Today, I’d like to share a personal experience. I was fortunate enough to walk a portion of the Camino de Santiago. This ancient pilgrimage starts from many places, but I was on the pathway that begins in St. Jean, France, and ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It is a 500-mile path of which I walked about 140 miles.
I was relieved that one of the rules of being a pilgrim on the Camino is to hold no ill will against any pilgrim who takes a shorter path than you. There is no judgment as to someone being lesser than someone else simply because they are walking a shorter distance.
So when I started the walk, 140 miles from the final destination, I encountered those who had already walked 360 miles. They greeted me joyfully and wished me a buen camino, meaning good walk. Of course, this took place in Spain and distances are measured in kilometers. I was walking 230 kilometers on my trip. After walking a grueling 125 kilometers, I came to the town of Saria, which is 100 kilometers from Santiago. To get the official Camino Certificate of completion, one must walk at least 100 kilometers.
I spent the night in Saria. So far, the trip had been a quiet, contemplative walk. I had some friends I was walking with. We would occasionally see other pilgrims, but sometimes, it was just me and God walking along the path. On the morning I left Saria, there were hundreds of other pilgrims walking beside me, in front of me, behind me, stepping on my toes, pushing on my back, and talking loudly. It was horrible. It was like my pilgrimage had been taken over by a mob. I felt like I was waiting in line at Disney World. I asked myself, “Who are all these people?”
It was clear to me that these light-weights, who were doing the bare minimum to get their certificate. They weren’t “real” pilgrims like me and the members of our group.. They were obnoxious tourists. And they were ruining my pilgrimage. I spent the better part of an hour very upset about this situation. The next hour, I still could not acclimate to the crowded new normal, but then I received an answer to my question of who were these people?
“These are my people. Treat them as you would treat yourself.” Those words seemed to come right out of God’s mouth. The crowd was made up of my fellow pilgrims. The horror of the situation was not the crowd. The horror was that I judged these pilgrims inferior. I had a grudge against them.
The rule to hold no ill will against any pilgrim who takes a shorter path than yourself finally became clear to me. My mood lightened, and I was happy to walk with any and all of my fellow pilgrims. As I relaxed, the crowd dispersed. People found their own pace, and the Camino became a quiet, contemplative walk once again.
Meditation
When Jesus was asked about the most important law, he cited the love of God as number one, and then he said, the second is like the first, to love one’s neighbor as oneself. When Jesus said this, he was quoting from today’s passage from the Book of Leviticus.
During Lent, we are invited to deepen our love of God. That is the most important thing to do. To express that love, we must love our neighbor.
The thing is, maybe you have too many neighbors, maybe your neighbors step on your toes, push on your back, or talk much too loud. Can you love them, just as you love yourself? The challenge is even greater than this, though. Can you love your neighbor when they hold different religious beliefs than you, or belong to a different political party, or have different moral standards than you?
Welcome to Lent, where the rubber meets the road. This is the time when we reflect on what God is saying to our heart, and then act on it in a loving way. Join me on this Lenten walk. I wish you a Buen Camino.
Water the seed and ask yourself…
What grudge does God want you to let go of?
*Note, during Lent we will suspend Fr. Michael’s weekly video homilies
40 Inspiring Video Parables for Lent
This year, Fr. Michael is joined by dynamic storytellers Betsey Beckman, ValLimar Jansen and Dev Kennedy to deliver 40 brand-new video parables, arriving daily in your inbox throughout Lent.
Written by Fr. Michael’s brother Tom, each reflection opens with a passage from the day’s Scripture and unfolds into a contemporary parable that brings the Word to life. Each video concludes with a takeaway lesson and a thoughtful question, to strengthen your journey through the Lenten desert.
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On my own personal note, I had to do this 23 years ago when my late father forwarded me a fake image of the Space Shuttle Columbia breaking up on re-entry.
My dad knew how much of a space nut I was [and still am] but he also was a bit gullible when it came to that kind of stuff. Sadly I didn’t maintain that vanity Hotmail account like so many of us had from the early days of email, so I can’t go back and read my dad’s old emails or see how, perhaps un-charitably I responded to him. I was also early in my personal IT journey and wasn’t able to recover his personal writings, papers and data from a hard drive that was lost to a Windows boot loop error so I can’t even go back to his email account that my mom still maintains to this day despite moving her on to something more modern. As much of an early adopter as my dad was of technology, his ability to play and evolve with things seemed to stagnate and I quickly outpaced his ability from the early computers of the 70s and 80s. The irony now is that I spend many of my days fixing basic and comples IT problems for people and explaining how to do various “techy” stuff, but I had no patience or sympathy for my own father who was always asking me to slow down in clicking buttons so he could follow along. His “you go to fast!” admonishment still rings in my ears. 😔
If you’ve made this far, thanks for reading this bonus story and mini-reflection on humility and personal growth/development.
Peace, Nathaniel — Nathaniel Stubblefield Heart to Heart: ~Associate Director ~IT Director ~Production Manager ~and many more hats along the way Stubblefield Family ~Father to 9 ~Husband to 1
