What is God's Name: Reflections on the 'Faces' of God

Human life is a pilgrimage. We journey like the magi, following our star. We long for the Promised Land. We have here no lasting city: we cannot stake as if to stay. Indeed we are all refugees encamped, hoping to find a new homeland. Every Communion is a Viaticum: "with you on the journey. "

Pilgrims walk, traveling light. The Way of the Pilgrim, a Russian classic, tells us how to do that. There is a pilgrimage such as one makes on a 30-day retreat, the inner walk, a journey to our centre where God resides. That is sometimes the longest and hardest pilgrimage of all but the most rewarding for it prepares us for all the paths we have yet to walk.

So how can I say that God is a Pilgrim? The evening Office of the Ascension prays: "You came down from heaven on a pilgrimage of love, grant that we may take the same path to your presence. ” The Son of God came from far beyond the stars to walk this earth with us. He came to bring us home.

I can say I have learned more with my feet than I have with my head. One must go there to know there. Jesus did that. He came a long, long way, all the way from the Beginning.

Jesus is not only the pilgrim but he is the Way of the Pilgrim. A pilgrim helps a fellow pilgrim, shares a piece of bread. Jesus as our fellow pilgrim does all this with and for us. He even shares his Spirit.

A religious pilgrim, too, has no credit card, no hotel reservation, and no airplane ticket, not even a backup plan. He/she travels with trust, counting on God and human encounters alike. Somehow, that does seem to describe our human life from beginning to end.

By Mary Alban Bouchard CSJ
Photo by Betty Lou Knox CSJ