Angelus News | July 29, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 15
On the cover: A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France.
On the cover: A pilgrim walks on his knees outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2019. For our special pilgrimage issue, on Page 10 Mike Aquilina writes on how the urge to leave everything and travel afar is as old as Christianity itself. On Page 14, Elise Ureneck recounts the unexpected graces of her last pilgrimage with her late mother, and on Page 16, California historian Stephen Binz points the way to the pilgrim path in our own backyard. On Page 20, Pasadena native Jenny Gorman Patton tells of finding the healing she needed, rather than the one she wanted, at the Marian shrine of Lourdes, France.
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LIVING THE PILGRIM WAY<br />
The inner longing to go on pilgrimage is part of the<br />
spiritual DNA of every Christian.<br />
BY MIKE AQUILINA<br />
“Flevit super illam” (“He wept over it”), 1892, by Enrique Simonet. In the Gospel of Luke, as Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he looks at the city and weeps over it, foretelling the suffering<br />
that awaits the city. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS<br />
Christianity — unlike other world religions — has<br />
never mandated pilgrimage.<br />
But it didn’t have to. Christians just did it. Spontaneously.<br />
In impressive numbers. And often at great risk.<br />
The Law of Moses required Israelite males to make three<br />
trips to Jerusalem every year, for Passover, Pentecost, and<br />
Sukkot (see Exodus 23:14–17; 34:18–23; Deuteronomy<br />
16:16). In the early first century, the population of the Holy<br />
City doubled during these holidays as Jews arrived from all<br />
nations of the known world (see Acts 2:1, 9–11).<br />
Pilgrimage is the fifth pillar of Islam. Muslims are duty-bound<br />
to make the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, at<br />
least once in their lifetime — and some 2.5 million people<br />
complete the journey every year.<br />
For ancient Jews and modern Muslims, pilgrimage has<br />
occupied a place that’s comparable to the place of the<br />
sacraments in Catholic tradition. The Church, however,<br />
has never claimed such a place for pilgrimage. The New<br />
Testament doesn’t require it. Canon law has never mandated<br />
it. <strong>No</strong> catechism has ever presented it dogmatically.<br />
Yet Christians have always done it. That’s clear from the<br />
documents of the early Church. It’s evident also in the<br />
archaeological remains from that period.<br />
• • •<br />
A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken for a religious purpose.<br />
From at least his adolescence, Jesus fulfilled the command<br />
to celebrate the festivals in Jerusalem. It was his family’s<br />
custom (Luke 2:42), and the trip from Nazareth — on foot,<br />
on crowded roads — probably took between four and six<br />
days each way.<br />
In adulthood Jesus continued the practice, not out of a<br />
sense of obligation, but rather out of love. It was his earnest<br />
desire (Luke 22:<strong>15</strong>). He set out for Jerusalem with determination<br />
(Luke 9:51). The pilgrimages were so important<br />
to Jesus that St. John uses them as the dominant structural<br />
element in the narrative of his Gospel.<br />
The apostle St. Paul, even after his conversion to the Way<br />
10 • ANGELUS • <strong>July</strong> <strong>29</strong>, <strong>2022</strong>
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