Nearer the Sacred Destination.

We are now only a few days from Santiago de Compostella.  A number of folks we meet along the way have arrived already and we think few are still behind us.  Because we have done a few short days we are experiencing a whole new set of pilgrims each day.  The Canadian family we met yesterday have moved on. They began in Sarria and hope to get to Santiago in four days.  Our American friends from Santiago cal. are a full day ahead of us now, although we get the occasional email.  She is hunting for a particular ice cream treat.  Our pace changes the experience but we promised ourselves not to get caught up in the stress and pace of others.  

After all of the wisdoms of the Camino is that "the right pace is your pace."  In other words listen to your own body and don't let ego needs or perceived social obligation push you beyond your capacity.  Good wisdom to remember in life. 

Now that we are well within the last 100km there are far more pilgrims and everything is busier.  At times we saw groups of 15 to 20 pilgrims walking together.  In the last two days we were rarely walking out of sight of other pilgrims.  Occasionally when there was a village with a few bars, pilgrim traps to capture the pilgrims, we might have a break from the crowds.   The walk is different now.  Reservations are necessary for the following nights and albergues want confirmation calls if we might arrive after two. The pilgrimage is taking on some of the stresses of life and I find that I am unhappy with the change.  

Part of this change in my reflective mood may also be that the end of the journey is near.  However in order to be truly ready to return home one must be tried of the journey.  When this happens then Home becomes a sacred destination as well and in a way Home becomes pilgrimage as well.   There is a another layer to this for us.  While walking we have decided that we will rent our condo to a friend serving a church in our area and we will move out to Abbotsford.  Soon after this decision a friend in the congregation, who has allow us use the basement suite in her rental house, sent us a message to say the the main floor of the house is available for rent as of sept.1st if we are interested.  So in fact our pilgrimage doesn't end in the home we left but in the task of creating a new home.   

The pilgrimage of the church, from what was to what is yet to be, is like that as well.  We would like all the necessary changes to lead us to a defined destination but the journey doesn't end at some sacred location.  The  pilgrimage, in the final stage, is always to home but like our situation a new home has to be created.  The church home many of us grew up with is know longer available and our new home won't be the same as that imagined past.   The destination of the churches pilgrimage isn't the part of the journey that is sacre rather it is the journey as co,minty that created the sacred moment and sacred event.  It like climbing the steep hill and arriving at the top only to see another climb and more journey.

Here in spain the Church is greatly depreciated from its former position in society.  The evidence of past influence is in the cathedrals but even more so in the central placement of the church in every village, town or city.  The centre of the community is always the location of the church.  In most communities the church bells still chine on the hour, half hour and every 15 minutes. Through these bells the church guided the daily lives of the people.   When to rise in the morming, when to eat, time for the afternoon siesta or time for dinner.  In the few masses I have attended there has been a gathering a few dozen local people.  Now the more influencial religion of Spain seems to be football.  Every newspapers, every tv news cast includes the daily update of trades, scores highlights and commentary and every third man or boy is wearing a team shirt.  The football stars have replaced the Saints.  

In most of our communities in BC the church didn't ever have this same role. Yet we still have unspoken expectations about what the church should be.  Just as I find I have expectations of what the daily pilgrimage should be, based on our first 25 days of walking.  This being our second times we knew that as of Sarria the character of the walking and the community of the pilgrims would change.   However I find I miss the way it was a week or so ago.  The church isn't what it was and can't be what it was.  Th journey is forward not backwards. 

The wisdom of this for our personal journeys is apparent in our habit of romaticizing the past.   We might yearn for our childhood home, or the quiet and safe community we grew up in. Or we idealize a past relationship, job, or situation.   We may know that we are on a journey to home but not realize that that home is new and different and that I fact it has to be.  It is not that the old home was necessarily flawed rather we have changed and the old home would not "fit" our souls any longer.   

So we walk the final 53km over the next three days and will arrive into Santiago early in the morning.  This piece of our sacred journey will be closed but pilgrimage doesn't end with a fancy document and collection of pictures rather journey doesn't end until we rest in God, in completion, in joy and in union. Walk on friends.   Blessings on th journey,   Bill