To be a Pilgrim. -The Rev. Kenneth Elkin, STS

What sense can a 21st century Lutheran make of pilgrimage in general, and pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, in particular?

Various folks along the way asked it of me, and I asked the question of myself.

We will meander awhile and eventually circle around to an answer.

We had better start with a working definition.So, what is pilgrimage? Best understood, I think it involves these six elements:--Travel to a specific place,--With a religious purpose and cultic object,--Involving difficulties and dangers,--In the tradition of many others,--A very personal activity, even if it takes place with a group,

and--Done on foot. Others have hijacked the term to apply to all sorts of other

events, but for our purposes today, we will keep this narrow focus.

A pilgrimage is not just a hike, even a very long hike such as the Appalachian Trail.

That one has no religious purpose, unless it be nature worship.

 It is not just a trip to a famous place such as Graceland, Elvis

Presley´s house.That may be a cult, a substitute for the faith once delivered to

the saints.Also one travels there by bus or car. It is not just any religious place.Luther-land is always a popular activity, especially in this 500th

anniversary year; doing such things as climbing to the Wartburg castle and standing at Luther´s grave in the castle church in Wittenberg, visiting the church where he preached his last sermon, in his hometown.

The modern bus has limited the on-foot aspect of the activity.It is a different thing to rush past the place on the road where

Luther faced the storm while riding on an air-conditioned, sanitized bus.

 I have participated in that tour, and I have also served as a

tour host, herding cats to get everyone to where they

are supposed to be at a given time, and finding a pastor who had absentmindedly wandered off down the mountain another way, and other such distractions.

 Another key place that we might initially think of as a

pilgrimage site is the Holy Land. Those same problems are there as well.

One is off the bus at the top of the Mount of Olives, walking to quickly see this and walk by that, and back on the bus after the Church at the foot of the hill.

I´ve climbed Mt. Sinai in the dark to see the sun rise over that vast wilderness and mountain.

But riding in an air-conditioned bus removes one effectively from the experience of the Hebrews wandering in the desert, and the time, thought, pain, and discomfort involved in it.

To be sure, I would never have wanted to miss that bus-tour experience, or the several personal car explorations of the Upper Galilee that I was able to do.

--In the palace at Hazor we are reminded of the story in Joshua where he says that Hazor was destroyed by fire, and there is archaeological evidence to support this observation.

--From the “cheap seats” in the amphitheater at Sepphoris one can look across the valley and know that Nazareth lies on the other side of the hill opposite. The Roman city of Sepphoris was being built during the first century, so perhaps Joseph found work there, and might Jesus have gone along with him, and thus been exposed to more Greek and Roman culture than we might imagine from the Gospel accounts?

--Tourists all visit the synagogue at Capernaum, but that is a 4th or 5th century building. The synagogue of Jesus' day lies several feet underground on the same site.

--At Beth Shan we remember the sad ending of the saga of King Saul. The bodies of Saul and his sons killed in battle were hung on the walls of the ancient city on the tell in the background. The city in the foreground was the Roman city which was silted over and forgotten for centuries until it was excavated relatively recently.

--The hillside at the north end of the Sea of Galilee, where they have restricted any development, so that we might imagine a first century scene of Jesus and the multitude.

Visiting all of these places had a profound impact on my thought, preaching, and teaching, but they were lacking

that essential connection of actually walking from here to there.

 Thirty years ago there was a VHS video series called The

New Media Bible.I think they only ever filmed Genesis and Luke, but both of the

books that were done were excellent.As we viewed the action and heard the actors speak in the

language of the time, we heard voice-over of the RSV Bible text of those two books.

In the preaching and teaching sections of Luke, the actors portraying Jesus and the disciples were constantly walking the countryside, in and out of synagogues and villages, constantly on the move.

Jesus had ¨set his face toward Jerusalem¨ (Luke 9:51) and would not be dissuaded from his way.

I think the film-makers caught an essential element of the story with this constant motion: Jesus the pilgrim, walking briskly on his way.

 There is a key word in Luke to which I think the translators

have done us a grave disservice.In Luke 9:31 Luke says that that Jesus was going to

Jerusalem where he was to accomplish his – the RSV says ¨departure¨-- but the Greek word is Exodus.¨

I wonder why they didn´t just transliterate the word rather than changing it.

¨Departure¨does not carry the same freight that exodus does.Exodus has all sorts of pilgrimage connections that a simple

departure does not. Those who have used Harry Wendt´s Crossways Bible studies

will remember that Harry´s artist has a diagram of the life of the Hebrews through the Exodus.

--Going to Egypt, bondage, set free through water of the Red Sea, wandering in the wilderness, eventual arrival in the Promised Land.

Later there is a diagram of Jesus´life and work that has exactly the same shape.

--Going down to Egypt, commissioned through the water of baptism, time in the wilderness, cross and resurrection.

And still later, the diagram made of the life of every Christian is again exactly the same shape.

--Our initial bondage to sin, saved through water of baptism, our wilderness wanderings, following the Lord Jesus and facing death with his promise of eternal life.

You could stack the three transparencies of Exodus, Jesus, and the life of the Christian, and they would line up

perfectly. All three are about us being “on the way”, as pilgrims together.

Perhaps one of the most vivid pictures of Jesus as person “on the way” is the road to Emmaus story. Jesus accompanies the gradual enlightenment of the two disciples until they are filled with joy.

 This is a way of saying that the Christian life is at its best just

such a pilgrimage, that we are walking our way through life with all of its dangers and troubles with a religious goal, a tangible promise; that it is a walk we do individually, even in the company of others who are in the line of the faithful of all times and places, until a final and wonderful result. It covers all of the elements I first listed as being a part of pilgrimage.

