From the Camino: At some point, perhaps a third of the way into the pilgrimage, my sense of God changed from a conversation with God, to the deeply rich sense that Jesus was walking in the same direction I was…that we were on the Way together, and even more, that I was walking with him on his way.
I am not exactly certain when it happened. It was at this time that I could say that I gave the Lord space…real and substantial space, and Jesus filled it.
It wasn’t that he was absent before, but he was profoundly and emotionally present to me in a new and deeply satisfying way.
Was I still crabby at the end of each day’s walk? Yes, but I was a crabby pilgrim constrained, as we can be among family and friends, by my affection for this unexpected companion of my heart’s desire.
Luke 24:28-35 – 28 As they approached the village to which they were going, [Jesus] gave the impression that he was going on farther. 29 But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. 31 With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. 32 Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” 33 So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them 34 who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
For reflection: We can fill up our lives with so many things, many of them quite good, others less so: food, fashion, comfort, luxuries, art, adventure, theater, alcohol, drugs, learning opportunities, sports, technology, reading, movies, social media, etc. The list goes on and on, according to our taste and opportunity. That fullness can crowd out and overwhelm quieter needs.
On the Camino, though, we set most of these opportunities aside.
Our pilgrim meals tend to be basic and filling, our accommodations Spartan, our entertainment constrained to conversations and the slowly passing countryside. In this unique moment in life there is, all of a sudden, room – even ample room – for thinking and feeling, for observing the slow things of nature and the passing of seasons, for a restful Zen emptiness, or even for a prayerful God-fullness. If we were going to be full in any sense, wouldn’t this last opportunity be the very reason we exist?
If we were open to it, we might find, completely unexpectedly, and not according to any regimen we set up, that Jesus was walking with us. Start there, when it seems right, simply being open to the companionship Jesus shared with the disciples, men and women, who accompanied him on his many journeys through Palestine and Judea. Move quickly past questions of worthiness or guilt, right into friendship, intimacy and affection. The Scriptures attest repeatedly to God’s love for us. That infinite decision to choose and be in relationship with you awaits you.
Keep dipping your foot into the pool of God’s affection for you until you feel ready to be immersed in it. It could be as much a surprise to us as it was to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. This author prays that you might find your hearts burning within you with the richness of divine intimacy.