Dearest Tourists and Pilgrims

Dearest Tourists and Pilgrims, Peace and God bless. Happy feast day of the Sacred Heart. At this point, we just finished our recollection, and now, we are on individual prayers before the Blessed Sacrament. As always, I take this moment of prayers to write down my reflection very spontaneously. Why I write to tourists and pilgrims? We were asked to situate ourselves as both tourists and pilgrims and ask within where our hearts are at the moment, or where my heart is by now. I love the images, because I myself have travelled in many parts of the world as a missionary, for meetings or workshops, and most often, I do side trips for touristic purposes and as pilgrim too. I have travelled to many holy sites as a pilgrim. At first! I look back that Eastertime, when two disciples were on a journey to Emmaus, with sad faces and broken hearts because of what happened to the master. Then, without recognizing, Jesus joined them on the road and taught them the scriptures and what is going to happen to the Messaiah. There eyes were still closed, not until when Jesus broke the bread and said the prayer. Then they said, "Were not our hearts burning inside?" Jesus joined them in their pilgrimage back home. Jesus entered into their hearts. Their hearts were burning inside, and they realized it only after Jesus disappeared. But it was not so late. They journeyed back again, pilgrims on the way to share the good news to the rest of the disciples. Jesus joins us wherever we go, but often, we close our hearts and don't recognize His presence. When I shared openly my reflection to the group, I was really kind of embarrassed looking at the last five years. June 2015, I was in Manila, June 2016, I was in Davao as a guest hermit, June 2017 I was in Boracay then off to Rome for sabbatical, June 2018, I was in Germany then to Verona, June 2019, I was in Cape Town then to Pretoria, June 2020 I remained in Bushbuckridge because of the quarantine and lockdown, if not I might be in another place or country again. Shy but proud and yet with humility, I sad: "Maybe, I am a tourist." And the whole group laughed out loud even if we were supposed to be in silence. I love to move around and take pictures and videos. Wherever I go, I always make sure I have photos and videos for memory's sake, for I know, I don't have the opportunity to travel in the same place again and again, as my life is always on the move. But I looked back deeply within my heart, and I realized that tourism was somehow a reward of the long pilgrimages that I was doing. I stayed in far away mission, with the absence of comfort, with near death experiences, malaria and other illnesses in the mission. I was sent for a meeting, for a workshop, for trainings, and these are part and parcel of my pilgrimage, because that is a service for the mission that I am doing. Since I had the opportunity to see places, I also became a tourist, but very secondary, because the primary purpose was of my missionary pilgrimage. A tourist enjoys only temporary happiness and admiration of certain places and countries. It only satisfies our senses, and when the tour is over, that becomes part of the past. And if you don't have photos, tourism is much boring. But my being a pilgrim is a continuous process, day after day, I struggle with my walking, some are hilly parts of life, some are stormy parts of life, some are plains valleys in my life and some are really mountainous parts of the journey, some are risky and yet, as a pilgrim, when I sit down at the end of the day, I see the meaning of what I am doing. I see the works of God. I feel extremely exhausted at times, but there is what I will call as "joyful suffering", so that my pilgrimage is not a painful walk but a joyful walk in the midst of difficulties. Dearest Tourists, when you go to see places, enjoy as much as you can, but try to go beyond the tour, understand the works of God in the places that you are visiting, so that your tour will be a visit guided By Jesus, like the journey to Emmaus. As I visited many parts of the world, I always carry with me my identity, I am a priest, a Comboni Missionary, so that every visit would remind me that this is an opportunity rewarded to me by God as I do my missionary pilgrimage. To my co-pilgrims, we continue our journey, we have individual walks, we have community walks and social walks, all the same, we keep the sacredness of our walks. Like the two disicples, let us keep our hearts burning. Our pilgrimage is a continuous journey. We walk in this land of today where Corona virus is harassing our journey, we should not waver and stop the camino. The more we remain fervent in our pilgrimage as we battle the sickness on the journey. We will reach our destination, that is the sacred space in heaven. When I did my camino in Compostella, Spain, I was so drained, it was hot, I had severe headache. But the walk/Camino/pilgrimage must go on. We walk with faith, side by side with Jesus. Here it is again, it is now time for mass. I have to go! Let us be pilgrims together. Lots of love, Fr. Raul