The real Santiago: Reflections of a pilgrim walking El Camino de Santiago

Gold shimmered from the high altar of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, catching the shafts of light that pierced its ornate dome.

The famous botafumeiro – an immense censer used to fill the cathedral with incense –  hung motionless in the centre of the cathedral, holding its breath with the hundreds of waiting pilgrims in the pews. These were hikers of El Camino who had traversed hundreds, some thousands of miles to be there.

At last, a voice rang out from the speakers, reciting in monotone a litany of places and countries from where pilgrims had come. 

The ornate Baroque and Romanesque interior of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral was designed to reflect the splendour of God.

Sitting in the stunningly beautiful cathedral, I waited for the epiphany to emerge at the end of a 117-km trek through five towns in six days.

It did not come. 

Instead, I was unsettled by the extravagance of the Baroque and Romanesque interior. It clashed with the dusty simplicity of El Camino, where the goal was simply to put one foot in front of the other until we get to the end. 

But millions of pilgrims had walked this path before me. Many return again and again, seeking and always seeming to find something here.

Something had to be wrong with me. 

But two weeks after leaving El Camino, I found my real Santiago de Compostela.

El Camino, The Way 

El Camino de Santiago – The Way of St James – is an ancient pilgrimage that originates from different parts of Europe and converges in Santiago de Compostela, believed to be the resting place of St James the Apostle and one of the original Twelve. 

Pilgrims walk this trail to rest, to seek, to reflect and to find. Some take it on for the satisfaction of overcoming the physical and mental challenge of a trail that can stretch beyond 1,000km.

My goals were less lofty.

I went with the husband and his family for bonding time, the fresh scent of autumn mornings and the rich flavours of Galician seafood abundantly available on this trail. I was also hoping to spend some one-on-one time with God.

We began in Sarria, Spain, walking the final 100-km required to earn the Compostela certificate. Having completed steeper and more strenuous hikes, I assumed this would be easy.

It was not. 

Covering an average of 20km each day on relatively flat ground proved unexpectedly difficult. I struggled with the distance and monotony of some long stretches. My body and mind slipped often into autopilot, missing the revelations that frequently surfaced through suffering during the more strenuous climbs.  

When we finally arrived at Santiago de Compostela, we celebrated the completion of the trail, but the journey felt unfinished.

There had to be more. 

It was after leaving El Camino that I quietened down enough to pick up the gems God had placed on the trail. Here are six that stayed with me:

1.    El Camino starts at the moment of decision

Our journey did not begin at Sarria. It began when we set our hearts on the pilgrimage. From that first decision, every plan we made and every step we took brought us closer to Santiago de Compostela. 

The Christian journey too begins the moment we make a decision. From that point on, every step we take brings us closer to God. There may be starts and stops, and even regressions on the way, but we are getting a step closer to God each time.

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.” Psalm 84:5

2.   There are different journeys on the same trail

Every pilgrim on El Camino strains toward the same destination but no two journeys are the same.

Pilgrims walk this trail to rest, to seek, to reflect and to find. Some go for the challenge of overcoming a trail that can stretch beyond 1,000km.

Some begin 1,000km away, some just 100 km out. Some get ahead of the pack at sunrise, some linger over breakfast and start out at their own time. Some go on foot, some on bicycles. There were even those, worn down by exhaustion or injury, who get a little help from taxis easily available on El Camino. Some cover the miles with little effort, striding fast and light. Others tread slowly and sometimes painfully. 

But all who pressed on followed the same signposts – the distinctive scallop shells and yellow arrows – and eventually converge in Santiago.

I do not believe God will ask when we reach Heaven: “What time did you start? How fast did you walk? Did you take a taxi?”

I believe there will only be a great party for the pilgrims who persevered through rain, shine, blisters and backaches to the glorious end.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7

3. Signposts are essential for the journey  

El Camino is simple to navigate but not easy to walk.

It is simple because generations of pilgrims have gone before us and done the heavy lifting of marking out the trail clearly for us.

But the tedium of walking a long, solitary stretches can drain the heart of courage and resolve. The tiny steps my size five-and-half feet took sometimes felt futile when the distance ahead loomed so large.

Thankfully, El Camino is dotted with distance markers telling pilgrims how far we are from Santiago. These markers cheer us on, reminding us how far we have come, and prepare us for what lies ahead.

El Camino is dotted with these markers that show the distance to destination.

Do you have signposts in your life that point you in the right direction and keep you going? 

I keep a journal that bears witness to the good, the bad and the ugly in my life. I document them so I have proof of God’s work when all evidence around me points to the contrary.  

I also keep friends who, like the signposts on El Camino, cheer me on while keeping me real.

“Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take.” Jeremiah 31:12

4. Community keeps us on the straight and narrow 

There are moments, though rare if one is alert, when a pilgrim misses a marker and veers off course. I found myself at such a point, standing at the crossroads with no markers in sight. Thankfully, I had not strayed too far from trail. I spotted a group of pilgrims in the distance and followed them.  

Had I wandered too far off El Camino, I would have wasted precious time on many more wrong turns or, worse, completely lost my way.

Community is not optional on a long, difficult journey. Bound by a common goal and shared experiences, fellow pilgrims cheer one another on with the Camino greeting – buen camino! – look out for one another, and point the way when someone falters. We trade stories, share tips and keep each other going. Every pilgrim sows a little into each other’s journey, helping one another arrive.

“Two are better than one …  If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

5. Love slows down 

One member of our group struggled with knee pain and was forced to go slowly. Her husband, agile and speedy, could easily have surged ahead. Yet, while the rest of us strode on, he hung back to walk with her. At one point, he even carried her backpack when she no longer could.

Love is someone slowing down to walk at our pace even though He could easily surge to the finish line.

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead.
Walk beside me… just be my friend” said Albert Camus.

The Almighty God who soars upon the wings of the wind is the ultimate Friend who came down to our level, to walk with us, at our pace.

That’s love.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13

6. The destination was beyond Santiago de Compostela

Two days after arriving in Santiago, the husband and I left the family and traded our dusty boots for a car.

We drove through some of the most stunning cities in the world: Porto, Lisbon, Seville, Malaga, Granada. These are ancient cities shaped by history richer than the best drama on Netflix and built on the astounding talent of man. Each held a magnificent cathedral that drew lines of visitors. There was enough beauty in these cities for our sighs to echo through the ages.

But we went further east, off the tourist trail, to a town called Almería. Our Pastor had suggested we visit a church and I wanted to see and hear how God was moving in a country so steeped in religious tradition.

There was no cathedral, no Baroque ornamentation, no flying buttress supporting no stone vaults. The church occupied a space in a low-rise building in a gypsy neighbourhood. Its previous life had been a legalised marijuana smokehouse and a site for drug peddling.

When we visited that Sunday, the microphone malfunctioned and the slides failed intermittently. There was no line of visitors waiting to get in, just about 100 congregants gathering in the church.

But when the worship team powered through the technical glitches and the congregation lifted their voices to worship, I broke.

It was not the music or the words. 

We visited city after stunning city with their own cathedrals that drew lines of visitors but none held what I sought.

It was a beauty in that room that outshone the collective beauty of the cities we had seen – that nondescript church with a seedy past in a city that no tourist places on the itinerary.  

It was the presence of God.

I was beholding the beauty of the King, a beauty that cannot be understood, only embraced. 

It was a presence I had missed amid the grandeur of the cathedrals on our trail – cathedrals built to reflect the splendour of God but failed to host His presence.

That was my Santiago. His presence was what I had been seeking throughout El Camino. 

Jesus is El Camino, The Way. 

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” Psalm 27:4-5  

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