"You don’t have to get close to the pope to have him touch you," said Ricky Pequeño of Pope Benedict XVI. Yet Ricky and his family, along with a dozen neighbors, set out on a motorized "pilgrimage" from Spring, Texas to Washington, D.C. to attend a papal Mass in Nationals Park.
The Pequeño family drove their S.U.V., while their neighbors followed behind them in a van. The vehicle "guzzled" gas while the caravan, frequently lost, followed a roundabout route to the capitol. The van’s air conditioning died, and the vehicles "overflowed" with passengers’ belongings. The van also pulled a trailer.
"We do the original stuff, what the apostles did," Ricky told the New York Times.
Not to sound sacrilegious or inflammatory, but I believe the apostles commuted via sandaled feet and braying mules. The real question is this: What would (or, does) God think of gas, cars, and consumerism? (And of our other toxic creations?) Are we a civilization that’s destroying ourselves? It seems somehow incongruous that a sacred, spiritual pilgrimage would pollute the Earth (God’s creation, the Pequeños would surely say) and violate nature. The more we remove ourselves from Nature, the more removed we are from God (so I believe, anyhow).
A pilgrim should surely answer his calling, if so inclined. The Pequeños traveled the way most Americans would; by car. But our collective failure to see the connection between our simplest actions and our faith (if only our convictions) is deeply sad. Whatever the journey, perhaps we need to be more mindful of how our smallest, most mundane choices convey our values, and consider them before making grandiose gestures that don’t reflect our ordinary habits.
Also: In New Mexico, pilgrims still kick it old school.
Photos via flickr by Christian et Cie and .eti.
Related posts: