pilgrimage theology

Pilgrimage Theology
A Scriptural basis

J.G. Sobosan, C.S.C.

To emphasize and describe the eschatological reality of its existence in history, the Christian Church has always maintained a certain predilection for such terms as "journey" and "pilgrimage." It is obvious, however, that these and related terms will not have their desired impact if one's understanding of their meaning in Christian Scripture is limited solely, or for the most part, to imagery. It is necessary, in other words, that they be understood according to the faith of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Moreover, the understanding of these or any images from the past must also be such that in them are seen values expressed in living persons as prototypes. Only in this way can their value keep from being merely admirable abstractions and become incorporated into the life of the Church today.

The Pilgrim Abraham

In its description of the righteousness of Noah, the Book of Genesis states that "he walked with God" (Genesis 6:9). Later generations of nomadic peoples would make use of this imagery to describe the relationship of the just man with God, who being present to that man, was the source of his righteousness. But it is Abraham who is, for the Old Testament believer, the primordial journeyman pilgrim in the strict sense. Obeying the command of God, he "went up from Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had. .. " (Gen. 13 :1). The significance of Abraham's journey is explained by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews as follows:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him in the same.. promise (Gen. 11: 8-10).

On the level of theological interpretation, the intentions of Christ and Abraham in their holocausts can be said to be similar. The meaning of Abraham's life for the reflection of later generations is not essentially rooted in his nomadic existence, even though as a style of life it may have some symbolic value for us. As in the case of Noah, it is the presence of God which is important; or, to put it differently, it is a question of the manner in which Abraham was aware of this presence in his life, which in his case is perhaps most dramatically typified in his practice of pitching his tent on the mountain, building an altar to the Lord, and calling upon him to hear his prayers (Gen. 12: 6-8).

Likewise after Lot had separated from Abraham, the latter received from God the instructions to walk through the length and breadth of the land to be given to him. Responding to this command, Abraham "moved his tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the Lord" (Gen. 13: 18).

The Pilgrim People

If we can thus say that Abraham is the primordial journeyman-pilgrim par excellence, then we can surely also say that the Israelites-in-exile are the first pilgrim people par excellence. Again, it is not the mere fact of movement which is the basis for this designation. In fact, centuries later the prophet Amos, speaking in the name of God, would have to remind the Israelites of this fact:

"Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, O Israel? Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?" (Amos 9:7), The underlying notion of the pilgrimage-journey is not, therefore, the mere going forth of a person or of a people, but the presence of God presiding over a movement of liberation to a land of promise.

This "land of promise" is the proto- typical object or goal of such a movement and serves as a motivating force based upon a confidence in the power of God as manifested in his liberating activity and as effected by his continual and loving presence. In this way the author of Exodus can record in the name of Yahweh:

"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation "(Exod. 19.: 4-6).

And even though they still persist in their sin, Yahweh nonetheless remains faithful to his promise to them: "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest" (Exod. 33 : 14). Moses' act of faith, stated in the form of a question, recognizes this: "Is it not in thy going with us that we are distant, I and thy people, from all the other people that are on the face of the earth?" (Exod. 33 :16),

Religious Shrines

The notion of the pilgrimage-journey is definitely associated in the Old Testament with the idea of shrines and sanctuaries. The Israelites, for example, will make their miraculous crossing of the Jordan only because they are following the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant, which, because it was held to be sacred, they were told to follow only from a stipulated distance (Joshua 3: 1-17). For this reason, too, the location and construction of a shrine could not be left to man's decision; the decision, rather, is Yahweh's, most usually revealed in a theophany or some similar manifestation of his will. Only through such occasional striking interventions in their history, in fact, was God's continual presence with his people brought home to the Israelite consciousness. It was because of this tendency to relate God's presence among his people with his power as manifested in certain divine acts that commemorative shrines and sanctuaries were set up as reminders that God was still with them.

This practice, however, which the Israelites shared with their Semitic neighbors, tended to present a danger to their religious consciousness, namely, a return to the pre-Israelite tradition of localizing the divinity in sacred stone. One of the constant themes of Old Testament literature, therefore, is that God is not and cannot be localized. It is probably as a result of this danger, in fact, that the Old Testament almost consistently gives the impression of a tension between the desire to stabilize the presence of God by situating it in a certain locale and the belief that the nature of Yahweh's presence is intrinsical1y incompatible with any attempt of this kind.

