There is a short comment in a letter by St. Gregory of Nyssa that has raised eyebrows for centuries on the topic of pilgrimages. Going to a holy place was big business in the Middle Ages (cf. The Canterbury Tales). Thus this epigrammatic thought of a Church Fathers, who carried the titled, “The Father of the Fathers,” troubled many:
When the Lord invites the blest to their inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, He does not include a pilgrimage to Jerusalem amongst their good deeds; when He announces the Beatitudes, He does not name amongst them that sort of devotion. But as to that which neither makes us blessed nor sets us in the path to the kingdom, for what reason it should be run after, let him that is wise consider.
He goes on to note the many temptations that were inherent in travel itself, as well as the moral dangers that were known to infect the Holy City. A pilgrimage was not on his recommended list of spiritual undertakings.
I will say up front that I have made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There were things that I expected and some that surprised me. But there is a great deal of wisdom in St. Gregory’s admonition that is worth considering.
Why do we go on pilgrimage? Is one place holier than another?
Our modern world is awash in tourism. A number of cities in Europe have begun to place limits on the number of tourists permitted at any one time lest the crush of people destroy the very thing which they came to see.
Pilgrimage is not meant to be tourism, though it is frequently reduced to such a level. Many people are surprised by the commercialism of the Holy Land, though this was already the case in the time of St. Gregory.
There is a deeper pilgrimage that the Church encourages and is available to all. It has no commercialism, nor is it fraught with temptation. It is quite simple:
The whole world is Passover in Jerusalem in 33 A.D. Everywhere we go, we are there. In the liturgical life of the Church, the details of that city, at that time, are drawn out in careful detail in the services of Holy Week. Every celebration of the Divine Liturgy is a making-present of that time and that place:
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show forth the Lord’s death till He comes. (1Cor. 11:26)
The Liturgies of the Church are not re-enactments of a historical moment (the Church is not a religious society for creative anachronism.) The Church is the Body of Christ, the mystery hidden from all the ages. When we are Baptized, we are Baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, and are eternally united to the fullness of those events revealed in death and resurrection of Christ.
As such, Holy Week is the revelation of our life – always and everywhere. We always sit with Christ at table and are given His Body and Blood. We are always with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, where we watch or fall asleep. Because we are with Him in the Garden we say, “I will not betray Thee with a kiss as did Judas.” All of the characters who are gathered with Christ are revelations of our self as well.
We arrest Him. We mock Him and spit at Him. We beat Him. With Pilate we condemn Him, while meekly washing our hands of the whole thing.
There is also the deeper mystery in which, as St. Paul says, “[We] are crucified with Christ.” With Christ, we are left to pray alone. We are betrayed. We are arrested, beaten, tortured, and condemned. We carry the weight of our cross until it crushes us. With Christ we discover the joy of a stranger who bears the weight of our cross in our place.
Crucified with Christ, we find ourselves among thieves and those who simply refuse to understand. But crucified with Him, we see His Mother who stands beside us always, even at the hour of our death.
This pilgrimage is not an act of imagination. That which is truly “mystical” is not imaginary – it is real and true. It is the real and true that is hidden and noetically perceived. Seen by the heart, it is a balm for our wounded souls and a medicine for the blindness of our false pilgrimages.
St. Gregory’s hesitance regarding journeys to Jerusalem was a concern for the absence of our noetic/mystical perception. To stand at Golgotha is an interesting historical moment, something available to unbelievers as well. It does not come with an objective insistence that we perceive the truth of what we see. That perception is rooted in the heart and is revealed always and everywhere.
When Christ spoke of such things He made the nature of His presence quite clear:
“Inasmuch as you did it (or did it not) unto the least of these my brethren, you did it (or did not do it) unto me.”
The liturgical pilgrimage of Holy Week is a school of the heart. It is meant to nurture within us a depth perception that allows us to see what we all too easily overlook. Of course, it is too rich to take in over the course of a week. But, attend with the heart and allow Christ to make Himself known. The Liturgy extends throughout the year. It is the mystery everywhere present and filling all things.
Come and see.
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