Jesus told them: “Take nothing for the journey–no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.” Luke 9:3
On the Camino de Santiago there are three distinct categories of participants: pilgrims, walkers and tourists. The tourists are the ones who are mostly there to visit the quaint villages and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of France and Spain. The pilgrimage represents a nice holiday for them, with all the benefits of spending time outdoors as well as enjoying the slower pace of life that the Camino affords.
The walkers are those who are mostly out for the exercise. The idea of hiking 30-40km a day, to them, represents a satisfying athletic challenge. They are goal-oriented people for whom the Camino offers an opportunity for personal achievement that brings satisfaction to their lives.
But the pilgrims are those who have recognized and embraced the personal transformation that the Camino offers—the potential it has to restore in them a more simplified and humble life. It is this objective that often introduces people to the spiritual aspects of this walk, something that many people who walk the Camino miss out on.
One of the most spiritually formative features of the Camino for pilgrims is the fact that they have chosen an intentional form of poverty. In many ways they have exchanged the “riches” of self-determination and control for the mystery and indeterminacy of the road. Negotiating the Camino is very different than planning an itinerary for your holiday, and part of the humbling formation of the Camino is the realization and gradual acceptance of serendipity as a necessary feature of your day.
The status of pilgrim includes many forms of poverty. First there is the obvious reduction of life that comes from living with all your earthly belongings in a backpack. It simplifies your sense of self and reminds you how little is really needed in life. Then there’s the very un-touristy choice of sleeping each night in a hostel and sharing a dorm, washroom and common meals with anywhere from 6-40 pilgrims. For many, especially North Americans, living with strangers and the lack of privacy that that entails, is a very real form of deprivation from the norms of their lives.
And then there’s the rare poverty of not being overly in control of your day—how far you will walk, what the road or the weather will be like, where you will sleep and who you
will be sharing your day with. These are things you have much less control over on the Camino than when you are more in charge of your itinerary.
The poverty of indeterminacy, of course, is something that we all negotiate as we learn to trust God with the uncertainties of life. But the Camino certainly amplifies this “pilgrimage of trust.” Those who are walking this path for the first time, for example, often feel anxious about securing lodgings for the night. They will phone and reserve rooms a week ahead so that they can put these worries to rest. But the limitations of such self-determination soon become evident. We start appreciating the benefits of surprise that come from allowing more flexibility in our plans. And the more indeterminacy we allow for in our lives the more we come to recognize the sure presence of a guiding Hand in the many “coincidences” that happen in a day. As always, faith invites us to let go of our reins of control in order to allow God to lead us in unexpected ways.
In life too, we can be walkers, tourists or pilgrims according to the degree of control we assume over our lives. In choosing to be pilgrims we automatically choose poverty over power, and trust over control. We sacrifice our assumptions of self-management in the hope of glimpsing something of the more mysterious hand of providence. We make ourselves available to the whims of God by allowing the day to shape us more than presuming it is we who shape the day. And we choose simplicity in order to better appreciate the countless gifts that each day brings as we receive it more directly from the Lord’s hand.
Rob Des Cotes
Imago Dei Christian Communities
FOR GROUP DISCUSSION:
- Does the invitation to relinquish some degree of control in your life (i.e. to be more of a pilgrim) excite you or frighten you? Why is that?
- What are some of the “poverties” of indeterminacy that the Lord might be inviting you to explore? A more simple life? Less control over your circumstances? Less dependence on material securities? Less entitlement to privacy and isolation from others?
- Why is it that “the more we allow for indeterminacy in our day (or life) the more we come to recognize the presence of a guiding Hand?” If that is the case how might over-planning or being overly in charge of our day blind us to this guiding presence?
FOR PRAYER: The preference for indeterminacy is not, by itself, a virtue. But if it is adopted in the hope of seeking and finding God it can be glorious in its fruit. In prayer, ask the Lord how you might create more “undetermined” space in your life. Ask God to guide you as you allow Him to shape your day rather than presuming it is solely yours to manage.
Imago Dei Christian Community www.imagodeicommunity.ca To receive these weekly meditations by e-mail contact imago@shaw.ca.
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