Desert Wandering

Since the people were formed in a wilderness setting, it is this atmosphere which is taken as the proper milieu for the optimum experience of their relationship with God. Jeremiah will find in the following words a certain nostalgia for the former times spent in the desert: "I remember the devotion of your youth (i.e., Israel's), your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest" (Jer. 2: 2-3). A similar theme can also be found in Hosea 2:14-20, where fidelity to Yahweh is equated with a return to the desert wilderness.

Commenting on the confidence in God's presence which especially marked the wars of conquest recounted in the Hexateuch, many scholars have rightly noted that its theology of a God keeping company with his people through their wandering, and sharing their triumphs and tragedies, did little to strengthen any understanding of the sanctuary as God's final resting-place. On the other hand, of course, we must also note that during the period of the Judges the journey to the shrine of the Ark was seen as the highest expression of fidelity to Yahweh. It was there that he called his people together and, as in the desert, demanded their obedience.

Seeking God

This theme of the people as the assembly of Yahweh is the basis for the theology of pilgrimage both in the Deuteronomic history and in the Priestly code. The vocation of the pilgrim-journeyman is to "see the face of God" or to "search for God" as it is expressed in its various forms. In Psalm 42, for example, we read:

As a hart longs for flowing streams,
so longs my soul for thee, 0 God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?

The historical character of the Israelite people also means that their pilgrimage-journey will be viewed as a commemorative rite (zikkaron) with a threefold goal. The basis is the remembrance of a believer of celebrated events of the past which were occasions of God's manifestation: for this the people are required to give thanks, to celebrate a solemn feast, and to commit themselves to a conversion of ways. Thus Exodus (12:14) records:

This day shall be for you a memorial day
and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord;
throughout your generations you shall observe
it as an ordinance forever.

When your son asks you in the time to come, "What is the meaning of the testimonies and statutes and the ordinances which the Lord God has commanded you?" then you shall say to your son, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and he brought us out from there, that he might bring' us in and give us the land which he swore to give our fathers."

During the feast, in other words, the believers were to commemorate the living and faithful presence of Yahweh in the midst of his people, and the corresponding obligation of holiness implied by that presence.

Thus, when we read the various F codes in the Old Testament, we find that they all have basically one confidence - that which Exodus (22:25) states most succinctly in the words: "And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate." This confidence stimulated what we might call the eschatological orientation of the feast. It recalled Israel to a remembrance of her God in order that she might renew in her favor the great deeds that were being commemorated. Before battle, for example, the following liturgical chant was often sung.

May he remember all your offerings, and regard with favour your burnt sacrifices! May he grant you your heart's desire, and fulfill all your plans!

May we shout for joy over your victory, and in the name of our God set up our banners!

Role of the Temple

The role of the sanctuary was at times misconceived, sometimes by a large segment of the nation. In Psalm 50 we read that God rebuked his people, not for not having sacrificed to him, since their sacrifices were continually being offered to him, but for their lack of righteousness in their daily lives. The prophetic response to such abuses helped to purify the underlying notions behind the presence of God among his people. Thus when the prophet Amos clashed with the priest of Bethel, and when he rebuked the neighboring nations for their offenses, he was serving notice that Yahweh transcended the interests of professional religious functionaries, of kings of nations, and even the nations themselves (Amos 1-2, 7). In doing so, Amos was following Micah, who earlier had claimed that neither the "prophetic" establishment nor the royal dynasty could force the hand of Yahweh's grace (1 Kings 2).

At the time of the dedication of the Temple, there had been a note of caution expressed regarding the possibility of any one place. Solomon publicly admitted the inadequacies of the Temple. in this regard, since "heaven and the highest heaven" could not contain God (1 Kings 8.: 27). This caution, however, did not inhibit a prevailing atmosphere of joy during pilgrimages to the Temple (see, for example, Psalm 12:1 and Isaiah 30: 29). Likewise, the notion of exile was equivalent to not being free to go up to Jerusalem (see Ps. 137: 1 and Ezra 3: 1-13).

