Dr. Tom Avery was an eye doctor in California and received a
phone call that his estranged son, Daniel, died in a storm while walking the Camino
de Santiago, also known as The
Way of St. James. So Tom travels to France to bring his son’s body home. While there, Tom decides to walk the
historical pilgrimage to honor his son’s desire to finish the journey. He has his son’s body cremated and
leaves some of his ashes at special places along The Way.
While walking the Camino, Tom meets others from around the
world. As the journey progresses,
he gets to know Joost from Amsterdam who’s walking to lose weight. Sarah is a Canadian escaping from an
abusive husband, who’s walking to quit smoking. Jack is an Irish writer struggling with writer’s block, but
finds inspiration in Tom’s story.
Along the way, they talk about what it means to be a pilgrim and to make
a pilgrimage.
Tom begins The Way as a non-practicing Catholic. But the loss of his son and the
spiritual nature of The Way challenge him in unexpected ways, and his faith is
awakened at times. This is the
plot of the redbox movie The Way. It’s not a Christian movie, but has
Christian aspects to it. If you’ve
ever thought about making a spiritual pilgrimage, you might like it.
The Camino de Santiago
is a long, physically-demanding trek, not for the feint of heart, although some
do not walk the whole trail. If
you google “Camino de Santiago,” you will learn more. The trail ends at the burial place of St. James, the apostle
of Jesus.
The Bible includes many pilgrimages. God told Abraham to leave his country
& go to the place where I will show you. Psalm 84:5 says, “Blessed are those whose strength is in
you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage,…They go from strength to
strength, till each appears before God in Zion.”
Mary & Joseph made a trip to Bethlehem, when Mary was
pregnant, to register for a census.
Wise men travel to Jerusalem & Bethlehem to see the new King. Joseph is warned that some bad guys are
out to kill their son; so the family packs up & moved to Egypt. Then, when the coast is clear, they
return to Israel.
Jesus said, I am the Way. Paul was converted on the road to Damascus. So many important things in the Bible
happened when people were traveling from one place to another. Sometimes the journey was more
important than the destination.
The Christian life is often described as walking with Jesus, a
pilgrimage with the Master and others.