There are a number of books that explore this concept, so we leave this idea for now.

 Lawrence Farley says that “The fruit of the journey consists

not in the accuracy of the route, but in the outpourings of love for the Lord., who loved us enough to walk a way of sorrows to save us.” (p.150)

Within the journey of that Christian life, there may be certain special and specific places where we can intentionally pause and take stock of our lives along the way, at places such as Canterbury, Iona, Lindisfarne, Medjugorie, Rome, Taize, Santiago, and others.

Among the possible pausing places on that list, I would single out the Camino Santiago as a uniquely shaped event, or better, a process, that best fits the paradigm of pilgrimage.

So, what is it?It is a long walk that involves a series of routes all across

Europe that gradually coalesce into several pathways across Spain leading to the city and cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain.

It meets all six of the points that I think constitute a proper pilgrimage: place, purpose, cultic object, difficulties, tradition, and personal effort on foot.

Some claim the this whole pilgrimage route is based upon a series of ¨thin places¨, of Celtic or much earlier origin, “thin places” where spiritual things are supposedly more easily reached.

Gary White's book Powerful Places on Camino Santiago explores this idea, one which I think has been stretched too far.

Archaeological evidence for this concept is skimpy, but we might note that Atapuerca, the site of the oldest yet known human habitation in Europe at 1.2 million years, just happens to be on the route, as is Finsterre, regarded as the end of the world, where the sun dies in the evening as it dives into the ocean.

 The scriptural basis for the Santiago pilgrimage is slim.James the greater is the one disciple that scripture says (Acts

12:2) endured martyrdom, at the hand of Herod ca. 42 AD.

There was an old tradition that he had evangelized in northwestern Spain without much success, and so he returned to Israel, and was martyred shortly after his return.

His friends gathered his remains and put them in a boat that floated all the way back to Spain.

Then there follows an even more fantastic series of stories of how the body came to be buried and then its site forgotten.

It was then rediscovered in 814 AD by the hermit Pelagius who followed a star to a particular field and found the cemetery.

The local bishop Theodomirus of Iria proclaimed the story to be true, and pilgrimages to the spot soon began, and the crowds continued to increase.

There were Muslim invasions, destruction, rebuilding, etc., until the present cathedral was built from 1060- 1211, with many additions in the succeeding centuries. Currently, much of the west facade is covered with scaffolding for the next few years as the stonework is cleaned and restored. The tops of the towers that are already refurbished now look stunning.

In the 12th century, a remarkable document was written by a pilgrim, the Liber Sancti Jacobi. It contains 5 books about James:

Book 1 is the longest of the sections, providing liturgical music for the feast days of St. James.

Book 2 lists the 22 miracles attributed to him, most of them in the 12th century, and all of them connected in some way with pilgrims.

Book 3 recounts all the stories about James' martyrdom and subsequent burial in Spain.

Book 4 seems to have been added by someone else and gives a version of the stories about Charlemagne and Roland.

Book 5 is a travelogue of the Camino Santiago, and it is the most widely known medieval travelogue. It gives the route, where to eat, where to stay, what towns will treat a pilgrim well or badly, where the robbers lurk, where the water is poisoned (and still is!).

The oldest of the four surviving manuscripts of this document is called the Codex Calixtinus and it has always been kept in Santiago.

English translations have been slow to be provided, but they are now available and can be read with interest, complete with scholarly apparatus.

One of the troubling parts of the history is the stories of the appearance of St. James at key times to aid the local army in fighting and driving out the Moors.

Thus in various churches there are statues and other art showing Santiago Matamoros, St. James the Moor-slayer.

The politicians of left, right, or any other stripe always want to co-opt things religious in order to promote whatever cause they favor at the moment.

The pilgrimage gradually lost popularity in the 18th century, but that changed with the excavation under the cathedral in 1879 that brought to light 3 skeletons, which were proclaimed by papal bull to be those of St. James and two of his followers. A silver casket containing those bones now has the place of honor in the crypt.

The religious aim of the pilgrimage is to pray at the grave of the apostle which is located in the crypt under the high altar, and to touch or even hug the bronze statue that remembers him, the statue which is located high in the reredos above the altar.

As recently as 1985, only 2,500 persons completed the camino and visited Santiago.

Thirty years later, the number exceeds 250,000 each year, and about 25,000 of them are from the USA!

The Camino is once again making a huge economic impact on Spain. Many villages would be completely abandoned if it were not for the services needed for the Camino.

Each time I return, I see more albergues and restaurants to serve the pilgrims.

Since so many persons continue to visit, pilgrims are permitted only a few seconds at the grave in the crypt, or at the statue, after climbing the steps behind the altar to reach it.

Besides historic skepticism, Lutherans instinctively get a strong whiff of works-righteousness with this activity – that a prayer combined with the arduous effort needed to reach the site is somehow more effective than a prayer somewhere else without the hard work of walking there.

One morning I walked with a pious couple who related their version of the whole story to me.

I did not interrupt to indicate that I was familiar with it.When the man finished, he said, “I don´t know whether it is

true or not, but it doesn´t matter.I am walking where millions of others have walked, and

praying where millions of others have prayed, and for me, that is enough.”

As Phil Cousinau puts it, “What is important about a shrine is not what can be documented by historians, but what has transpired in the hearts of pilgrims.”

It is all about Jesus, and not about me, anyway.I think I can live with that pious pilgrim's attitude.

Even if there is great economic impact, it appears to me that the camino is not making as much religious impact as it could.

So many of the churches are closed or abandoned. Ones that are open may have services at times inconvenient

for pilgrims to participate, and almost none have any written texts, even the cathedral at Santiago which welcomes a thousand pilgrims at noon each day.

[In Santiago, they sing some of the Ordinary in Latin, with the idea that people from all over the world will perhaps have memorized that text.]

If one does not have the Spanish text and music memorized, in most places one can only be an observer.

I did not see priests talking with people, just performing functions.

Even so simple a thing as offering a cup of cold water might be enough to spark a conversation, but those kinds of opportunities do not seem to be exploited.

It could be an important mission field, to reach those who are at significant turning points in their lives and just might be open to real and life-changing conversation.

Opinion in the church has always been divided about the value of pilgrimages, whether to Santiago or anywhere else.

In favor of pilgrimages:In the first several centuries after the crucifixion, many felt

they should not go to Jerusalem because of the terrible deeds perpetrated there.

But we can thank Helena, Constantine´s mother, for going to the Holy Land in 326 and inquiring of all the locals what they could remember about the traditions of the places that Jesus walked.

With the emperor´s backing, churches were built on the key places identified.

Those memories (or inventions) are the best that we can do, and perhaps the attitude of that pious pilgrim I met is one which we should adopt.

We do not know if these are the actual locales of Jesus´words and deeds, but they are the places where millions of others have walked and prayed, and we can do so also, and it will be enough.

 We remember that the Jerusalem of the 1st century was

leveled by the Roman legions after the disastrous Jewish revolts, and a new Roman city was laid out atop a dozen feet of rubble, not following the old street layout at all.

No matter, we can walk and pray on a via dolorosa which is at least in the general vicinity of the original.

If it was powerfully good business to mark places in the Holy Land, it is not surprising that folks back in Europe would copy the action.

There are various chapels on the Camino Santiago which are smaller scale models of the major basilicas in the Holy Land, such as those at Eunate, Torres del Rio, and other places.

Also, the local devotional practice of the Stations of the Cross developed for the sake of those who could not go to Jerusalem, especially after the fall of the Latin Kingdom there at the end of the Crusades. By praying the Stations, one could be doing a brief version of pilgrimage right in the home village church.

An entire category of literature has an important exponent in Egeria.

The first portion of her pilgrimage travelogue to the Holy Land was lost long ago, so the scholars make their best guesses about many details.

The only extant manuscript was discovered in 1884, and it is an 11th century copy.

The scholars guess that perhaps she was a nun from Spain, who was writing to her community about her adventures in the late 5th century in Israel and the Middle East.

She wanted to see and know everything, to stand where earlier saints had stood, to touch the places that knew the presence of the Lord Jesus. She did not give nearly enough geographical details to suit us, but she did carefully describe the seasonal liturgies in Jerusalem and especially those of Holy Week.

The purpose of her writing is apparently to emphasize the concrete reality of all that had been shown to her by her guides , and all that she had witnessed in Jerusalem. (p.45)

To travel today in the Holy Land as Egeria did so many centuries ago may help us to bring many things into focus.

These days the Israelis have developed the Israel National Trail, which meanders across 680 miles in Israel from the southernmost port of Eilat on the Red Sea to Dan at the foot of Mount Hermon. Its purpose is showing all the kinds of landscape, and the flora and fauna of the land. It does not have a particular religious aim.

In the past decade, they have also been developing the Jesus Trail, a 65 kilometer path from Nazareth to Capernaum, stressing the Biblical connections with a number of sites.

This may in time become a pilgrimage route.

What are the values of pilgrimage in Israel? --Geographical details in both Old and New Testaments make

much more sense when they have been seen in person.

--The heat and power of the desert makes a profound impression in remembering the Exodus,

--as does the silence of the wilderness as we remember Elijah.

--Standing on the mound at Megiddo, it is easy to understand its strategic importance and why major battles have been fought there repeatedly throughout recorded history.

--Standing amid the ruins of Caesarea Phillipi, with its Greek and Roman temples and the ancient worship of the

gods of the underground, one hears Jesus' challenge even more forcefully “Who do you say that I am?”

Those are the kinds of things that pilgrimage can do.

There is history under nearly every rock in Israel, it seems, so I decided to invest myself in a hands-on dirty kind of pilgrimage there.

--I helped to excavate a 4th century synagogue in Wadi Hamam where there was discovered mosaic designs found nowhere else in Israel.

--I held in my hand a piece of porcelain freshly dug from the 10th century excavation at Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, a piece which had come from China long before Marco Polo.

--I excavated a green glazed bowl that had been smashed on a January day in the year 996 by an earthquake which destroyed the Muslim-era city at Tiberias.

--I was asked to “get to the bottom of this”, literally, one day in Tiberias, but even the experts could not figure out the purpose of this strange assembly of carefully carved stone cylinders and bowl.

--It was disconcerting to realize that 99.9% of the thousands of shards that we dug and cleaned were eventually put right back into the ground on site. Only very special or distinctive pieces are kept and sent to the Jerusalem museums.

--Kirsi, the site anciently held to be where Jesus drove the demon-possessed swine into the sea, was rediscovered accidentally when bulldozers began a new road to ascend the Golan heights.

--I stood on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee and watched a storm come sweeping out onto the lake from the western ravines, and thought again of the fishermen imploring Jesus for help in the midst of such a storm.

Pilgrimages culminate with the viewing or touching of a cultic object, such as a relic of one of the saints. One needs to be clear what is happening in such instances.

“In his Letter to Riparius, St. Jerome (d. 420) wrote in defense of relics: ‘We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are.’

