of pilgrimage. What does it really mean to be a pilgrim?
If we look to history then we find that pilgrimage has a strong biblical foundation. Abraham was the archetypal pilgrim. According to the Genesis story, (Chapter 12) he was told by God to “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you”. In Chapter 13 we see Abraham and his wife uprooting themselves burdened with all their riches, and journeying to the Promised Land. But even when he had arrived Abraham knew that he was still on a journey. He was still on a pilgrimage. He was told: “Raise your eyes now and look from the place where you are..!” (Gen 13: 14). Gods message was ‘get up and keep moving- in all directions!’ He was to continue walking through the land, not putting down roots, always to be unsettled, walking and striving for a better Canaan. Indeed the whole history of the Israelites as we read it in the Old Testament is a testing journey where the quality of the journey seems to take on a greater significance than reaching the goal. And this must be true for us also. Pilgrimage is a symbol that is acted out and like Abraham, we are to know ourselves as always being on pilgrimage.
Traditionally, pilgrimage is indeed a journey to a shrine of importance to a person’s belief and faith, but true pilgrimage has a wider understanding. As Christians, we are to see life itself as a journey, coming from God and returning to God. It becomes an inward journey of great moral, spiritual and devotional significance. It means being of this world, yet paradoxically, not being of this world. It is certainly true that many people will often talk about pilgrimage when discussing the most appropriate ways to live out a life. Great books like John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress represent human struggle through many trials and temptations to finally reach a better destination. For a great characteristic of all forms of pilgrimage is that there is always the expectation of hardship, deprivation, temptation and all kinds of difficult choices and decisions on the way. The success and integrity of our spiritual journey will depend on how we react to these challenges through our openness, our faith, flexibility and love.
It has to be said that many contemporary Christians don’t tend to think of the life of faith in this way at all. Much of the time, we don’t think in terms of a journey because think we have actually arrived! It is sometimes all too easy to think that we have achieved all that the life of faith has intended us to achieve. We can comfortably believe that what we are now is about as good as it is going to get. It is very easy for faith communities to become too satisfied with the present. So we need to remind ourselves that we have never arrived, but must always be on the move. We are always on pilgrimage, growing in the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ and applying it to our lives and in the service of others in ways that are relevant to our times. Like Abraham, we are to keep our eyes not just on the present, but on the future.
Being a pilgrim is not easy. It’s demanding and requires self-sacrifice. But, it is difficult to embrace a pilgrim attitude when life is comfortable and undemanding. When career, family and relations are going well, when money is not an issue, when everything is on an upward track, it is hard for us to adopt the pilgrim mindset. But that is the call. To be centred not just on the present but on the future. We must single-mindedly focus ourselves on the goal, but how we live out the journey on our way, walking with God and losing ourselves in God is the greatest spiritual challenge.
The very nature of being a pilgrim means always being on the move. The Christian life can never come to a halt. To stand still is to stagnate. We have to be restless spirits, travelling lightly but with steadfast commitment to our divine goal. There is a story from the late 19th Century, of an American tourist who paid a visit to a renowned Polish rabbi, Hofetz Chaim. He was astonished to see that the rabbi's home was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and a plain and small, wooden bed. The tourist asked, Hofetz Chaim replied, The puzzled American asked, The rabbi replied, That is true for all of us – as Christians we are but pilgrims passing through on the way, hoping to arrive somewhere better than we set out from.
The future it seems may tough for many, with of a lot of economic challenges ahead that may significantly change some peoples lives. There may be some deprivation and hardship, but we are called to help others embrace those challenges as well as our own trials, in a loving spirit, If we do so, we may yet find that as we steer a course through this part of our life pilgrimage, it may prepare us in all kinds of unexpected ways for the destiny we hope for.
Taking Abraham as a model of the journey of faith, we move forward knowing that we can be transformed by good words and godly actions on the way. There may be no literal burning of clothes and boots, but metaphorically there will be countless opportunities for cleansing and renewal as we are passing through, for we should always be in a state of becoming something better than we are.