Pilgrimage of Transformation

Six months ago now I finished my 500 mile walking pilgrimage through Spain know as the Camino de Santiago. This is an ancient pilgrimage to the remains of the apostle James in Santiago de Compestela. People have been walking there for over 1,000 years. During my pilgrimage I was reading some writings of St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. Being from Spain, St. Josemaría walked the Camino many times in his life; one of the things that he wrote was that the arrival to Santiago is not the end of your pilgrimage but actually just the beginning. He wrote about the history of the pilgrimage from the perspective of a medieval pilgrim. Santiago was considered to be at the end of the earth, the most western point of the know world. The medieval pilgrim set out westward, to the end of the earth, signifying a type of death or transformation was to occur. After arriving in Santiago, the turning point, the medieval pilgrim would return home, now walking east toward the sun, toward and with new life. Reflecting on the past six months I have found that my arrival in Santiago was indeed a turning point in my life. When I returned home I knew that it would take a while to really understand what happened on the pilgrimage, for I knew that something had changed, a transformation had taken place that I couldn’t quite grasp. I view my 33 days of walking as a time of intense prayer. With all prayer, the fruit of your prayer is not seen during the actual time of prayer. While the positive feelings during prayer can be beneficial to luring or attracting a person into spending time in prayer, they are not the goal or purpose of prayer. I am starting to become aware of the many fruits of my pilgrimage.

The concept of making a pilgrimage, like the one to Santiago, is that it is a reflection of our life, our earthly pilgrimage. This theme is found all throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. Abram is lead out of his home land by Yahweh to the land of Ur, where he is given a new name, Abraham, and Yahweh makes His covenant with Abraham. This theme is also central to the Exodus of the Jews out of Egypt. Even though their journey seems confusing and dark, it is viewed as a pilgrimage guided by Yahweh, it is a journey to the Father. Since my arrival to Santiago, I have been able to hear faintly the voice of the Father calling me to Himself, and He is leading me through a Cloud of Unknowing that sometimes seems confusing and dark. He has on occasion brought me into His Light and I have seen myself as the Father sees me. This has lead to incredible personal insight, especially of my woundedness. Over the past six months I have realized that there have been major obstacles preventing me from responding freely to the invitation that the Father is offering, the pilgrimage in which he has planned for me. I have since surrendered to the Lord my powerlessness over these obstacles and have experienced incredible freedom, peace and joy. My relationship with Jesus has grown tremendously and I now understand that the Christian life is a pilgrimage of transformation. If we are following the Lord, we will need to trust, set out and be transformed. This has been my experience over the past six months. When I look at my life, the exterior and interior, I can’t help but think that this can only be God. There has been such drastic change, all for the better. Each day I set out on my pilgrimage into the unknown. Like Abraham, the Lord is revealing to me my new identity as His son and my mission that He has planned for me. As I recall the past six months since my arrival in Santiago I am filled with gratitude and amazement of the way in which the Lord is working in my life.