A current Roman Catholic writer has said, It is “…not that some magical power existed in [relics], but just as

God’s work was done through the lives of [holy people], so does His work continue after their deaths. Likewise, just as [others] were drawn closer to God through the lives of [holy people], so do they (even if through their remains) inspire others to draw closer even after their deaths.” (Fr. W. Saunders, “Keeping Relics in Perspective”, © 2003 Arlington Catholic Herald) 20

Even if we have much more information than was available to Egeria in the 5th century, the question of faith is the same for us.

After we have done all of the historical sleuthing, the archaeological work, visited the sites, and done the textual studies, do we hear the Gospel as genuinely good news for us?

Perhaps the process of pilgrimage, as best we can do it, will give us the time for thoughtful reflection on the wonder the incarnation, of Christ Jesus come in the flesh on behalf of you and me. That would be of great value.

Opposing pilgrimagesThe contrasting attitude is from Gregory of Nyssa (335--

ca.395) in a brief treatise entitled On Pilgrimages. He lists several objections to them:

1.”When the Lord invite the blessed to their inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, He does not include a pilgrimage to Jerusalem among their good deeds.”

2.”Whether a woman leans on the help of a stranger or has a hired attendant to perform it, she fails to keep the law of correct conduct; and as the inns and hostelries of the East present many examples of license and of indifference to vice, how will it be possible for one passing through such smoke to escape without smarting eyes?”

3.“If the Divine grace was more abundant about Jerusalem than elsewhere, sin would not be so much the fashion among those who live there; but as it is, there is no form of uncleanness that is not perpetrated among them....Nowhere in the world are people so ready to kill each other as there; where kinsmen attack each other like wild beasts, and spill each other's blood, merely for the sake of lifeless plunder.

4.”We confessed that the Christ who was manifested is the very God, as much before as after our sojourn in Jerusalem; our faith was not any more increased any more than it was diminished.....Change of place does not effect any drawing nearer to God, but wherever you are, God will come to you, if the chambers of your

heart be found of such a sort that He can dwell in you and walk in you.”

In the Reformation era, this treatise was republished as part of the attack upon the abuses in the church that needed to be corrected.

Many others agreed.The Celtic saint Abbess Samantham warned against making

an idol of pilgrimages. “Since God is near to all who call upon him, we are under no obligation to cross the sea. The Kingdom of heaven can be reached from every land.”

Another 8th century Celt cautioned against trying to find God in travel if you do not know God intimately wherever you are.

And as Catherine of Sienna observed: “All the way to heaven is heaven.”

As the centuries rolled on, believers wanted to remember not only the Lord Jesus, but also those followers who were examples of faithful life.

Perhaps these persons were not in the same rank as apostles, but they were worthy of remembrance none the less.

Relics of the saints proliferated, and churches or monasteries that possessed relics of the most prominent of the blessed became centers of local pilgrimage.

Around Europe there was enough wood purporting to be from the True Cross to make any number of crosses.

 Elector John Frederick had a vast collection of relics. The

inventory of 1518 listed 17,443 items, the veneration of which was helping to finance the new Wittenberg University and thus Martin Luther´s salary.

It must have taken some powerfully persuasive words for the Elector to give up the veneration of that collection in 1523, when viewing it and paying the fee could bring the petitioner nearly 2,000,000 years respite from purgatory, as well as plenty of cash to the Elector's treasury.

Other reformers also expressed disdain for pilgrimages, although Calvin has a more nuanced view than some.

Like Erasmus and Luther, Calvin and some followers are bothered by the practice of making a vow to go on a pilgrimage. In Book IV, Chapter 13, Section 7 he says

“...for men esteemed it great wisdom to undertake votive pilgrimages to holier places...in order to obtain more merit through their weariness.” The spiritual danger was people placing their hope of divine favor in any form of external observance.

But later Calvin discovered in the Bible that God may call a person of faith to a life of pilgrimage. As chief example, he points out that “Abraham went, as the Lord had commanded him,” and not for his own gratification. “The Lord teaches us that the present life is for his people as a pilgrimage on which they are hastening toward the heavenly kingdom.”

One of Calvin's followers expanded this to say that there were several reasons for pilgrimage travel: (1) to flee persecution, (2) for instruction and insight, and (3) in order to help other people. [Richard Topping, Calvin @ 500]

Even on the Roman Catholic side not all were in favor of pilgrimages.

Erasmus of Rotterdam, contemporary of Luther, wrote a satire entitled “Pilgrimage for Religion´s Sake” in which he uses a conversation between two Christians to point out practices which he thinks are useless, in order to promote reform in the church.

The pilgrim in this satire tells of his journey to England to pray at a certain statue of Mary. The questioner asks how that statue of Mary is different from any other close at hand. Erasmus is saying that the trip is pointless because God can hear prayer from any location.

The questioner also asks the pilgrim about his trip to Santiago, and why the pilgrim bothered with prayers at the statue of St. James there.

Replies the pilgrim that if he had not prayed, “the saint might for the future have stopped his ears at my actions, or slyly have brought some mischief or other upon my family. You know the humour of great persons.”

Then the pilgrim recites a letter supposedly from the secretary of the Blessed Virgin Mary that begins this way: “Mary, the mother of Jesus, to Glaucoplutus, [ a compound of two Latin words that in German translation sound like “Ulrich”, referring to Zwingli] Greetings. This is to let you know [that I am very much annoyed] that you have so strenuously followed Luther, and convinced the world that it is a thing altogether needless to invoke the saints….”

