10/11 Santiago de Compostela

Okay, bear with me here… I usually think of these blog posts sort of like a first draft of a paper. It isn’t a finished essay, it isn’t a diary, it is just thoughts laid out without a whole lot of editing, transitions or polish, and I am not sure how eager anyone would be to have others read their first draft… Or for that matter, what others might find interesting rummaging around in the machinations of our impressions. I hope there is something interesting at least.

The day in Santiago de Compostela was a mixed bag to me. The weather wasn’t bad; cooler with a noncommittal approach to rain. We did buy an umbrella rather than wear our ponchos so I felt semi-sophisticated. An umbrella does seem to be standard fare for Europeans but I suspect that has to do with how much more they walk.

First stop of the day was to the official Camino office to get our Camino passport stamped. You fill out information on the computer and get a number, then go to a desk when your number is up. We didn’t have to wait long at all which is great because they wouldn’t stamp our passport anyway because we hadn’t walked the last 100 km nor ridden bike the last 200 km. We inquired briefly if walking the first 300+ km and cycling an additional 180 km counted but we were told it did not. We were assured, however, that if we want to come back and walk the last 100 km we can always get it stamped then. This (still) leaves a little sour taste in my mouth to write about so I apparently am not quite over it, but it will not take me long. I’m not sure what we were going to do with the piece of paper anyway.

We did find the Cathedral museum but were unable to go because all the tickets were sold out for the day. 0 for 2… The cathedral was open however and so we looked around and were able to just sit in a pew and rest for an hour and a half until Mass at noon. The time went quickly as there was plenty to look at. It, like many of the Cathedrals we have found along the way, is big, but it is also about 900 years old! I can’t imagine how impressive it must have been for people living in cramped, smelly huts to come into a space like that! Of course 900 years ago people would have come from their tiny, smelly places to this huge smelly place so incense was used as a symbol of purification and the prayers but in a practical sense I imagine it was really nice to smell something other than yourself or the odiferous person next to you.

The Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela has a HUGE silver incense thurible (the incense container) called the botafumeiro. It is suspended from the ceiling and after the mass they swing it. You can look it up easily on YouTube if you like (“incense cathedral Santiago”). The service had about a dozen priests or so and we suspected they were guests of some sort. Further evidence for our theory was apparent as I noted half of them were taking selfies with the botafumeiro swinging away.

The service was in Spanish, of course, but I could recognize the parts and the form. To recognize the movements but not the words reminded me that it wasn’t all that long ago even the people in Spain would not have recognized it because it was in Latin. (I believe it was after The Second Vatican Council in the 1960’s that the Roman Catholic Church switched to the venacular.)

After Mass we went to a nice lunch and a priest from New York with some parishioners sat at the table next to us. We asked him if guest priests are part of the service and he laughed and asked if we saw him up there. (He’s in my photo). Camille told them we were Presbyterians and one of his parishioners asked me what the difference was between the Anglicans and the Presbyterians. Ever try to sum up 200 years of church/world history in 2 minutes?

We weren’t fish out of water today but we were swimming in a different pool. There are so many traditions and even the story of the architecture and design of the buildings is part of it. It makes me wonder how many things we do in our own bodies of worship that are strange or foreign to others and how many things we do that even those who worship regularly don’t understand the history nor reason for…

Vatican II was in the 1960’s but the Reformation brought the Scriptures and the Eucharist to the people in their own tongue in the 1500’s. If you look at any of our cathedral photos from the trip you will also see a barrier up around the front of the church and the altar. This area is technically referred to as the sanctuary and it is reserved for priests and officiants while the people sit in the nave. This is also something the Reformation largely did away with as a sign of the church’s call to bring the barriers down between God and people… I am sure we are still putting up figurative barriers but something to think about.

The Camino itself as a pilgrimage was initially a means people could use to atone for their sins (the last 100 km is all you needed to have your sins forgiven – forget the first 300!). The Roman Catholic Church has had its own reformation(s) but I believe still offers a plenary indulgence (sins forgiven) if you walk the Camino in a Holy Year. Our Reformed Tradition says you can walk to the moon and back and you won’t work off your sins. Forgiveness is free, unearned (grace) but it must be accepted. It seems to me walking 100 miles or km or whatever would be easier to accept. Again, just start your own sermon from here, but if you want a reference, check out Ephesians 2:8-9.

After lunch we headed back to the Cathedral to see the reliquary box of the bones of St James. It was not a neutral emotional experience but it was somewhat anticlimactic. I found the purported shackles of St Paul in a church in Rome (“Saint Paul outside the Wall”) to be more moving as far as that is concerned…

Tomorrow we start back toward home by taking a train to Madrid. I am sure the Camino will sit around in my head for a long time and I suspect other thoughts will come of it, and have a chance to be better edited… I do believe the meditation at Mass today was about arriving in Santiago as not the finish of the Camino, but the start of it (although I don’t understand a lick of Spanish). We have arrived, without a stamp nor paper to prove it, but the important parts are inside anyway. The trick I suppose will be to see how those inside things show up outside us.

Buen Camino!