Stage 25: Villafranca del Bierzo to Herrerías. 20 km

 

 

9/30/24 The Camino’s Gift.

There are questions we bring to the Camino and the Camino also offers us it's gifts. This is the gift the Camino offered me.

 

The central tenet of Christianity is the resurrection. And if Christ wasn't raised to life, our message is worthless, and so is your faith (1 Cor 15:14).  I have to say that my rational self has one foot in this and one foot out. But the resurrection became for the disciplines the defining event that sent them out into the world.

 

The disciples–who had come to believe in Jesus–the miracles, the healings, the good needs of God’s love for us and in the person of Jesus. But then Jesus was taken away and condemned. He was tortured and crucified. The hope that Jesus had brought was all gone. And all the apostles, except one, abandoned Jesus. Mary Magdalene, who had 7 demons expelled from her–was a witness to the passion, crucifixion and death. She was there at Jesus’s side. I would say gratitude and love for Jesus propelled her to be there despite the pain and suffering. And on Sunday morning, she was the one who set out to Jesus’ tomb. Adn to her surprise–the man who she thought was the gardener–was Jesus. Her first reaction must have been to reach out and touch him. Mary Magdalene became the first witness to the resurrection and she was directed to tell the Apostles who were in hiding and in fear. Mary Magdalene was the only person present at the passion and death AND at the resurrection. She becomes the patron saint of hope when there is Death. Why was she there? I would say it was because of her great love for Jesus, that she was present at the passion, death and resurrection (the paschal mystery) of Jesus.

 

So with Mary Magdalene as my guide, in a context of war, political chaos, and climate upheaval, I am called to be with the One I love, for whom I am eternally grateful.

 

From James Martin S.J. at the Synod:

“We too may even feel the dark. Since the last Assembly, so many people, including participants of this Synod, have expressed their doubts as to whether anything is going to be achieved. Like Mary Magdalene some say, ‘Why have they taken away our hope? We expected so much from the synod, but perhaps there will be just more words.’ But although it is dark, the Lord is already present in the garden with Mary Magdalene and with us.

–Timothy Radcliffe O.P. 9/30/2024