And she further complains about people asking for silly things in their prayers, and that many are ignoring her altogether: “…there are very few from whom I hear an

Ave Maria; in the past I had presents of gold and jewels; but now I have scarce half a vest to cover me, and that is mouse-eaten too.¨

Ah, the sting of satire!

So with this sustained caution and criticism, why is pilgrimage still going on?

1.Someone has guessed that there are 6,000 pilgrimage paths all over Europe from the Middle Ages, and active as well as ruined sites are still quite visible. We might call this an exploration of regional history.

2.Especially when we talk of the sites in Israel there is the particular value of reaffirming the truth of Chalcedon, that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, that he indeed walked in real places because of his real love for humanity.

3.There is another aspect about which we have not yet talked. There is something going on in the Camino Santiago that we might call the spirit of the event. It is not something written down; rather, it is something that tends to happen with many participants.

I got my first hint of this when I was a tourist and not yet a pilgrim.

In one of our exploratory trips around Spain, my daughter and I flew to Santiago, and there I observed the pilgrims ending their journeys that day in the square at the cathedral.

I saw first-hand the range of emotions that folks expressed there, and thought that this is more than a walk; there is something special going on here.

This was reinforced by a visit to a museum that featured a series of photos of arriving pilgrims.

The photographer caught the depth of felling in those arrivals that made me want to discover what was causing that.

It is something that cannot always be put into words; I needed to experience it for myself.

Thus the next year, after lots of reading and preparation, I became a pilgrim.

Here are a few experiences that point to what it is like to be a pilgrim.

--A man walking with me sat down beside the road and took off his shoe. As a relatively inexperienced hiker, he was having blister problems. A Korean woman without any English came up the road, and without a word knelt down, opened her bag, and helped bandage that foot. After a few minutes, and our expression of thanks, she

rose, smiled, and walked off, and we never saw her again.

--A young woman had foolishly sat down in a place that was likely to have significant insect problems and was stung repeatedly. A man much her senior and in no way related to her was nearby. He sized up the situation, directed her to the hospital for a shot, cremes, and care, and while she was there he took all of her clothing and possessions and laundered them all to get rid of any lingering insects, and returned them to her by evening.

We might note also that he was a dark-hued Pakistani Christian living in Canada, and she was a young, pale-skinned blond, but none of that mattered.

--A farmer working in the field stopped his tractor and waved at a peregrino who had missed a sign and was walking the wrong way, and pointed him back the other direction.

--Nearly every local person greets a peregrino walking by with “Buenos Dias; Buen Camino”...and the pilgrim replies “Buenos Dias, Gracias.”

--Much of the time, a peregrino may walk alone, since my pace is not the same as anyone else's pace. But after the walking day is done and the chores are completed, then it is time for conversation with anyone handy, about almost anything.

There are no written down rules about any of this. It simply happens, and those who genuinely a part of the experience soon figure out how to participate. And what a wonderful thing it is.

Some may regard the camino as a lark, or do it for the exercise, or regard it as a cheap vacation, or use it as a way to hide off-grid for awhile.

There are as many reasons for doing camino as there are persons present, but the original religious motivation is still present. Some who begin the camino on a whim, later realize that they have become pilgrims on the way.

There has been an explosion oif interest and participation in the Camino Santiago in recent decades.

It involves young as well as those much older.What is capturing the interest of so many?Dr. Elizabeth Conde-Frazier of Eastern University in

Philadelphia writes about the spiritual yearning these days:

Healing, in particular emotional healing is necessary for many. They look fine but the wear and tear of stress on these generations has been more intense. For millennials the job market has not been welcoming, and not finding the sense of purpose that comes with a career and financial stability has brought on depression.

For those in the midst of their careers, they want to make sense of their faith in light of their career-ethical pieces. They want to grapple with the issues and not be told from on high what to think.

The emotional resilience for those coming from privileged backgrounds has been low. So what is the most important way to relate? Mentoring! Non-judgmental relationships that allow the person to reflect and make their own choices while being able to rely on a person who listens, helps them to listen to themselves and to God, guides and is present through thick and thin.

The Camino provides space for these good things to happen.

For me, then, one of the key benefits of the camino and the reason that I keep coming back for more is that what the camino is doing is infecting people with a different vision of society, one which genuinely cares about one another and aids one another instead of exploiting each other.

Once persons have participated in camino, they are not the same old persons that they have been; something has changed inside of them.

The change may be a little, it may be a lot, but a peregrino is a different person.

I want that for myself; and I want that to touch all the rest of the world.

As Lutherans, we can be clear that pilgrimage and especially pilgrimage on the Camino Santiago is not about justification; Jesus takes care of that. But is is about sanctification, being made holy, that life-long process of being reshaped for life now and life to come.

That is the sense that I as a Lutheran can make of pilgrimage today.

Who does the Camino?

In the Middle Ages there were different kinds of pilgrims.1.There were genuine pilgrims, approaching the venture with

faith.

2.There were persons who were paid to walk the camino on behalf of others. Your sins could be worked off by someone else.

3.Some were sentenced by church or civil courts to walk the camino as punishment. In certain cases, one may have to do it barefoot, or wear distinctive garb.

In my observation, there are several groups of peregrinos in the present.

 1.Gap-year teens, who are traveling before or during

university years.I met two German boys from Heidelberg, who had passed the

tests to continue education, but who had no idea what they wanted to study.

One had some vague knowledge of the church, the other had none.

The Camino for them was all new experiences alone for the sake of perhaps discerning a direction.

Neither of them knew what they were going to do next after the Camino was concluded.

 2.Disillusioned 20-somethingsThese were the ones who had done university and a first job

and discovered that they were running on empty. There has to be more to life than this!

