When in Paris, we visited a number of tourist highlights including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre museum, Notre Dame, and the French Catacombs. We ate at restaurants and sipped some espresso from a cafe. While in Lourdes, we have continued with the restaurants and added a castle visit and gelato to our list. During the whole pilgrimage we have sought out Churches for Holy Mass and to say a few prayers, especially at notable shrines. Our visit to Lourdes has been exceptionally beautiful, yet I find myself pondering again a question I had in Paris: What exactly is the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim? And why are we pilgrims if we have done so many touristy things?
We aren’t pilgrims just because we have bought food from grocery stores for a few meals. Certainly not because we’ve had some tough times like our travels to Lourdes or waiting a little longer for a meal because of Mass times or other activities. Nor are we such because we have said some prayers or since we are seminarians. Rather it is our intention that makes us pilgrims. We aren’t here simply to have an experience in Europe, to get away and travel, or see the sites and learn about the culture first hand by talking to people, eating the food, and staying in hostels. All of these things are good and a part of being a pilgrim but there is a still higher goal that we hold.
We all know that, for a pilgrim, the destination is a big deal, but that the journey is an end in its own right. After all, a pikgrim is “one who travels through” taken from the Latin. But I would posit that the same is true of a tourist- I don’t think that the difference is made by a lot more walking, lots of people use transportation for pilgrimages, anyway. The journey is important, it shapes the traveler, but the end destination, which represents our ultimate goal in heaven, is the true heart of a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is the intention to grow closer to God, to love him and follow him better, and thus to become a more virtuous person who understands, respects and cares for others.
Our faith is incarnational, dealing with the body and the soul, the human and divine. The people and cultures (even the more ordinary stuff like food and buildings) encountered along the way cannot be seperated from a pilgrim’s goal, rather, they help to form him and make him ready to arrive. Cultures are able to express different aspects of our faith and humanity. They help us to better understand ourselves and others.
Lourdes, I think, is a great example of thsee two facts: that different cultures enhance each other and that ordinary, even touristy, activities are taken up by a pilgrim’s intention. In short, it is a Catholic Disney land. Two worlds collide in a place where you can walk through the outside holy door, near the main gate, with some gelato in your hand.
There were so many things to do here, and it was difficult to get a good look at a chapel without running into a group celebrating Mass. We began the day with a quick tour of the main churches, followed by confessions and stations of the cross up a grueling hill. Next, on our way to lunch, we stopped by the centre of town to tour the hill top fort (absolutely awesome). After a short siesta we headed back to the sanctuary to visit the grotto where Mary apeared to Bernadette, and the spring continues to flow. (I’ll spare the story, but look it up if you are unfirmiliar! Hete is a link to the full stroy, Wehttp://www.medjugorjeusa.org/lourdes.htm). We lit two candles for those whom we are pilgrimaging and walked around the grounds saying a rosary and afterwards we attended an afternoon Mass. Later on I went back for the candle light procession. And there is even more to do there!
The place was crowded with people walking to all the different Christain “attractions.” Everone on their own schedule of events, waiting in lines for the grotto and confessions. And although there was a great sense of peace and stillness, there was always something happening, some group singing at Mass or a procession, or people just walking about. Lourdes is a mixing pot of people, which is more than evident by the nightly candle lit rosary where everyone ends up responding to the prayers in their on language. It was awesome to hear the different languages and to realize that we were all there for the same purpose.
A pilgrim is motivated by a higher end: to become a better person by seeking to be more aware of God who is in search of us, and is reaching out to us through the church, our neighbor, and the world around us, every little circumstance.
I’m sorry if this has been long, but it is the result of a few lines of thought that have been building up. Besides, I’m sure I’ll have less to say after the long days of hiking ahead.
-Michael
