Archbishop Leonard P. Blair
This edition of the Transcript is devoted in great part to the re-cent archdiocesan pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and I would like to share with you some reflections on what it means to be a pilgrim, on what it means to be on a pilgrimage. This is important because for a believer life itself is a pilgrimage, and there are lessons to be learned and strength to be gained for those who make it in the right spirit.
A Bible Dictionary I consulted says this: “Although the word pilgrim and pilgrim-age are absent from most English trans-lations of the Bible, the image is a major one, encompassing some of the deepest meanings of what it means to be a follower and worshipper of God…. In both [Old and New] Testaments pilgrim-age becomes a metaphor for the shape of the earthly life of anyone who is headed toward a heaven beyond this world. In all instances the image implies a journey to a sacred place, and both facets are important — the pilgrim is always a traveler, but a fixed and glorious goal is always the final destination that motivates the journey.”
As a parish priest and now as a bishop I have led a number of pilgrimages to Rome, Fatima, Santiago de Compostela, to the shrines of saints in the U.S. and Canada, and in January to the Holy Land. It has been my experience that the participants are thoughtful and purposeful about mak-ing a pilgrimage. Even though at the outset they are not sure what to expect, they are not just coming as tourists. And when the pilgrimage is over a bond develops among them that is truly spiritual and special. A pilgrimage requires a certain amount of discipline and endurance for moving along together from place to place, but enjoyment comes from the shared experience and from encountering a culture and way of life different than one’s own.
Our recent pilgrimage in the Holy Land largely followed Our Lord’s own earthly pilgrimage, beginning with his thirty years of hidden life in Galilee, his missionary journeys there and in the surrounding regions that were by no means exclusively Jewish, but multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious. Then, like Jesus, we went up to Jerusalem. This final journey, this pilgrimage of Jesus to Jerusalem to suffer, die and rise is emphasized in the gospels and becomes an image of our own discipleship. We are to follow Jesus who is “the Way.” In the words of the Letter to the Hebrews, we are to “lay aside every weight” as we journey towards our goal, which is not the earthly Zion but “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” (Heb12:1,22)
This year as we celebrate Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter, those of us who were on pilgrimage in the Holy Land will have a more vivid “sense of place” and of history, as we hear the scriptural readings describing the events of those days. We will remember the view of the Mount of Olives facing the Temple where Jesus wept over the city for its failure to accept him. On Holy Thursday night we will remember standing in the excavated dungeon of the High Priest’s House where Jesus was brutalized before being handed over to Pilate, and the pavement of the praetorium where he was condemned to death. Nor will we forget standing at Golgotha or entering the shrine of his empty tomb on Easter morning.All these things remind us that the Christian Faith is not based on myths or ideas, but on the God who was born in time, lived as we live, and died as we die, but rose from the dead. He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” Jesus our Risen Lord to whom be all glory and praise forever. Happy Easter.