I walked for two days with one such, who then abruptly said he did not want to talk, just to walk the balance of the 500 miles in silence.

That is a whole lot of quiet! But I bid him farewell, and never ran into him again.

3.Mid-life singlesThese are the folks with a broken relationship or marriage

who need time to grieve and to reorganize themselves.When the situation is safe, they often have much to discuss.

4.The Just-retiredThese folks tend to smile lots, with a sense of freedom and

adventure.They tend to be proving to themselves that they are still alive,

still vital, and thinking about new directions for the next chapter in life.

5. The Golden-energizersOne of the most memorable was a woman from Florida who

has walked the camino or parts of it 12 times. She was an incredibly fast walker. In two minutes she would be out of sight; there was no way that I could match that

pace. She would be the first to the albergue where we planned to stay the next night, and stake out her favorite bunk long before the rest of us might straggle in.

There was a couple from Carolina who were walking for the second time, this time quite slowly, only going 8-10 miles a day, and savoring each stop. They had nothing to prove; everything to enjoy.

Of course there are many others who do not fit these categories: there are as many reasons for doing the Camino as there are persons walking.

One of the things which has surprised me is the weakness of the religious motivations in doing the Camino.

1.There are some who are genuinely pious.I remember especially the young Polish man who stopped

regularly to offer prayers in the few churches that were open. He would do so even when it was inconvenient for the schedule of where he wanted to go that day.

2.There are those who are angry with the church.There was the Canadian man who was incensed over the

scandals of mistreatment of kids in orphanages in Canada as well as the other scandals of which we have heard so much.

After walking the whole way, and in the end attending the pilgrim Mass at Santiago, he said “Well, they still didn´t get me; I win.¨ And he continued to nurse his anger and resentment.

Another Canadian said he was very much a believer, but that the institution of the church was so badly flawed that he had great trouble even attending worship. He had never heard of Benedict's role in Lutheran/Roman Catholic discussions and attempts to clean up the church. He felt that Francis was moving far too slowly. I urged him not to give up on the church, but to continue to hold it to account for its deeds and misdeeds.

3.There are ordinary church folk who are simply glad for the experience of being a part of the traditions of the Camino.

4.There are a very large number who genuinely know very little about the church, but they will say that they are “spiritual” in some vague way.

It is always difficult to discern what one might mean by that word, but I was ready to engage in conversation when the opportunity arose.

On the train after the camino, I talked with a Spanish man who had just turned 30 and who was wise enough to know that he had not only a romantic crisis because of a loss of girlfriend the week before, and not just in a financial crisis because of the recent loss of his job, but that he had also a spiritual crisis…so that he walked a 10-day portion of the Camino in order to reaffirm his trust that God will continue to have good gifts for him. He found it in the silence and serenity of the days of walking and in the boisterous camaraderie if the albergue evenings.

 5.There are those who are ready and anxious for

conversation, starting with chit-chat but perhaps moving to life-meaning questions.

It takes awhile for a conversation to drift there, and not always after they have discerned my calling. I don´t remember anyone fleeing when they found I am a pastor; more often there was curiosity about what that life is like. When I would give the cue that one of the most significant things I do is simply talk with people about what is of greatest importance in life, then the questions start to flow.

 One of the most amazing beginnings to a conversation

happened late one afternoon.I had arrived at the albergue earlier, had my shower, done my

wash, and was sitting quietly at a table outside writing in my journal.

I heard a couple coming up the hill, complaining loudly, “Why do they put these albergues at the far end of the town up a hill like this?”

I groaned inwardly, “Oh no, ugly Americans.”The man, who had been silent, marched up to me as I was

seated at the table and announced ”You are a pastor.!”It was a statement, not a question.My jaw fell open.“How on earth do you know that?”“I just know,” he replied.He sat down and we began to talk. Over the course of the

next several days as we walked on and off together, we explored many things, including his grief over the death of his wife.

I discovered that he was carrying his wife´s ashes to put in the Atlantic at Finsterre, the place regarded anciently as the ancient end of the world.

What burdens people do carry on the Camino!Whatever demons are chasing a person will not be exorcised

by the experience; they will still be there. But they may be faced a bit more bravely as the sense of strength and accomplishment grows.

A woman from western Canada told me that she knew that she had to come and had to do this alone, trusting as the saying goes, “The Camino will provide.” And it does.

She was doing things that she never thought she could do, making decisions for herself, and thinking about what she valued back home. She was making progress.

Unfortunately, she had not yet admitted that the demon of too much alcohol had its hooks in her. The Camino helped her with some things, but not everything.

They are not all happy or easy decisions.Seven persons were sitting at a table in Najera, from seven

different countries.Fortunately for me, what made conversation possible was that

everyone knew at least a little English.One of the “Disillusioned 20-somethings” announced to

everyone, with tears, “I have decided that it is over with my boyfriend of 12 years, and I am leaving the Camino tomorrow to go and tell him without delay.”

It may work the other way as well.A man and woman were teetering on the brink of divorce and

decided to give it all one more chance by doing the Camino together.

I would have thought a double murder might have ensued, but quite the opposite, they fell in love all over again.

A woman traveling alone said, “I call my husband every day or two, and we are talking more tenderly than ever.

He is a life-coach, and he predicted this trip alone would be the most positive thing for me, and us.”

Another walker/non-walker couple worked out their own plan.She would stay in one of the larger towns for shopping and

sight-seeing as he walked on alone. After a few days, they would meet for a while at the next town, and then repeat this process across Spain.

