This reflection alludes to the first reading and Gospel at Catholic Mass on January 21, 2024.
Reading 1: Jonah 3:1-5,10
Gospel: Mark 1:14-20
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I walked a portion of the Camino this past summer with my mom — a total of 105 miles walked in the span of 8 days. The views on this Portuguese coastal route were stunning, the Churches and Marian prayer sites that we stopped at were so intricately and thoughtfully detailed, the people that we met along the way were filled with joy and were kind to us in many ways. These parts of the experience of walking were absolutely beautiful. Some elements that maybe were not absolutely beautiful were the rashes on my feet everyday and the horrible achilles pain that came in the last two days of walking.
The reason why I initially wanted to do the Camino was because my friend and I wanted to do a little vacation in Spain in 2022. The cheapest flight to get to the country itself was to Santiago de Compostela, where pilgrims end their Camino at the Cathedral of Saint James. We hungout in Santiago de Compostela for less than 24 hours, and I kept seeing pilgrims filled with utter joy arriving at their destination. I texted my mom while I was there that it was moving to witness and she quickly went to the Internet, ordered some travel books, researched the experience, and planned our pilgrimage for the next summer of 2023. If it weren’t for witnessing these pilgrims on their journey in 2022, I probably would not have known or considered partaking in this life-giving experience.
I thought of the Camino, and especially those pilgrims that were witnesses to me while praying with the Gospel for today because there is an evident theme and call to not only surrender our nets and go walk with Jesus, but to also be a witness of the life-giving joy that walking with Jesus provides. I found myself reflecting on the thought of if Simon and Andrew weren’t walking with Jesus when Jesus called out to James and John, would James and John have joined the walk as easily? I imagined that there was maybe a detailed conversation not written in this Gospel narrative between Jesus, Simon, Andrew, James, and John where Simon and Andrew probably had to pitch why they chose to walk with Jesus in the first place. This made me wonder, if Simon and Andrew didn’t affirm that “yes….walking with Jesus is a really good thing”, if they didn’t publicly witness to the fact that being a companion of Jesus is beautiful, would James and John have dropped their nets and followed Jesus? Another example of this witness can be seen in the first reading from today. If Jonah didn’t explicitly announce the good message of the Lord, would the people of Nineveh have ended up repenting, believing, and proclaiming the greatness of the Lord themselves?
If there aren’t witnesses of the walk of faith, of the good message of the Lord, would there be as many pilgrims that join the journey?
The views are beautiful on the journey with Christ. The Churches, the prayer groups, the Sacraments, are all stunning, intricate, joyful, and absolutely beautiful. Some elements on the journey may also be painful, annoying, and hard to bear like a rash on your feet or achilles pain. Yet, the pilgrims I saw ending their journey in 2022 were joyful, yes, and they were simultaneously torn up, sore, and obviously had just used all that they had to make it to the destination. It’s not an easy journey, by any means, and there is validity and strength in naming and being a witness to that. All of it, the beauty and the pain, points to something, Someone more. It points to God who calls after all people so that all people can go after Him and experience His unending love, compassion, and saving grace. God uses us, works within us and through us, to witness God’s love to others and invite them into this life-giving experience of meeting, believing in, and walking with Christ.
Just a little something to think about — being a witness to the way of faith — in the context of your communities and in the larger world.
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