Further up and further in: pilgrimage as a path to hope

In recent years, I have been blessed to travel with two different groups on two different types of pilgrimage. The first was for World Youth Day. I was one of the chaplains on the Emerging Leaders’ pilgrimage to Lisbon in 2023. I travelled with a group of young leaders from various walks of life across the Archdiocese. On their journey to World Youth Day, this group had a focus on formation in the Catholic faith and on trying to make that faith come alive.

The second trip was with a study group in 2024 and was run by Melbourne Archdiocesan Catholic Schools (MACS), its Sydney equivalent and Australian Catholic University (ACU). The group was made up of Melbourne students who had just completed Year 11 and Sydney students who had completed Year 12. I was chaplain for the Melbourne students. This group was more academic in focus. The three weeks covered a history of the Church and some key topics in intellectual history (for example, faith and science), as well as an introduction to the British political history that helped form our Australian context.

Each pilgrimage had a different focus, but there were a few common threads. The theme of this year’s Jubilee is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. In both similar and different ways, I noticed a sense of hope that arrived when pilgrims and students came in contact with the rich intellectual and moral traditions of the Church. This hope came from a strong sense of faith in the truth—a deep sense that the God of truth’s way of reason would lead to, and indeed did bring about, life in the believer.

Location

Both pilgrimages were in part based in Rome. The Emerging Leaders pilgrimage stopped there on the way to Lisbon, with a side trip to Assisi. The MACS group was based in Rome for two weeks, before a final week in London. But for both groups, Rome was a little bit of an oasis. I was blessed to live in Rome for a number of years and had never found it like that. But people from both groups spoke of a sense of something deep and home-like about Rome.

For many in the two groups, this was not only their first time away, but it was their first time being exposed to the breadth of the Church’s tradition and history.

Both groups were blessed to have wonderful speakers and teachers address them. Fr Stephen Wang of the English College welcomed and challenged the Emerging Leaders group and also hosted the MACS group. He has a wonderful blend of gentle sincerity and muscular intelligence, a pastoral approach that not only never alienates but also never lets one off the hook for growth as a Christian. Both groups seemed to welcome this approach.

Perhaps the same can be said of the various sites we visited. The beauty of the different basilicas—perfectly experienced through a number of solemn liturgies—encouraged a space for reflection, while their history as the sites of various martyrdoms lent an edge to the reflection. People had died for the faith. People had stood up for the truth. This was all deeply serious.

Intellectual coherence

Perhaps this leads on to a larger point. For many in the two groups, this was not only their first time away, but it was their first time being exposed to the breadth of the Church’s tradition and history, and particularly the coherence of her teaching. I was blessed to have a number of long conversations with various pilgrims on, among other things, the meaning of the Eucharist, the consistency of the Church’s historical witness, and the harmony between faith and science. These conversations happened on bus trips, over a bowl of pasta, squeezed into a train or just on the side of the road waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. (I am told I walk too fast!)

They returned home with eyes wide open. They knew that they had tasted infinity and now hungered for it.

It seemed that this was a deep source of hope. For many, faith had been something held in spite of reason. So much of our culture seems to believe that religion is irrational, that it does not hold together. Many seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when someone presented an alternative, one in which faith was not only consistent with reason but in fact provided a vision of reason so much deeper and richer, a vision that allowed reason the full play of all its faculties.

Beauty

The city of Rome and its wonderful art and architecture also provided an experience of beauty. Again, for many, it was the first time seeing St Peter’s or the Sistine Chapel or a Caravaggio painting or the like. This too encouraged hope. Again, the witness of previous generations—of particular individuals who thought it worth spending their lives making beautiful things for God—tied in with the witness of the saints, who crowd around you in a place like Rome.

The experience of pilgrimage opened up a vision of life that one could take home, and take home to share.

There is also something deep about the experience of beauty that speaks to hope. In Greek philosophy, the Greek words for beauty (kalos) and for the experience of a call (kalein) are connected. Beauty calls one out of the mundane. It therefore becomes an experience of hope in something more. I saw this played out in the faces of so many pilgrims whose hearts soared at the various artistic and architectural masterpieces, to say nothing of the stories of the faith and charity of the early Church, and indeed of believers throughout the ages.

A pilgrimage of hope

Finally, another similarity was the sense both groups had that this was just the beginning of an adventure. Both the young professionals and the senior students returned home with eyes wide open. They knew that they had tasted infinity and now hungered for it. Again, this sense of the endless vistas imbued hope: God beckoning them on to a wonderful life, one of drama, true seriousness and, therefore, the potential for real joy. I was reminded of the ending of CS Lewis’s The Last Battle, where the cry is ‘Further up and further in’.

The colour that hope brings to life was evident in both groups. People bonded over things that matter. Conversations were lively, and prayer resonant. Real friendships developed. The experience of pilgrimage opened up a vision of life that one could take home, and take home to share.