My plans for a spiritual trek in Europe in June this year are on hold, due to this worldwide pandemic, and the closing of our country’s borders. Sure, I can walk another year or even consider another place. But this is not just any event I was looking forward to. It was something I was preparing myself for, both physically and spiritually. And I have felt for a long time that this well-worn path was calling me.
The walking path I was to join is an ancient path that pilgrims walked, and still walk, leading to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral on the North-West coast of Spain. Jesus’ apostle James’ bones are said to be enshrined there and for many it is the culmination of thirty days of journey by foot. In English, this walk is known as The Way of St James.
My training was to prepare me to walk twenty kilometres a day, while carrying a seven kilo backpack. I am to rely on the hospitality of local hostels each night, bunking down with many other pilgrims on the same path. For the past year I have sensed that this journey was one of the heart, and had already begun. It does not begin when I arrive in Europe, but it begins right here and now in my Australian home. My flight to Europe is only a part of that journey, as is my flight home.
Before being called Christians, followers of Jesus were known as followers of The Way. (Acts 9:1-2). The same Jesus had explained to his doubtful disciple Thomas, that He was the Way (and also the truth and the life (John 14)). This weekend these followers remember that their leader was crucified-hung on a cross to die, outside of Jerusalem, nearly 2000 years ago. We also remember that the tomb where he was buried is empty, because he rose from this grave, more alive than ever.
I have been reflecting on what this means if The Way is Jesus and not a well-worn walking trail. Does that mean I need not walk ‘The Way’. What if this well-worn walking track is a living metaphor for the journey in Christ Jesus? While I can download an app, read a map or ask a friend to know the route to that Cathedral in Spain, I can also read ancient texts, listen to devotions and sermons and know about The Way Himself. But unless one begins this journey by taking a step-one step of faith, trusting in the journey and the one who leads the way, one does not really ‘know’ the way at all! I am mindful that this journey of the heart is one of faith and putting one’s trust in the one we follow, rather than in the methods of others who have followed Him before us.
Jesus didn’t come to light a path or grade a trail. He came so that we would follow Him. He is the Way-maker. The Lord’s cross is the gateway into His life and the Resurrection means that He has the power now to convey His life to me. (Oswald Chambers)
I am already following The Way. I began this journey twenty years ago, when I was in my 30s. I was hoping to rekindle some of the early years of my faith journey, while on the The Way of St James’ trail in June. For along time I have been weary of how complex I have made my life once again. I was looking forward to leaving behind many of my earthly possessions and to carry only the essentials. I was planning to silence all the noises of this modern world and provide the space to hear from Jesus himself.
Of course, I can do this here, but pilgrimages while they are of the heart, are helpful in a physical and symbolic way to remind us afresh of what is most important in life. The arduous and physical path can be helpful to cut the ties with that which bind us and can tie us in knots in our daily lives. As our regular lives or what we call ‘normal’ fall away, we make space to encounter the divine one on the path and invite spiritual renewal.
The irony is that this pandemic is changing my ‘normal’ to something different. I just did not choose it. My journey to the shops is only for the essentials these days and what I assumed is my rightful and typical day, is no longer the same. Perhaps, instead of lamenting for what I have left behind in this season of social isolation, I can see it as a metaphor for spiritual pilgrimage which will bring renewal, without leaving my front door!
Jesus never offered to make a path or required me to find that path. He simply asked me to come follow him. And I am doing that already.
Once the world has settled back to the new ‘normal’, perhaps I will get the opportunity to walk that trail in Europe. For now, I am considering how I can ‘walk’’this day, in this place, trusting in the risen Jesus of Easter, one step at a time.
In the words of Eugene H. Peterson, “The way of Jesus cannot be imposed or mapped — it requires an active participation in following Jesus as he leads us through sometimes strange and unfamiliar territory, in circumstances that become clear only in the hesitations and questionings, in the pauses and reflections where we engage in prayerful conversation with one another and with him.”
― The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way
Photo by Les routes sans fin(s) on Unsplash
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