They were alone and then together, and both were pleased with the arrangement.

 

For some, it is the time of the most profound crisis of all, when it is known that one´s days are sharply numbered.

Tolstoy tells a tale of a man chased by a tiger who jumped into a dry well to avoid it. He sensed as he jumped that there was a snarling dragon at the bottom of the well. So he grabbed a branch growing out of the side of the well. What a mess!

Either the tiger would swipe at him from above, or the dragon below would devour him when he could hold on no longer.

Two mice appeared and began to gnaw at the branch, so he knew his life was down to minutes.

A shaft of sunlight pierced the dark well, and he saw a leaf on the branch glistening with honey.

With great effort, he stretched out his tongue and tasted the honey.

I heard about a woman who seemed hale and hearty, but who revealed that she was terminally ill.

She died a few hours after reaching Santiago and receiving her compostello certificate, tasting that one bit of honey.

And there are those who never make it that far.At various points there are memorial stones for recent pilgrims

who died of heart attack or traffic accident on the Camino.

It is a very tiny number compared with the unknown thousands who died of disease or highwaymen in the Middle Ages, but it does happen.

And the Camino resonates with me as being a good time and place to wrestle with death and for Jesus to announce his victory for me.

Is the Camino for you?

Perhaps you are hearing the call of the Camino, but are hesitant and asking if you could really do this.

The answer is yes.I was never a Boy Scout, I never hiked elsewhere, but I

completed the 500 miles in 30 days this year, about 5 days ahead of the programmed length in the guide-books.

I could walk a bit faster since I had visited many of the sites in earlier trips and did not need to stop in each locale.

Before I retired, I had time to only do sections of the camino each year, and that was a great way to convince myself that I could do the entire venture.

I had a replacement hip 18 months ago, and that is a non-issue now.

Three years ago I walked the Primitivo route, the original path of the pilgrimage before the Moors were driven out of central Spain. This route is much more difficult than the main route, involving many steep climbs and descents, and I manged that with several other persons who had never done anything so athletic.

I did some practice hikes around my home area , and made sure to break in the walking boots. I gradually discovered what tricks and techniques worked for me to take care of my feet. This is different for each person.

Persons of every age and ability have participated.--A couple were determined to walk with a babe in arms.--I saw a man walking with two sons, one a young teen and

the other about seven. They had pauses for kicking a ball and examining strange things, and a nap in the late afternoon.

--There was the man from Hungary with a debilitating disease like cerebral palsy who was going in an electric wheelchair. Yes, he had a support staff who traveled in a van and helped him multiple times a day, but he was jouncing over the rough roads and doing the kilometers alone.

--There was the man, a paraplegic, who was using a hand-cranked recumbent bicycle, with the aid of a single companion. They would have to modify the route here and there, but they were on their way.

--The oldest person I heard of was 93, and many are of at least retirement age.

There are persons who decide on the spur of the moment to do the Camino, and arrive with limited or inappropriate equipment.

--The Argentine man whose feet were a mass of blisters after four days in poorly sized shoes.

--The Canadian teen who bought shoes the day before coming, so without breaking them in had massive blisters in short order. What was even worse was that he was walking with his mother, and she was a nurse who let him get into this state.

--The girl from Kentucky who borrowed equipment from her sister, equipment suited for short hikes in US mountains, but too heavy and bulky for this long-distance task. First-time peregrinos often discard the things that prove unhelpful, but she could not since her equipment was all borrowed. Some also mail things

home, or mail things for pickup at the Santiago post office, but that is expensive to do.

--The girl from New Zealand who was in Casablanca in Africa and decided to fly over to Spain and do the camino starting the next day. She is the one person who managed this short-order change, maybe because she was so calm and relaxed about the whole thing. There was no schedule for her; she would do just as much as she could on that particular day and then have a good time in the evening, wherever that was. It also probably helped that there were usually several 20ish guys hanging around with her to assist with whatever.

She seemed to find me amusing, which is also unusual. What the Camino takes is the desire, the determination, the

time, and the equipment.

In the Middle Ages, the equipment consisted of a cloak in which to wrap oneself at night, a leather satchel to carry on the shoulder, with a flap and no ties to indicate that one would share with others, a hollow gourd as a water bottle, and a wooden staff for walking and warding off danger. That was it.

700 years ago, the advance preparations included writing a will, getting a letter of conduct from the local priest, specifying in writing how long one´s spouse had to wait before remarrying if you did not return, and making peace with one´s adversaries.

Then, one stepped from one´s front door, and started to walk.And so can you.

Additional Practical information in Preparation for the Camino

The medieval monasteries offered refuge as one moved along.

And there are a few places that still operate on a donation-basis.

For example, the monastery of St. Nicholas is now staffed with a volunteer group.

They literally wash the feet of the dozen or so who can stay the night there, and offer them a nourishing soup as the shadows gather around the ancient stone building.

The volunteers, the hospitaleros, at the monastery of St. John the Baptist at Granon, welcome 40 or so persons each night.

Everyone helps make the meal, with much conversation and laughter.

The accommodations are very basic there, mattresses on the attic floor in the monastery, but it works out fine.

Many other albergues are run as businesses, at 6 -12 € per night.

Facilities vary, but usually include bunk beds, hot showers, a place to do hand-washing, and sometimes washing machines and dryers.

Some offer a pilgrim-meal on site, and others point out nearby restaurants that will make pilgrim meals, at about 10€.

 In the larger villages there may be additional

accommodations, private rooms in casa rural at about 30€, and in the cities small hotel rooms at 50€ and 4 or 5 star hotels with sky-high prices. 

