Forward, Yes! Up, Yes!

by St. Pope John Paul II

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I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ And now our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!’ (Ps 121:1-2).

In Compostela, Spain, a spacious home with an open door, the bread of forgiveness and grace has been dispensed for centuries upon centuries, with­out any discrimination whatsoever.

“Countless people of all na­tions go there … There is no language nor dialect which is not heard there … The doors of the basilica never close, neither by day nor by night … Everyone goes here exclaiming: “E-ultr-eia” (Forward, yes!) “E-sus-eia” (Up, yes!).

It is not surprising that the Camino, “The Way to Santiago” has been sometimes considered as an example of the Church’s pilgrimage on its journey to­wards the heavenly city.

It is a path of prayer and pen­ance, of charity and solidarity; a stretch of the path of life where the faith, becoming history among mankind, also converts culture into something Chris­tian.

The churches and abbeys, the hospitals and shelters of the Camino still speak of the Christian adventure of mak­ing pilgrimage in which the faith becomes life, history, culture, charity and works of mercy.

It is necessary then that the memory of a singular Christian past urge all the members of the Church to dedicate themselves to an exciting task: that of caus­ing a new Christian humanism to flourish, one which will give meaning to life at a time when there is so much hunger and thirst for God.

This, then, is the primary reason that has moved me to come to the tomb of the Apos­tle: to announce from here that Christ is and will continue to be “the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

For the Lord is good: his stead­fast love endures for ever, and his faithfulness to all generations (Ps 99:5).

—Excerpted from the address of Pope John Paul II at the pilgrimage site of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, at World Youth Day, August19, 1989.