The Camino de Santiago, or The Way of St James, is a series of pilgrimages that lead to the shrine of the apostle St James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago. The majority of those travelling the Camino would begin in France, and often walked the Way for months or sometimes years at a time. It follows for the main part an earlier Roman trade route and was one of the most important Christian Pilgrimages of the Middle Ages. Over the next few centuries the number of pilgrims reduced significantly, until in the late twentieth century only a few hundred people made the journey each year.

Beginning in the late 1980s, and following it’s listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Camino has seen an extraordinary reversal of fortune. 2016 saw more than a quarter of a million individuals receive their certificates for completing their pilgrimage at Santiago having walked 100km or more.

Director Emilo Estevez’s 2015 movie The Way, follows the story of a Dr Thomas Avery, an American who goes to France following the death of his son who had died while on the Camino. Originally intending to return home with his son’s ashes, Avery ends up walking the pilgrimage himself carrying the ashes to complete the walk that his son had begun. 

The film explores how this affects Avery and other travellers who he journeys with. Although getting to their destination is important, the film focusses on the significance of the journey itself and ends with Avery setting out again on another adventure 

There has been a suggestion that the ultimate goal of every Christian pilgrim is the journey’s end where heaven is the final destination. But with Jesus there is already the hope and the promise of an eternity with God. This makes the journey for all followers of Jesus such a vital part of our lives with him. Without the journey itself, where’s the opportunity to grow, to learn, to mature, and to meet and encourage others who are walking on a different path?

The truth is that a walk alone going a different way offers so much less than the journey made when the walk is with God.

 (September 2019)