Being in an albergue is an important part of the camino experience, but every once in a while, one may feel the need to splurge on a small hotel room, just to regroup.

Equipment can be as simple or expensive as the budget will allow.

Get the best quick-dry fabrics you can.Forget about blue-jeans; they are too heavy and will never dry

properly.The basic idea is to wear one outfit, have a second outfit to

wear while washing the first, and a third outfit in case there is a rain day and you cannot do wash.

Layers of thin materials are better than a single heavy one, in order to handle temperature, altitude, and weather changes during the day.

 Investigate and think about shoes very carefully.Hiking boots will offer some ankle-support, and are my choice,

but there are folks who use every conceivable option.Experimentation near home is essential to discover what will

work best for each individual.In the Middle Ages, one could be sentenced to walk the

Camino barefoot, an option I would certainly not recommend, even today.

I use two pairs of socks; thin liner socks and heavy wool hiking socks over them.

I take light weight sneakers for wear in the evening and around the villages.

Several of the recommended books have excellent check-off lists for things to take and things to not take.

The basic guideline is to carry not more than 10-12% of your body weight including the backpack itself. That is a difficult goal to achieve.

Go to a reputable store and have an experienced person assist you in selecting a backpack that fits your back. The better ones can be adjusted internally to your figure. A good store will have sandbags or other weights to put in the bag and you should walk around the store a good while wearing it, to get a sense of what it would be like. A little bit of discomfort will become a major pain as the kilometers go by. Don´t rush this decision.

Many people find a walking stick of some sort to be extremely useful. One can purchase a traditional wooden staff all smoothed and ready to use. Some pick up a branch lying on the ground somewhere and adjust it to fit their hand.

Some, like me, have collapsible metal trekking poles. Among their advantages is the fact that they can be packed inside a suitcase which is checked for travel. Otherwise, airlines would not allow these “weapons” aboard.

The poles give me stability on level ground, so that I can use my arm strength to assist my legs when climbing, and they are the steadying brakes when going down a slope. And if one of those sleeping dogs at the farmyard gate decide to come your way, you can dissuade him. Some like rubber tipped poles, I prefer the carbide tips. Some even switch back and forth between rubber and carbide tips, depending upon the terrain. I have over 1,000 miles on my poles, and the tips have yet to wear out.

Spend the time, do the research in print and online, experiment to find what equipment and procedures will work best for you, think about what you would like to accomplish through the experience, learn whatever Spanish you can manage, and give thanks to God that new possibilities and opportunities are being opened to you.

Everyone benefits. Stand up, and get going! Eric Milner-White's prayer says it well:Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which

we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us, and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Bibliography

Planning before travel:Ashmore, Jean-Christie. To Walk Far, Carry Less. Walk Far Media, 2011

Powell, Cheri. Seven Tips to Make the Most of the Camino de Santiago. Lexington: R.C.Linnell Publishing, 2011.

Travel Guides:Brierley, John. A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago. Forres:Findhorn Press, Ltd.,

2012, 13, 14, 15, 16 [This is the standard guide used by most English-speaking pilgrims; it is revised annually, so

check the date carefully before purchasing.]

Lorenzo, Aida Menendez. A Detailed Guide: The Winter Route to Santiago. Lugo: Lugami, 2014.

Whitson, Dave.The Northern Caminos: Norte, Primitivo and Ingles. Milnthorpe: Cicerone, 2012

Modern travelogues:Boers, Arthur Paul. The Way is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de

Santiago. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2007

Everhart, Ruth. Chasing the Divine in the Holy Land . Grand Rapids: William Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012.

Farley, Lawrence. Following Egeria:A Visit to the Holy Land through Space and Time. Chesterton: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2014.

Riggs, Phil. Hiking the Spanish, Portuguese, and French Caminos. Middletown: Phil Riggs, 2017.

Smith, Lydia, video director. Walking the Camino; Six Ways to Santiago. Umbrella Entertainment, 2013.

Other reading and research in advance:Cousineau, Phil. The Art of Pilgrimage: A Seekers Guide to Making Travel Sacred. New York:

MJF Books, 1998.

Jacobs, Michael. The Road to Santiago. London: Pallas Athene, 2002. [Art and architectural history of various places on the Camino.]

Pastor, Vicente, editor. The Road to Santiago, 3rd edition. Leon: Edilesa, 1999. [A coffee-table book of photography and explanation.]

Mullen, Robert. Call of the Camino: Myths, Legends, and Pilgrim Stories on the Way to Santiago de Compostella. Forres: Findhorn Press, 2010.

Nooteboom, Cees. Roads to Santiago: Detours and Riddles in the Lands and History of Spain. London: Vintge Books, 2014.

White, Gary. Powerful Places on the Camino Santiago. Santa Fe: Pilgrims Process, Inc. 2010. [Describing the alleged “energy” of various sites along the camino.]

Original sources:Coffey, Thomas F., translator. The Miracles of St. James: Translations from the Liber Sancti

Jacobi. New York: Italic Press, 1996 [Translation and notes on Books I and II of the Codex Calixtinus.]

Gingras, George, translator. Egeria:Diary of a Pilgrimage. New York: The Newman Press, 1970.

Melczer, William. The Pilgrim's Guide to Santiago de Compostela: First English Translation with Introduction, Commentaries, and Notes. New York: Italica Press, Inc. 1993. [An English translation of Book Five of the Codex Calixtinus.]

Schaff, Philip, editor. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series, Vol 5. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994. [Gregory of Nyssa, On Pilgrimages.]

[There is a wide and ever-expanding number of books on the Camino. This list is only what I have in my library now.]