Pilgrimage: A Journey of Transformation

Stage 16. Tarjados to Castrojerez. He is Risen.

The Walk.

This part of the walk is flat with little towns scattered along the way. How far you walk each day depends on where you decide to sleep for the night. We caught a ride to Hornillos to keep our walk for the day at 12 miles.

There are places on the Camino where the wide-open view or experiencing the warmth of the sun, the green of the trees, or God’s breath in the wind provide the spaces we need to experience God in our walk. In this part of the Camino, it is the absence of those experiences that lets us create the space we need for God to fill our thoughts.

As I walk, I focus on my feet and the rhythm of the walk. I allow the walk to be my meditation.

Walking meditation is really to enjoy the walking – walking not in order to arrive, but just to walk. The purpose is to be in the present moment and, aware of our breathing and our walking, to enjoy every step. Therefore we have to shake off all worries and anxieties, not thinking of the future, not thinking of the past, just enjoying the present moment. [ ] Although we walk all the time, our walking is usually more like running. When we walk like that, we print anxiety and sorrow on the Earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the Earth. [ ] When we are able to take one step peacefully and happily, we are working for the cause of peace and happiness for the whole of humankind. Walking meditation is a wonderful practice.¹

I have included this beautiful quote by Thich Nhat Hanh from his book Peace is Every Step so my Camino community can see that walking as meditation is a real thing. So many people walk the Camino to “arrive.” We rush to complete the day’s walk; we rush to arrive in Santiago. Experiencing the Camino as a walking meditation is different. It helps us create space for God’s thoughts to seep into our hearts. This part of the Camino is perfect for learning to walk as a meditation.

My walking meditation – more Easter thoughts

As I walk today, I am still thinking about Easter. My thoughts of Easter always center on the phrase “He is risen.” It is a prayer I use to quiet my mind as I walk, creating the space I need to experience the presence of God.

He is Risen. The early Christians announced and celebrated the Resurrection as Jesus’ victory over the evil of the world in which they lived. It was not a victory for the future. It was celebrated as a victory that had already happened.² What do we do, then, with a modern world where evil is still as present as it was before Jesus was raised from the dead? Does it make us re-think the meaning of Easter?

For me, the meaning of Easter – the significance of the Resurrection – can only be understood in connection with the Kingdom of God. Specifically, Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom (Matthew 4:17) in the midst of Jesus’ ministry healing the sick and preaching good news to the poor.³

N.T. Wright, in Jesus and the Victory of God, explains the connection between Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the kingdom. He writes: if Jesus were the Messiah, “announcing the kingdom and dying in order to bring it about, the resurrection would declare that [Jesus] had in principle succeeded.” Wright further states that the fact that Jesus connected the coming kingdom with his ministry of healing and care for the poor gave his followers the task of implementing what Jesus had achieved (i.e., bringing about the spiritual return from Exile and the beginning of God’s Kingdom).⁴ For this reason, as I walk, I wonder if the meaning of Easter is that we should allow ourselves to be changed by the Resurrection. We should be the Kingdom.

The one thing that can be said of Jesus’ followers is that they were changed when they encountered the risen Christ. John’s gospel tells us that the disciples were in a locked room afraid that they would be harmed for their relationship with Jesus. The risen Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19). The disciples were changed. They were unafraid to preach and live the gospel.

I apply this to my life. Where have I encountered the risen Christ? How have I allowed myself to be changed into someone who is unafraid to preach and live the gospel?

1. Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1991) 27-29. ↩︎
2. N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996) 659 . ↩︎
3. See Matthew 11:5 (When John the Baptist asked if Jesus was the one to restore the kingdom, Jesus replied: “the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.” ↩︎
4. N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, 660. ↩︎