Rediscovering the faith

BARCELONA – LOURDES (419 KM) – 24 JULY TO 8 AUGUST 2015

Eight years ago I walked with the young people of the parishes of Sant Mateu and Sant Rafael from Barcelona to Lourdes. I had several reasons for doing it, but what motivated me most was that, for me, the shrine of Lourdes was a special place, and so the idea of making a pilgrimage there in the year I was going for the tenth time was very tempting.

There were 15 stages in which we crossed the Pyrenees (a very different route from what our way to Lisbon will be), so I can’t imagine what our pilgrimage will be like. My older brothers had told me about other similar pilgrimages, and they did so with great joy, which made me really want to experience it first-hand. I would never have imagined the way would be so hard, especially the first few days! Crazy as it may seem, little by little I got used to walking so many kilometres every day. Even so, I can assure you it was no bed of roses, and blisters, chafing and small injuries take their toll on even the toughest member of the group.

There were lots of stories along the way, but one of the most striking, in my view, happened on the hardest day of the whole route. It was 6 August and that day’s stage was Pineta-Gèdre. As we had been told that this stage and the one before were the toughest, we were given a guide so we wouldn’t get lost in the mountains. What’s more, that day we got up at three in the morning so we could start walking not much later. The planned stage didn’t have a single point where the logistics team could come to rescue us or bring us supplies, so we carried everything we needed in our rucksacks.

From that day I remember not only how hard it was and the splendid views, but how we treated each other: incredibly, after 10 days living together, more than 30 km covered that day, a climb of almost 1,000 metres under a blazing sun at four in the afternoon and without knowing what time we would reach our destination, the group seemed happier than ever. Everyone looked out for the others, and the food and water we had left were generously shared out. In my whole life I have never seen a group so tired and, at the same time, so happy!

And I wasn’t the only one who was amazed by this: our guide himself was lost for words at the sight of a group of ordinary young people finishing their hard day’s walk with a big smile on their faces and ready to walk again the next day after a well-deserved rest.

Before I finish, it’s worth stressing that the centre of our pilgrimages has never been the way, nor the stages, nor the kilometres walked, but God, our Lord. In my case, the pilgrimage to Lourdes was a great success in this respect: it was the start of my rediscovery of the Faith. Despite being a boy from a Catholic family with a Catholic upbringing, I had never really understood my faith or asked myself why I believed. But it doesn’t happen by magic: there’s no point in walking aimlessly behind the group. For Jesus to be able to speak to you, you have to be willing to listen. Of course, it isn’t forbidden to nod off during a meditation out of tiredness, but we have to try to give Jesus the time he needs. Nobody goes to a meditation thinking it’s time for a nap, although, if someone does fall asleep, all the hours and sacrifices offered to the Lord won’t be lost.

The reasons that have brought me back after so long are, first, the simple and necessary fact that it’s been four years since my last pilgrimage, and the urge to get moving that, to a large extent, pushed me to go on my first pilgrimage eight years ago has woken up in me again. The second, the one that will truly give me strength for these forty days of pilgrimage, is that I want to draw closer to God. Like it or not, I have to admit that in recent years I have somewhat lost the personal relationship with our Lord that I began on my journey to Lourdes; that’s why I’m going to Lisbon: to renew my Passion in my relationship with the Lord.