The Book of Psalms has preserved some of the songs sung by pilgrims approaching the holy mountain of Zion (Psalms 120-134). The so-called songs of ascent, with their brief verses and marked rhythms, are concerned with such themes as the City of Jerusalem, the Mount of Zion, and the community of all Israel. In Isaiah 6 we also find an indication of the potential of the Temple to encourage meditation on God's presence and at times to stimulate prophetic revelation. Nevertheless, Jeremiah did not trust the words "This is the temple of the Lord" (Jer. 7:4). He was convinced, on the contrary, that he had been sent by the Lord for no other reason than to prophesy against the Temple and the city of Jerusalem (Jer. 26 :12). Similar convictions have been ascribed to the prophet Micah , who also expected the destruction of the Temple and the city (Micah 3:10, 12). And although Isaiah was ambivalent with regard to the destruction of the Temple and the city, he was nonetheless certain that the people's relationship with Yahweh precluded political alliances which might too easily frustrate his will (Is. 9, 22).

The loss of the Promised Land and the destruction of the Temple, as well as the scattering of the people known as the Diaspora, seemed to conspire to demolish hopes for a communal and definitive salvation of the people which was formed when a small group of nomads had made a covenant with Yahweh. The purification wrought by the Exile was manifested in the spirituality of the postexilic prophetic teaching regarding the destiny of the Israelite people. There was a renewed appreciation for Jerusalem, the Temple, the liturgical ceremonies, and the king, who was the anointed of the Lord.

The Eschatological Community

With Second Isaiah the eschatological vision of the Israelites as a people is extended to include even the gathering of pagans in a great pilgrimage to Jerusalem as the sacred city of God's chosen people (Is. 52). Centuries later an interpretation of Luke's Gospel will also present Jerusalem as the geographical center of salvation, even though Christ was actually crucified outside the walls of the city and even though the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem had taken place in far more simple fashion than that of the entrance of the Lord into Zion in the prophetic vision of Isaiah. The final pilgrimage of Jesus, however, was seen to consecrate the eschatological destiny of Jerusalem as the religious metropole of the universe and at the same time effect an end to it. From then on the Christian mission would be to bring to the entire world the word that was announced and the salvation that was realized in the city of the great King.

After the Christ event, therefore, there is only one "holy place" in which the convocation of the redeemed is realized and the ekklesia prefigured by the desert assembly and by the great gatherings of the tribes of Israel at the sanctuary of the Ark is effected: that is the Body of Christ. The starting point and final meaning of the Christian pilgrimage is based on the teaching of St. Paul that our bodies are attached by baptism and the Eucharist to the risen body of Christ returned to his Father. In this sense, there is no lasting city in the present era of salvation. The mood of the people is therefore one of anticipation, of waiting-for and going-toward (Hebrews 13: 14). In 1 Peter 2: 11 the priestly people gathered together in Christ are thus seen to be a pilgrim people as well. The Christians who have inherited the promises made to Abraham, and the faith and hope with which he responded, must accept as well the exigencies of his existence as a pilgrim and the obligation of responding in faith and confidence to God's presence among them (Acts 7 :6).

Just as the preeminent eschatological sign in Isaiah had been the appearance of Immanuel or God-with-us, in the Book of Revelation (22: 1-3) we read:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them."

The same book presents Christ as the Throne God (1), the Immolated Lamb (5:6), the Altar of Holocausts (6:9), the Ark of Alliance (11:19), and the Tent of Reunion (15:5). The book closes with a plea to Christ: "Come!"

Christ has come, in other words, but his people are still waiting. As a people they have faith that he is still with them, but while waiting for the full realization of themselves as individuals, they share in the Semitic trait of focusing their attention on shrines which remind them of the dramatic interventions of God into their lives. In this sense, as the locus of Jesus' saving, activity in its historic manifestation, Jerusalem remains strongly symbolic of his presence.

The foregoing brief presentation of pilgrimage theology has been an attempt to provide a basis on one level of the concern and hope upon which the Christian Church has grounded its eschatological vision of itself. We have tried to stress that a casual meditation on the relevant scriptural texts will be an insufficient grounding in the theology of Christian promise held out to us by them. There is hope for renewal in Christianity if, and only if, the consciousness of Christians is altered radically. Such an alteration is not only justified but demanded as well by biblical revelation, which for the Christian must always be the normative means of ascertaining God's will for his people.