The last word
Trip Start
Feb 03, 2009
1
19
Trip End
Apr 22, 2009
Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain and Canary Islands
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Having arrived at the end, and having given you so much of my experiences and thoughts along the way, it seems to me only fair to talk about the Apostle in whose name I started out.
I guess part of my pilgrimage was to find out about him, or as much of him as possible after 20 centuries!
The present day commercialism and exploitation of his name in modern day Galicia was expected. I saw scallop shells (and swords too, but not so many) everywhere on public and private structures, both large and small.
I tried to look past that to the history of the town, and indeed the whole country. The invasion of the Islamic Moors from the south, which over-ran the country by about 850 CE right up to within short miles of the northern coast, was stoutly resisted by the Galician and Basque people. They were led by some of the first of the Alfonso kings, and it was one of those kings who discovered the bones of St James in 870, just in time to be a spiritual support for that resistance. I do feel as if things were being manipulated just a bit! But who would dream of manipulating information in their political favour - surely it would never happen in our time..?
The battles raged on, and slowly the Moors were ejected, the final town to fall being Seville in 1248.
The Cathedral de Apostol Santiago de Compostela (which apparently literally means 'fields of stars', or perhaps 'place of heaven' - it certainly is a name which could have appealed to pilgrims of that era) started to be built towards the end of that time, in 1175, when I suppose the victory looked inevitable. It is said to be on top of some older structure, where the bones were found.
I realised this wasn't as much about James as human politics, so turned again to the only personal record of his that I believe exists, and that is his letter in the New Testament.
He wrote the letter in the days when Christians were expecting the return of Jesus at any moment, and I have had some time to read it again. What follows are my brief meanderings (I can call them nothing else!) through James' letter in the New Revised Standard Version, and the references are shown as chapter:verse, for example 4:2. Sometimes I have 'translated' a word or phrase into the modern idiom, and that appears in italics.
I looked particularly at what he might have said about my themes of nonviolence and the environment, but without trying to push my barrow too hard! You may end up disagreeing with my efforts to achieve this!
The global financial crisis gets a mention in the first chapter! In 1:15, '..when desire (greed) has conceived, it gives birth to sin (moral destructiveness - in this case, of the banks) .. and when that is fully grown, gives birth to death (financial system collapse) '. If that moral principle, if that sort of knowledge, has been known for such a long time, where are we going wrong? It's the old 'knowledge-action gap', or to quote James again, 'faith without works is dead', 2:26 - just knowing what's morally right isn't the same as doing it. We could ask for wisdom and help and forgiveness in faith from the God 'who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly', 1:5, but do we?
He goes on and describes how these desires, these greeds, give rise to conflicts and disputes, 4:1, and in his own way gets pretty steamed up about it! (I'm sure Jesus didn't call him and his brother John 'sons of thunder' for nothing! [see Mark 3:17] - but John was older when he wrote his own letters, and I reckon he had calmed down a bit by then, compared to James!). His nonviolent alternatives to greed are some of the social justice issues of today: caring for the orphans and widows 1:27, paying fair wages for labourers 5:14, treating people equally regardless of riches or clothing 2:3. Basically he is saying, 'share and don't be greedy'.
The issue in today's world, and in any age I reckon, is 'when is enough, enough?'. I want to encourage us all, in the spirit of his letter shown in 3:13, and in the knowledge of God's generosity and help always available, to continue to work towards a more loving and clean world.
Finally I want to share a blessing which found me along the Way here:
May the peace
and brilliant richness of God's Morning Star
shine on you!
...no, closer.
May the presence of God
walk with you!
No, closer!
May the breath of God
be in you!
No, even closer...
_______________________________________________________
Comments
Thank you...
Don, thanks for sharing your journey with us. It has been interesting, informative and moving.
Best regards,
Bronwyn