Life as Pilgrimage

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The Pilgrim's Way: Life as Pilgrimage Introduction The custom of going on pilgrimage is common to all the higher religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. As such it is an important aspect of spirituality. Pilgrims undertake their journey from a variety of motives: to obtain special blessings, as an act of devotion or thanksgiving, as a penance, to draw closer to God, the source and goal of all life or even to receive some favour or cure. The desire to go on pilgrimage is a deep felt need among many, and its expression in action is a marvellous witness to the presence of God in their midst. Essentially, this physical act of journeying is an allegory or powerful metaphor for the spiritual life itself. It is the outward manifestation of the inner journey we all make from brokenness to wholeness, from fragmentation to healing, from meaninglessness to meaning, from isolation to relationships with others and with God. It is this inner spiritual pilgrimage that is my concern here. Making the Journey In a fundamental sense life is a journey from birth to death, and in between

these

two

extremes

there

are

many

milestones:

childhood,

adolescence, adulthood and old age. Each of these stages has its attendant ills and growing pains as the journey is made. The phrase 'life is difficult' has become a catch cry in popular psychology in recent years. Dr. M. Scott Peck has pointed out that this is the most often quoted sentence from his widely read best-seller, The Road Less Travelled. Once we have accepted this basic assumption, Peck argues, life becomes less difficult because we can now get on with tackling the various problems by using appropriate strategies. Another way of putting this would be to state, 'there are no easy answers.' Yet, in another sense, answers to life's various problems can and do exist, but none of them is easy or even perfect in its remedy. Some answers,

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indeed, appear to be anything but solutions and can only be accepted with faith and trust in some divine assistance. There is nothing new in this. This is the sort of wisdom found in the folklore and proverbs of many nations, in the Christian faith and in the Bible itself.

The Scriptures do not offer easy

solutions to life's problems. At times they offer encouragement and comfort and at other times, challenge and risk. They deal with all of life's deepest concerns from innocent suffering to death, from injustice to judgement, from despair to hope, from death to resurrection. A central motif of the Bible itself is that of journey: that of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land and that of Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem. These journeys had their highs and their lows, like our own lives. Christianity: Jesus Leads the Way The supreme pilgrimage for the Christian is that of Jesus from Nazareth to Jerusalem, from Mount Tabor to the Hill of Calvary. The phrase 'on the way' runs like a refrain through Mark's Gospel where the 'way' refers tersely to the way of the cross and daily suffering. Mark pulls no punches here. Neither does Jesus - three times he alludes to the fate of the Son of Man (a Messianic title for the Saviour) and follows each prediction of his passion with a graphic exposition of the cost of discipleship: 'If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' The Son of Man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and to be put to death. This message is Mark's central theological preoccupation: life involves suffering and to live it requires a sharing in the reality of the Cross. For him, Jesus does not shirk his responsibility: he follows resolutely 'on the way' to Jerusalem. As disciples we are called to follow along that same way and embrace our individual crosses, but with this one major difference that we believe that Jesus has emerged through his passion and death into the light of the resurrection; that he has conquered ultimately all suffering, pain and death; that he walks still with his followers and supports and nourishes us on our pilgrim way. That is our faith. When we encounter suffering and pain in our own lives our philosophies and theologies ring hollow; our words

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fail miserably in the immediacy of the experience. We can only hold the image of our suffering Lord before our mind's eye, for he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. That is our faith. Any philosophical or theological reflection can only be done in hindsight when we have come some way through the experience. Obviously, subsequent reflection on experience is of the utmost importance and as such can play a vital role in the overall healing process. Otherwise, in the words of T.S. Eliot we can say that 'We had the experience but missed the meaning' which is vital to living a fully human life.1 Following the Way Along the way there are many supports. Firstly no pilgrimage is ever made alone. There is solidarity in the Christian community if only we would be open to it. We need to support one another, to give and to receive help. As you read this article there are many of us who are deeply hurting: some trying to come to terms with the pain of childhood abuse, both physical and sexual; some experiencing mental breakdown, alcoholism or drug addiction with their heavy toll on others in the family; some are unable to break out of the grief of bereavement or the loss of separation and others confused as to their direction in life. To survive any of these with some peace of mind involves years of counselling and therapy, even hospitalization in some cases. One way or another each person has to face his or her own demons. In our families and communities we must learn to listen to each other, support each other, and embrace each other and most importantly to accept each other. This begins here and now, when I lay down this journal, this paper or finish that job. It means accepting and loving myself and sharing that with those in my immediate family and community. Then, I will have learned to accept and love others and God at the heart of all my relationships.

The full contextualised quotation is from the Dry Salvages (1941) section of Four Quartets runs: “We had the experience but missed the meaning, //And approach to the meaning restores the experience//In a different form, beyond any meaning//We can assign to happiness. I have said before//That the past experience revived in the meaning//Is not the experience of one life only//But of many generations — not forgetting//Something that is probably quite ineffable... 1

