ON PILGRIMAGES
ON PILGRIMAGES
Since, my friend, you ask me a question in your letter, I think that it is
incumbent upon me to answer you in their proper order upon all the points
connected with it. It is, then, my opinion that it is a good thing for those who
have dedicated themselves once for all to the higher life to fix their attention
continually upon the utterances in the Gospel, and, just as those who correct
their work in any given material by a rule, and by means of the straightness of
that rule bring the crookedness which their hands detect to straightness, so it
is right that we should apply to these questions a strict and flawless measure
as it were,--I mean, of course, the Gospel rule of life(2),--and in accordance
with that, direct ourselves in the sight of God. Now there are some amongst
those who have entered upon the monastic and hermit life, who have made it a part
of their devotion to behold those spots at Jerusalem where the memorials of
our Lord's life in the flesh are on view; it would be well, then, to look to this
Rule, and if the finger of its precepts points to the observance of such
things, to perform the work, as the actual injunction of our Lord; but if they lie
quite outside the commandment of the Master, I do not see what there is to
command any one who has become a law of duty to himself to be zealous in performing
any of them. When the Lord invites the blest to their inheritance in the
kingdom of heaven, He does not include a pilgrimage to Jerusalem amongst their good
deeds; when He announces the Beatitudes, He does not name amongst them that sort
of devotion. But as to that which neither makes us blessed nor sets us in the
path to the kingdom, for what reason it should be run after, let him that is
wise consider. Even if there were some profit in what they do, yet even so, those
who are perfect would do best not to be eager in practising it; but since this
matter, when closely looked into, is found to inflict upon those who have
begun to lead the stricter life a moral mischief, it is so far from being worth an
earnest pursuit, that it actually requires the greatest caution to prevent him
who has devoted himself to God from being penetrated by any of its hurtful
influences. What is it, then, that is hurtful in it? The Holy Life is open to all,
men and women alike. Of that contemplative Life the peculiar mark is
Modesty(3). But Modesty is preserved in societies that live distinct and separate, so
that there should be no meeting and mixing up of persons of opposite sex; men are
not to rush to keep the rules of Modesty in the company of women, nor women to
do so in the company of men. But the necessities of a journey are continually
apt to reduce this scrupulousness to a very indifferent observance of such
rules. For instance, it is impossible for a woman to accomplish so long a journey
without a conductor; on account of her natural weakness she has to be put upon
her horse and to be lifted down again; she has to be supported(4) in difficult
situations. Whichever we suppose, that she has an acquaintance to do this
yeoman's service, or a hired attendant to perform it, either way the proceeding cannot
escape being reprehensible; whether she leans on the help of a stranger, or on
that of her own servant, she fails to keep the law of correct conduct; and as
the inns and hostelries and cities of the East present many examples of licence
and of indifference to vice, how will it be possible for one passing through
such smoke to escape without smarting eyes? Where the ear and the eye is
defiled, and the heart too, by receiving all those foulnesses through eye and ear, how
will it be possible to thread without infection such seats of contagion? What
advantage, moreover, is reaped by him who reaches those celebrated spots
themselves? He cannot imagine that our Lord is living, in the body, there at the
present day, but has gone away from us foreigners; or that the Holy Spirit is in
abundance at Jerusalem, but unable to travel as far as us. Whereas, if it is
really possible to infer God's presence from visible symbols, one might more justly
consider that He dwelt in the Cappadocian nation than in any of the spots
outside it. For how many Altars s there are there, on which the name of our Lord is
glorified! One could hardly count so many in all the rest of the world. Again,
if the Divine grace was more abundant about Jerusalem than elsewhere, sin
would not be so much the fashion amongst those that live there; but as it is, there
is no form of uncleanness(6) that is not perpetrated amongst them; rascality,
adultery, theft, idolatry, poisoning, quarrelling, murder, are rife; and the
last kind of evil is so excessively prevalent, that nowhere in the world are
people so ready to kill each other as there; where kinsmen attack each other like
wild beasts, and spill each other's blood, merely for the sake of lifeless
plunder. Well, in a place where such things go on, what proof, I ask, have you of
the abundance of Divine grace? But I know what many will retort to all that I
have said; they will say, "Why did you not lay down this rule for yourself as
well? If there is no gain for the godly pilgrim in return for having been there,
for what reason did you undergo the toil of so long a journey?" Let them hear
from me my plea for this. By the necessities of that office in which I have been
placed by the Dispenser of my life to live, it was my duty, for the purpose of
the correction which the Holy Council had resolved upon, to visit the places
where the Church in Arabia is; secondly, as Arabia is on the confines of the
Jerusalem district, I had promised that I would confer also with the Heads of the
Holy Jerusalem Churches, because matters with them were in confusion, and needed
an arbiter; thirdly, our most religious Emperor had granted us facilities for
the journey, by postal conveyance, so that we had to endure none of those
inconveniences which in the case of others we have noticed; our waggon was, in fact,
as good as a church or monastery to us, for all of us were singing psalms and
fasting in the Lord during the whole journey. Let our own case therefore cause
difficulty to none; rather let our advice be all the more listened to, because
we are giving it upon matters which came actually before our eyes. We confessed
that the Christ Who was manifested is very God, as much before as after our
sojourn at Jerusalem; our faith in Him was not increased afterwards any more than
it was diminished. Before we saw Bethlehem we knew His being made man by means
of the Virgin; before we saw His Grave we believed in His Resurrection from the
dead; apart from seeing the Mount of Olives, we confessed that His Ascension
into heaven was real. We derived only thus much of profit from our travelling
thither, namely that we came to know by being able to compare them, that our own
places are far holier than those abroad. Wherefore, O ye who fear the Lord,
praise Him in the places where ye now are. Change of place does not effect any
drawing nearer unto God, but wherever thou mayest be, God will come to thee, if
the chambers of thy soul be found of such a sort that He can dwell in thee and
walk in thee. But if thou keepest thine inner man full of wicked thoughts, even
if thou wast on Golgotha, even if thou wast on the Mount of Olives, even if thou
stoodest on the memorial-rock of the Resurrection, thou wilt be as far away
from receiving Christ into thyself, as one who has not even begun to confess Him.
Therefore, my beloved friend, counsel the brethren to be absent from the body
to go to our Lord, rather than to be absent from Cappadocia to go to Palestine;
and if any one should adduce the command spoken by our Lord to His disciples
that they should not quit Jerusalem, let him be made to understand its true
meaning. Inasmuch as the gift and the distribution of the Holy Spirit had not yet
passed upon the Apostles, our Lord commanded them to remain in the same place,
until they should have been endued with power from on high. Now, if that which
happened at the beginning, when the Holy Spirit was dispensing each of His gifts
under the appearance of a flame, continued until now, it would be right for
all to remain in that place where that dispensing took place; but if the Spirit
"bloweth" where He "listeth," those, too, who have become believers here are
made partakers of that gift; and that according to the proportion of their faith,
not in consequence of their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.