Skip to main content

This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant

It is rather obvious, of course, to everyone, that life is a pilgrim­age. The expression, “Life is a pilgrimage” has been used and abused over and over again. But what is a pilgrimage?

God evidently loves pilgrims. To some, like Tobias, he sent angels as guides. To others, like Abraham, he just said, “Arise and go.” Abraham was one of the first pilgrims.

We wonder what happened to Adam and Eve when they left the Garden. I think they must have embarked on a pilgrimage.

For the memory of the audi­ble, visible presence of God was like a fire, or must have been, in the hearts of Adam and Eve.

Were they nomads? Were they hunters? Did they know about sowing and harvesting?

It’s not really important. They were pilgrims. They were the first pilgrims of the Abso­lute, because they had known the Absolute.

Yes, they had known the Absolute, and this knowledge passed into the hearts of all their children. Millions upon millions of them have been pilgrims—in lost civilizations, in Christian times, and in our times. The fire was something hidden in a corner of man’s heart, something that could not be quenched or killed.

Some followed it, and the history of mankind is filled with those who did—those who arose and left all things.

To follow what? To follow whom? A reality? Who could say? Consider the prophets.

They were told to arise and go, but that was because from their very childhood they had a dream, a dream of seeking the Absolute.

Oh, they tried to squash it, to quench it, to deny it, but they couldn’t. The Absolute called to them. Out of some depth un­known to them, they heard that voice.

They may not have seen— though some I think did—him who called, but yet they knew. They knew who it was who called and they couldn’t resist.

They had to arise. They had to go out of big cities, out of beautiful surroundings, out of rich houses with soft and downy couches, away from wine, song, and carnal attractions.

They had to go. They had to go and nothing could hold them back—neither relatives, nor pressure groups, nor busi­nesses, nor anything human. For always those pilgrims had a strange way of listening.

Why do I always imagine that their heads were always a little to the side as if they were trying to catch a voice that was indistinct? They were making sure, as it were, that they heard it.

And hearing, they arose. Half the time they didn’t know where they were going, and many in the beginning didn’t even know why. But this per­sistent strange voice that was no voice at all, spoke distinctly, though it wasn’t audible.

Yes, the nostalgia. No, that’s not the word at all. It was a hunger that they felt, the hun­ger that Adam and Eve expe­rienced when they had to leave the friendship of God, the one­ness with God. That was what they cried out for.

Just think of it. The uni­ty, the sobornost of the Trinity penetrated, became incarnated in the sobornost of the man and the woman. And then, by some sort of incredible miracle, the sobornost of the Trinity and the sobornost of man, as represented by Adam and Eve, were one. It’s beyond understanding, so let us bow low before this mystery.

No wonder that this experi­ence somehow was captured for all eternity in the hearts of men.

They dreamt strange dreams of that unity, that sobornost.

Some spoke of their dreams and were called sorcerers and heretics. But they were not.

They did not give the apple to Eve. They were not Chris­tians who knew that God is the Lord of history and that he touches everybody. They were people such as the Three Kings or the people in the deserts of Australia or the mountains of Asia.

All people who have religion of some sort are dreamers, and dreamers of a very special kind. They dream of unity between God and man in total sobornost.

It is a dream given as a trea­sure to Adam and Eve. Men can develop that dream or let it lie unrecalled.

Yes, sobornost. When all is said and done, what is man re­ally seeking? Obviously he is moved by the pleasure princi­ple, though the pain principle is built into him, too, as it is in animals. But deep down, hid­den under all kinds of emotional fears and desires, lies the hidden dream of unity, of oneness with the God of all creation.

Perhaps it isn’t a dream at all. Perhaps it is a remembrance, and perhaps the word “pilgrim­age” in every language refers to the remembrance.

Perhaps it is the remem­brance that becomes the dream, and for some a reality.

Pilgrims have to leave every­thing behind and follow this re­ality that is hidden in the mist of time.

Who can explain the mi­gration of peoples all over the world? Back and forth, back and forth. They didn’t move sim­ply because they were nomads or farmers, though that might be part of it. I believe that in the collective hearts of all those tribes there was hidden the gift that Adam and Eve left to them: the dream: unity with God.

In Sheer Anger

Angry because their dream nev­er reached reality as they ex­pected it to do, they built Tow­ers of Babel to reach God, or in sheer anger they fought among themselves for the possession of this or that piece of land.

Officially the conflict was for political, economic or cultur­al reasons. But is it possible for one Russian in love with God to say without fear and trembling that perhaps all this was done and is still being done in pur­suit of Adam and Eve’s heritage?

For the hunger for God is growing in leaps and bounds all across the world, and it is still visible, palpable in the Third World, whatever the beliefs of its people may be.

Could it all be in pursuit of a dream that is a reality, the only true reality that exists?

Well, all I can say is what comes to me in the dark of the nights like a light: this might be the crying of humanity to God. For we were created to be one with God in paradise.

That unity was restored upon Christ’s arrival, Christ’s Incar­nation.

Christ was the total pilgrim, the Man who pilgrimaged from the bosom of the Father to the hearts of men. Christ, who lived among men as men do. Christ, who became the bridge between all men and God. Christ, who died for all men, no matter who they were—sinners or saints, Hindus or Muslims.

He is the Lord of history. He is the bridge between the Father and men. He invites us to a pil­grimage, the supreme pilgrim­age. He offers us the path. I am the way, he said, to the Father(Jn 14:6). By offering himself as the way, he gave us the opportunity to become one with the Father again, one with himself, and one with the Holy Spirit.

Making Us Free

Yes, Christ was the supreme Pilgrim, the incredible Pil­grim, who descended from heaven to earth and returned from earth to heaven, thereby making us free. Free to love and free to serve. Free to un­dertake a pilgrimage of love, a pilgrimage of love of God and of neighbor.

It is a long pilgrimage be­cause the pilgrim has to love himself before he can love any­body else. He has to walk that long road inward, take that journey, that pilgrimage inward that alone will make him touch Christ who dwells within.

There are other parts to the pilgrimage. The pilgrim must love those who hate him and be good to those who are not good to him, even to the point of giv­ing away his clothing and his belongings.

And the pilgrim must preach the Gospel. But in order to preach it, he has to live it day by day, hour by hour, minute, by minute.

And now that Christ has come, there is a pilgrimage of fire.

Some complete this pilgrim­age and some don’t. It is the pil­grimage of passionate, incredi­ble love that gives itself as a path for Christ to walk on.

This leads to entering into the emptiness of God where you will see that things that are real belong to him and all things that belong to you are as mist.

This is a kind of strange pil­grimage.

It’s a new kind of pilgrim­age. It comes from the depth of a man. It will be there until man and God meet again in the parousia.

— Adapted and excerpted from Stran­nik, (1991), pp. 9-16, available from MH Publications

[icons icon=”fa-arrow-circle-o-left” size=”fa-3x” type=”normal” link=”https://madonnahouse.org/restorationnews/” target=”_self” icon_color=”#a3a3a3″ icon_hover_color=”#175f8f”]