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There are many supports there if only I am willing to seek them out: bereavement groups in the parish, self-development courses of all types in the local V.E.C. school, and counselling and advice available at many centres. There are parenting courses obtainable in many schools, both primary and secondary, run by their home-school liaison officers. In King Lear we read that 'ripeness is all'.2 In other words, readiness is all I need. If I am ready and open to being helped and supported by others, why not start now by making that call or going down to your local club or whatever. Like the alcoholic, getting well can only begin once I have admitted I have a problem and am in need of help. On a spiritual level, there are many prayer and meditation groups only too willing to welcome new members. It has long been recognized that bodily, emotional and spiritual health go hand in hand. In our society we concentrate almost too exclusively on the first area, give growing attention to the second and neglect the third. We do this at our peril. There are too many adrift on a sea of confusion: promoting spiritual health gives direction, focus and meaning to our lives. Spirituality is no lone journey: we go to God together, and so in prayer groups and in the religious services of the Christian community I receive support, fellowship and the encouragement of a shared vision.3 Certainly private meditation and contemplation are highly to be recommended. Like Jesus, we all need to go away to quiet places to be alone with and listen to God. But we also need the support and encouragement of our fellow Christians to nourish our inner life. Essentially the real nourishment is received around the Table of the Lord. We can never tire of returning to that foundational text of the early Christian community: 'They remained faithful to the teaching of the Apostles, to life in the community, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.' (Acts 2:42) All I have written here

This quotation is from King Lear, Act 5, Scene 2, and these are the words addressed by Edgar to his father Gloucester: “What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure//Their going hence, even as their coming hither: // Ripeness is all. Come on.” 2

St Augustine in his rule underscores the fact that all the monks in his community were journeying together to God. See Van Bavel (1984), The Rule of St Augustine. 3

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could be seen as an explication of this text. This fourfold principle of Christian life makes many demands on us: sharing what we have with one another, listening to oneself, others and to God, being reconciled and being peacemakers, thereby building up the Kingdom. Journeying Together Towards Justice and Peace This journey can in no sense be confined to particular Churches or religious communities. The onward movement towards the Kingdom is undertaken in this world, and an essential condition of making that journey is the struggle for honesty, integrity and especially for justice and peace. As a society we have to come to terms with our own shortcomings and guilt for our acceptance of and collusion in the way women and children have been abused in this country. It is good to see that the prosecution and conviction of guilty parties is being carried out. However, this of itself is not sufficient. We as a society must own our shame and our guilt and put in place structures which will never allow what has happened in our orphanages occur again. With regards to the situation in Northern Ireland both communities have a journey to make to understand and accept the traditions of the other, as have we in the South to understand both. Much good has been done by the massive peace marches organized by the various peace movements North and South of the border. On a personal level it takes courage to make the journey from self-delusion to self-knowledge, from selfishness to altruism. Much more courage is needed if a community or a people has to make a similar journey in terms of understanding, accepting and living with a community of different traditions and beliefs. A lot can be done to promote justice and peace. We only have to recall the campaign of peaceful civil disobedience orchestrated by the great Mahatma Gandhi in India. At one point in his campaign (March, 1930) he chose to walk 240 miles from his ashram to the coast at Dandi where he symbolically collected salt to highlight the inequity of the salt laws. Or again call to mind the great Civil Rights march to Washington D.C. in August 1963 when 200, 000 black and white campaigners walked to hear Martin Luther

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King deliver his 'I have a dream' speech. Is it any wonder that both these modern prophets chose a march to highlight their message of justice and peace? The physical reality of marching together is highly symbolic of the journey we all have to go to meet each other in mutual respect. Every country has its own particular pilgrimage to make. We are being challenged to make that journey daily. Journey's End Many years ago the Anglican Bishop of Woolwich, John A.T. Robinson, wrote a book entitled pithily In the end God. It was a well chosen title because God is our goal, the destination of our journey. In this world we are always 'on the way' or 'in via' and our true destination can only be reached through the portals of death. Recently that final journey has been sympathetically and reverently described by Dr. Michael Kearney in his powerfully touching book, Mortally Wounded (Marino, 1996). In the afterword to that same book the Hindu monk, Sri Madhava Ashish, laments the fact that in our Western culture we leave the voyage to self-discovery until the deathbed instead of seeing it 'as part of a lifelong preparation for entry into meaningful existence.' (p. 180). Our modern culture cannot deal with the stark reality and silence of death and embraces instead the noise of constant activity and the bright lights of success. The voyage to self-discovery is thereby suppressed in that struggle to succeed and impress. We have to learn from St. Paul that we have no abiding city here, that we are pilgrims and sojourners on this earth. Investing unduly and obsessively in temporal goods which pass away can only lead to the frustration of our natural desire which is to be at home with ourselves, with others and with God. On a personal level to achieve this goal we must firstly break free from false images of self, of others and of God. Secondly, we must follow the natural hungers of the heart, seek out meaning, grapple with the big questions of life, struggle to discover what is right and just and work for it, and learn to listen to God at the heart of my own being. Lastly, we must be open to whoever or whatever is the Lord of our lives, that

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which is constantly seeking us out, that is always making the first move, and who even now walks with us as we make our pilgrim way. This is our faith, that we accept Jesus at his word, or whatever God enlivens our being: 'I am always with you, even to the end of time.' (Mt 28:20) And when our end comes we trust we shall have the courage to launch out into the deep and see Jesus beckoning to us from the farther shore.

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Bibliography Kearney, M. (1996) Mortally Wounded, Cork: Marino Books, Mercier Press. Peck, M. Scott (1978) The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth, New York: Simon & Schuster. Robinson, J.A.T. (1968) In the End, God: A Study of the Christian Doctrine of the Last Things, London: James Clarke & Co. Robinson, J.A.T. (1963) Honest to God, London: Westminster John Knox Press. Van Bavel (1984), The Rule of St Augustine London: Darton, Longman & Todd