Newsletter 30 September 2009
Pilgrimage or Tourism, cont.'d
Peter J. Miano
As long as a tour is restricted to carefully selected
archaeological sites, the tour operator maintains control over information.
Once we encounter people along the way, an element of serendipity is introduced
and we lose control over the information we hear. Then we begin to be introduced
to issues, challenges and other realities that sometimes challenge us to struggle
with life and death issues. Commercial tourism is an armchair activity, a
purely backward looking nostalgia trip. Tourists ask questions about ancient
sites and people who lived long ago. In authentic pilgrimage, sites ask questions
of pilgrims and people pose questions to us. What is your responsibility in
the face of what you have seen and heard? What difference does the study of
the Bible make in redressing wrongs? Authentic pilgrimage requires us to explore
current realities and ask questions of the applicability of the biblical faith
in our modern world. Tourists debate whether Jesus was buried in this spot
or that one. Pilgrims learn that Christianity is not faith in an empty tomb
at all, but in a risen Christ, one who continues to demand redress of pressing
social realities.
On the first day after the Sabbath, three women came to Jesus’ tomb
expecting to anoint his body. Instead of Jesus’ lifeless body, they
found a young man in the tomb. He said to them, “He is not here...but
go and tell the disciples and Peter that he goes before you into Galilee.
That is where you will find him.” (Mark 16:1-7)
Tourists learn that Galilee is a sort of biblical theme park—a place
for enjoyment and repose. For Jesus, it was the place where he fed the hungry,
healed the sick, preached good news to the poor and freedom for the oppressed.
Pilgrims learn that Galilee is the place where talk meets walk, where mouth
meets muscle, where the power of God meets the people of God. Tourists are
interested in where Jesus walked 2,000 years ago. Pilgrims want to know and
experience where and with whom Jesus is walking right now. “He goes
before you into Galilee... that is where you will find him.” The exploration
of ancient sites is an imperative to enable us to contextualize the life and
ministry of Jesus and Paul. But ours is not a faith in an empty archaeological
site. We find the living Jesus among the living people, whenever, wherever
the biblical faith is applied in our real world of social, political and moral
challenges—just as Jesus and Paul did.
There is neither pilgrimage nor Bible study where there is no engaging of
the moral dimensions of the Bible. Remove moral considerations from pilgrimage
or from the study of the Bible and all that is left is a sanitized, low impact
faith. Such a faith is a sort of spiritual anesthesia—easy enough, but
not satisfactory for those who live in a world of moral challenge. In the
end, any faith which demands nothing, costs nothing and expects nothing is
a faith which is worth nothing. Authentic pilgrimage invigorates the study
of the Bible and renews faith—the kind of faith that can transform pilgrimage,
Bible study and the world. Redeeming pilgrimage is redemptive.
Redeeming pilgrimage from commercial sightseeing is an opportunity to make
a positive difference. To participate in redeeming pilgrimage is to participate
in a mission to reform the way in which Western Christians are perceived by
their brothers and sisters in the Holy Land and at the same time to participate
in a fortifying ministry of presence to people who are under enormous political,
economic and theological stress. It is to make a difference between a faith
which is devoid of relevance and vitality and one which is truly redemptive.
Redeeming pilgrimage from commercial tourism can make a difference not only
in reforming the concept of pilgrimage itself, but in revitalizing the study
of the Bible and renewing personal faith. Redeeming pilgrimage is itself redemptive.
return to newsletter contents page
