PILGRIM WAYS
Theological Reflections By Henry Ralph Carse, Ph.D.
Part Six - Return
The fulfillment of a pilgrimage cannot be grasped in the moment of arrival at a shrine, or even in the competing discourses of significant encounters the pilgrim experiences in the sacred place; real understanding requires the reflection and integration of return. When the pilgrim makes her way homeward to the place of origin, she initiates a movement of social meaning that transcends the individual outward journey. The homecoming aspect of pilgrimage illustrates what Eric Leed (The Mind of the Traveler) describes as a “journey… inward, to origins and to what has been left behind.”
Pilgrims return to their church / community contexts both as “strangers” (bearing new journey narratives) and as “homecomers” (seeking the affirmation and acceptance of the community of origin). This experience can be bewildering for both the pilgrim and the community: the pilgrim sees the home church as somehow different, perhaps “smaller,” while the community finds the pilgrim “no longer the same person” who left on pilgrimage.
One of the first theological experiences of a returning pilgrim is a review and even critique of biblical stereotypes and assumptions, in light of encounters with the Holy Land itself – the “fifth gospel.” Pilgrims bring the Bible home with renewed appreciation for its historical, archeological and social context. As a result, while pilgrims will not necessarily develop new doctrinal beliefs, they can certainly be expected to understand Gospel texts more immediately and personally, encountering Jesus “as if for the first time.”
Some find in their journey an even more radical process. A pilgrim we’ll call Maggie began to ask questions about Jesus of Nazareth and his understanding of his mission, relating both to his own Jewish people and to others. Extending her thinking into the contemporary context, Maggie went on to ask, “In the present Israeli/Palestinian conflict, where is God?” She then developed her own theological response, viewing her pilgrim experience as a call to “radical simplicity:”
“Being able to understand the evolution of the tradition enables me to see more clearly what is the root of the tradition and what is later accretion, and this can have quite a radical effect. Why for instance do we insist on a priest (not a New Testament word) to celebrate Eucharist? Why separate confirmation from baptism? We have complicated the rules for God’s people and it was probably not intended!”
For Maggie, who had recently been ordained for ministry, the radical insights of pilgrimage concern practice, rather than doctrine. This is true for other pilgrims as well. One, who was also preparing for ordination, remembered his visit to the crowded Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem:
“I waited an awfully long time to go down into the crypt [of the Nativity], and there were a lot of clergy there. … And I thought: I must never be a priest who gets in the way like that. We should be there for people, but not to get in the way between people and God…”
A small but significant number of pilgrims may take their pilgrim experience beyond boundaries sanctioned by church or society, and eventually break with or radically alter their own religion. While not the norm, these “outliers” provide “vital symbols” of potential trends in post-modern Christianity which merit attention.
In my conversations with Jennie, over the course of two years after her pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I heard of ever deepening changes in her attitude toward religion:
“As I look back to the Holy Land… the importance of Jesus’ work and sayings has risen to the fore. I don’t think now that Christianity is the only religion. The reality of Jesus as a historical figure concerns me more. So I began to question whether he was the ‘Son of God.’… My view of religion has shifted toward a more general spirituality, and interest in other faiths.”
Similarly, Pamela – who went on pilgrimage at the age of 74 - wrote of her homecoming:
“The pilgrimage did raise many theological questions… which confirmed the shifting that I had already begun before I left home. … I found support for my belief in Jesus as a friend, brother, lover, full of compassion, love and forgiveness. This showed a clear example of how to live my life without all the theological overlay of the church… [italics mine].”
Far from bemoaning a “loss of religion,” pilgrims like these embrace their awakening to a deeper spirituality than formal structures provide. Perhaps the most colorful expression was found in my interviews with Pat, who returned from the Holy Land and soon began having “problems” with her familiar role as Eucharistic minister in her home church. These “problems” were emerging theological intuitions. Eventually, Pat had a dream, in which she was given a basket of bread to distribute to a congregation. As she did so, she saw that
“… there were no walls to the church. … There were people coming in from all sides… all dressed in totally different things… And the bread in the basket wasn’t the usual sort of holy wafers, it was like pita bread… There was no… smells and bells and mumbo-jumbo or anything… It was a sharing of the meal with everyone coming in and joining…”
This pilgrim’s dream points to the potential for spiritual turmoil and change in the homecoming stage of the sacred journey. For Pat, this change was directly linked with and inspired by her encounter with sacred shrines in the Holy Land, and with her own sustained critical reflection on church structure and sacramental practice. Whatever the pilgrim’s story, the balance of faith and doubt along the way can occasion a unique sacramental awakening.
…To be continued…