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viernes, 13 febrero 2004 |
To understand the idea behind the pilgrimage it is helpful to keep in
mind that the concept of pilgrimage is not exclusively Christian and is
present in all the important ancient religions. In all of them there
are three basic elements that combine to create the pilgrimage: A
pilgrim who travels a road to a sacred place. Within each person is
produced, upon arrival or during the travels, an encounter with the
mysterious. Some religions place greater importance on the traveling,
the road that the pilgrim walks from his home, his surroundings, or his
personal situation as well as the inner journey that takes place within
the pilgrim. Other religions emphasize the arrival to the sacred place
and the ceremonies that accompany the moment which produces the
encounter with the sacred.
In either case, the trip and the arrival occur within the pilgrim and
are fostered by what the pilgrim experiences along the way, the reality
which the pilgrim encounters in passing which symbolizes what the
pilgrim is experiencing within himself. All of these religions
emphasize the importance of symbols for pilgrimage symbols related to
mountains, water, hospitality offered to pilgrims which all takes on a
sacred nature, or the specific rites that the pilgrim must perform upon
reaching the sacred place.
In the Jewish tradition of the Old Testament, pilgrimage holds a
special place, especially that of Abraham who had to leave his land
guided by the hope of arriving at God’s promised land. The nomadic
character of the life of the people of Israel accentuates the aspects
of pilgrimage in the sacred books and is based upon the people of
Israel leaving Egypt and their 40 years of pilgrimage through the
desert.
This sense is maintained in the New Testament. The Gospel of St. Luke
describes a large part of Christ’s life as a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Expressions that show Christ walked from town to town appear
repeatedly…Christ calls himself “The Way, the Truth, the Life,”
pointing out that the goal of all Christian pilgrimage is not a holy
site, but rather Christ himself.
With this background, there developed early on in the Christian
tradition the custom of making pilgrimages to the tombs of the martyrs
and to Jerusalem to experience the places where Jesus lived. In the
Middle Ages, especially in the west, the worshipping of relics and the
zeal to make pilgrimages to holy places that housed important relics
grew significantly. The greatest devotion centered on the places where
the relics of the apostles, those closest to Christ, were venerated.
This explains the great increase in medieval Europe of pilgrimage to
the tomb of the Apostle Santiago in Compostela following the
rediscovery of his remains in the 19th century. |
