The pilgrimage
The word “Pilgrim” comes from the Latin preregrine and can be translated as “the one who walks through the fields.” One can look at one’s own life as a pilgrimage, a linear experience from point A to point Z, which is a way the Western culture looks at a life span. It is the clear understanding of a beginning and an end and something in between. Why then think of a pilgrimage?
Many of us are familiar with the French singer Edith Piaf’s song “ I have no regrets”. That seems disingenuous because there doesn’t exist one person on this planet who can honestly say that they have no regrets. If they seriously claim that, then we are talking inflation and hubris. We all have screwed up somewhere or somehow on our road through life; some more than others, of course.
Many years ago I was on a motor bike trip though the beautiful Alsace Loraine landscape and came across a small town hidden amongst the hills. There was a humble town history museum and I walked in to check it out. There, in one room, stood a gigantic wooden cross leaning against the wall. The story goes that a farmer killed a young girl and was locked up in prison for a number of years to serve his time for the crime. After he was released he made the wooden cross and for the rest of his life carried it on his shoulders to amend for his crime. It made a deep impression on me because he could have just considered his prison time as punishment enough but he chose a way to personally suffer for his crime. What we fail to do in life is not reversible on any level, but our attitude or honesty toward our failings is essential for redemption in this life. If we miss the redemption, we miss an important step on our journey towards wholeness. The act of going on a pilgrimage is exactly what this orientation is all about. It is to walk through the fields and actively hope for the grace of redemption. The goal of the pilgrimage is usually a holy place like Santiago de Compostela in Portugal but the end of such a journey is just a way of saying: You have done the walk and finished the task you set out to do. It is the actual time of the walk through the fields which is the core of any traditional pilgrimage; it represents the willingness to go through the process and to face the dark night of the soul. To contemplate on the acts in our lives where we did not step up or failed to help or whatever burdens the heart. There is no one correct way to seek forgiveness or redemption in life. I have strongly come to believe that the traditional form of pilgrimage holds value even in our modern times.
