From the Camino: As the way has become more popular, and numbers have increased, it has become more challenging to find one’s way to an albergue with spaces left. Some fill up quite early in the day. This leads some to set out ever earlier to arrive early enough for a secure place for the night. Others will have to keep on walking to find their rest.
Lower bunks often go quickly, when they are not reserved by savvy hospitaleros for older pilgrims. Some people want the lower bunks because they have small bladders and need to visit the servicios several times a night, others because plantar fasciitis make stairs a struggle, others because they fear falling. Others prefer the top bunk because of theories on bed bugs, claustrophobia, and a general sense of greater security.
I have found that the claim to infallibility by those wanting the albergue windows shut in warm weather for health reasons, is matched only by the certitude of those insisting on open windows when the weather is frigid, for the sake of everyone’s wellbeing. How can the truths about our health, and the causes of our almost certain demise, be so diametrically opposed?
As for late night drunken arrivals, early morning plastic rattlers, and those who feel no compunction about turning the lights on a roomful of sleeping pilgrims…would it be contrary to the spirit of the Camino to wish a pox upon them?
From the life of St. James, Mark 10:35-45 – 35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 He replied, “What do you wish [me] to do for you?” 37 They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” 38 o Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 They said to him, “We can.” Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; 40 but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John. 42 Jesus summoned them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt. 43 But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; 44 whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
For reflection: Peter, James and John were Jesus’ closest companions, and probably even friends. They were the witnesses for his first cure (Mark 1:29) and the dramatic resuscitation of the daughter of Jairus, the temple official (Mark 5:37). They saw him revealed in glory on the mountain top (Mark 9:2), and along with Andrew, received special instruction from him (Mark 13:3). On the night before he died, knowing and dreading what was to come, he asked them to accompany him to the Garden of Gethsemane and pray with him (Mark 14:33).
So, Jesus’ constant companions were Peter, James and John and always in that order. Peter is always listed first in these Marcan accounts. So, when James and John, wanted to be on Jesus’ right and left, what were they really requesting? It presumes that they mistakenly thought Jesus was going to build a human kingdom, based on the kind of kingdoms that existed at the time. It would also seem they wanted to push past Peter into places of greater prominence.
The ambition of James and John, in this passage, was so embarrassing that Matthew altered the account and, instead, the mother of James and John made this appeal (Matt 20:20-28). Can we not forgive a mother for being ambitious for her children? But that James and John should have asked for this themselves was appalling. All of this is all the more distressing following immediately after Jesus’ third prediction of his death (Mark 10:32-34). While he was trying to prepare them for his real future of loving self-offering, they were struggling for a completely different future, with Jesus, and them, in glory.
Jesus rejected their self-seeking power grab in forceful terms: “It shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45
Many of us have to deal with the innate drive to be the alpha female, the alpha male. It nourishes our envy of others, it sabotages our relationships with boasting, and it divides up our communities with belligerent political posturing. And sweet Lord forbid that we should actually achieve alpha status, as then we need to direct all our energy to preserving our place at the top. It’s a poisonous way to live.
Jesus invites us to strive for the lower place (Luke 14:7-11).
Where does this intersect with the Camino? People who travel often, and are used to the service industry’s efforts to satisfy the custom, often bring with them a sense of entitlement when they begin their pilgrimage. After all, they may think, they are paying customers, and pilgrims, no less.
But as spiritual pilgrims we are invited to live in the context of Jesus’ teaching, abandoning our expectations of our own importance. At any given time, we are simply one of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims making our way to Santiago, or Rome, or Jerusalem, or Lourdes or Mecca, or the Ganges. We are not special. Loved, yes, but not special.
There well may come a time when we need the lower bunk, or the top one, or the shower first, or whatever other preference we may have. But there is a great deal of satisfaction in living the rest of the time without expectation, taking each moment as its own grace, without all the striving and competing. And if we actually reach that place where we become the servant of the other – that’s when angels sing.
