Pilgrimage and Penance

Penance seems an odd word in this day and age; as is anything which is uncomfortable or can’t be done from a mobile phone app. But for Holy week I sometimes undertake a penitential walk.

I was inspired to do so by the story of a Brazilian plumber. His wife had just left him, and he was staring down the barrel of old age with a lot of failures and regrets in his backpack. He sold his van and tools and bought a plane ticket to the Holy Land. There comes a time in the life of every man when only authenticity and the truth will do and he went in search for it.

He joined a pilgrim group and on the eve of the visit to the route of the way of the Cross, he spent the night in prayer. In the morning, one of the group members would lead and carry a replica of the cross and he prayed for that privilege.  His prayer was answered.

As he placed it on his shoulder, he suddenly felt an incredible weight pressing down on him. It was revealed to him that this was the weight of his own sins only. As he walked the way of the cross, it was so difficult that he fell and struggled with it; the other pilgrims thought he was play-acting as he collapsed at the end in complete exhaustion.

Then, as he described it, he felt that all his sins were absorbed by the cross and when he stood up he felt as light as a feather. He returned to Brazil to an unknown and uncertain future but with a great love for Jesus and a growing confidence in His love to carry him through. 

The Language of God

Some years ago a University Chaplain, (who had a PhD in pure Mathematics) stated that ‘Maths was the language of God’ and leaned back in his chair with a smug grin. 

I can see now that he was onto something. But Maths, as any high school student knows, is merely one of the many dialects of His universal language...suffering. 

Suffering cannot be understood or avoided; it can only be felt and journeyed through. From the minor irritations that fill our days to the big stuff, cries out the message that we are not made for this place, that finding permanent happiness and fulfilment on earth is not really part of the plan, indeed any such attempt will be thwarted. 

Mother Teresa framed our future hope well with the statement that “in light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth, a life full of the most atrocious tortures, will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel”. 

It was in one of her homes for the dying that I witnessed a most extraordinary transformation. My wife and I used to visit a lady who had been lifted from the streets by the sisters and brought into the home with terminal cancer. She had, what to me seemed, an unimaginably hard life; it was etched into her angry, weary face. 

At first she was disinterested in anything to do with God. Over the coming months as her pains worsened and the sisters and carers looked after her daily needs, she became more open to prayer. The wards encircle the chapel and the sanctuary lamp burns at the heart of the home. Bathed in constant prayer her heart softened, she opened up, told her story, wrote to people she would never see again to tie up loose ends. The last time we met she told my wife that she had offered her last days and all her sufferings to Jesus. She was peaceful and even smiled through the pain. 

She was following a well trodden path. Her saviour had gone ahead of her and beckoned her ‘follow me’, this is the way of the cross and from the cross into the light of eternity. (Rev 21:4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.”)